This cover of Kai Barger was shot quite a few years back, but it is still one of my favorite images. Warm sunny day, clear blue water, Barger absolutley killing it on this turn, you may be thinking that this was shot in some distant country, on some lavish surf trip: well that’s not quite it. The night before we knew that the waves were going to be pumping so I gave Kai a call and told him to be meet me at the beach early, he said he was in, it was on. First light and I am down there ready to get some work done, but no Kai. The waves were pumping and there were a handful of guys out so I stuck around and shot all morning any ways.

Right when I was about to pack up I see Kai strolling down the beach. I told him he blew it, missed the session, I was out of there: but he talked me into staying. His excuse was that he had to sticker up his boards, the funny thing was his Nike sticker was upside down! This was nearly the final straw for me, not only was he hours late, but the company who I was working for, sticker was upside down making it pretty much unusable. I was pretty over it but told Kai I’d stick around for another hour.

Kai ended up flaring up the whole session and pulled the unreal blow-tail pictured earning himself his first cover of Surfer Magazine. The funny thing is, the upside down sticker ended up being placed perfectly right side up in the photo: needless to say it was the last time I hassled anyone over their sticker placement.

Oh, and the tropical looking, epic surf. It was Lowers going absolutely richter one summer day