This image of Dusty was taken at DBah beach a couple years back. It was a super windy day that resembled the conditions that Maui surfers are so accustomed to. Not many people were out but Dusty went out and put on a clinic. Yes he pulled this. I am really looking forward to what a healthy Dusty does on tour this year. He is a legitimate threat in all conditions and thrives when it gets heavy.
Tag Archives: wave
Nothing Soft about the Soft top
This past summer I headed south with a handful of the Nike team riders to chase down a massive south swell. Among the group was young Kauai-an Koa Smith, a surfer known as much for his funny antics as is penchant for charging frighteningly large waves. Coming into the trip Koa had recently teamed up with soft top board company Catch Surf as a way to have fun and mess around on some different equipment. Looking for a chance to get a few tubes on the soft boards Koa brought a couple on our trip: no one was expecting what he would pull off. We showed up to an already pumping swell, and it was still building. By the peak of the swell the boys had all had their share of absolutely insane barrels, fearlessly charging through 15ft beach break bombs. I was shooting off a jet ski when all of a sudden I saw Koa appear out the back on one of the other skis holding his 8ft softie. It was the peak of the swell and the surf was massive, I wasn’t too sure what Koa was getting himself into, but next thing I knew the kid was stepping off into one of the biggest waves of the entire trip. He faded this thing backhand and manhandled the soft board into this beast of a pit. He didn’t make it out, and took one hell of a beating, but the kid charged and solidified himself as hellman and future legend. Good on ya Koa boy!
Adriano Gets After It
About a year and a half ago I found myself heading to Indonesia once again, however this trip was a bit different. Usually when I go to Indo it is aboard the Pelagic, on trips that I have put together. This time, though, I was heading out on a Red Bull trip aboard the Indies IV, the luxery surf yacht of all luxery surf yachts. I was pretty stoked for the trip, while I was there mainly to get images of the two Nike team riders aboard, Kolohe Andino and Evan Geisleman, there were a bunch of Red Bull’s premier guys on the trip that I hadn’t had a chance to work with. One of which was Adriano De Souza. I knew Adriano just from him being such a big part of surfing for the last few years, but had never had a chance to shoot with him outside of contest areas. To make a long story short, I walked away amazed by the guys surfing.
This particular day was one for the books; I literally shot on the dingy from sun up to sun down, having the crew run food, water, and fresh batteries, back and forth for me: it was was pumping, there was no other option. HT’s was as good as it gets, a bit over head, slack wind, and sunny as could be. We had the lineup practically to ourselves and the guys were on fire: Adriano especially. He was sitting as deep as anyone, rushing solid waves and standing tall in the tube through the inside section. As the tide filled in, and the barrels were as great as an option, Adriano adapted as well as anyone, punting ridiculously tweaked out air reverses and stylish straight airs. As I said, impressive.
His ripping wasn’t what really got me though; what really set him apart was how thoroughly stoked Adriano was. After every wave the guy was kicking out all smiles, hooting for himself, hooting for the guy on the wave behind him, arms raised in pure stoke. It was cool to see a pro surfer really not care about what others were thinking but rather acknowledge how fortunate he was and just be amped to be able to go out and surf perfect waves. A few days after this session I asked Adriano about the claiming, his answer was that he just loves surfing. That a good wave gets him excited and makes him happy and he’s not afraid to show it.
When Covers Just Happen
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
Ian Walsh is a Madman
Walshy has been a friend of mine for quite some time. From the early days putting me up in his parents house in Maui for months on end, to more recently spending two weeks in Indonesia, we’ve had some good times and scored some unreal waves. When you spend that much time with Walshy, one thing becomes clear, whether its 5 foot or 50 feet, Ian Walsh is a madman. Just a few weeks ago, Waslh played a key role in the big wave paddle session that went down at “Jaws” in Maui. The level these guys are taking big wave surfing to is unreal, and was unfathomable just a few short years ago.
Unfortunately I was not able to make the jump over to Maui for that swell. I was, however, able to jump on a trip to the Mentawais with Ian a couple years ago; and while it may not have been 50 feet, the waves were fun and Walshy was ripping. It was pretty impressive seeing a guy that paddles into the biggest waves on earth go out and punt airs and lay it on rail with the best of them.
Where the hot wind blows
Kenworthy is here right now, has been for over a week, and where here is I can not say. What I can say is that Kenworthy’s present version of here (this photo is a tad dated) is much bigger, better, meaner than this version of here. The now version of here is enough to make this version look like childs play (which its not) and leave you gathering your jaw from the floor. So just sit tight because soon enough we will be bringing you a current look at here: although we still can’t say where here is…
From the Archives
We have been going through a sort of office re-vamp lately: reorganizing old drives, moving stuff to new drives, and just generally digging through the archives. While tedious, the process has been great that it has brought to the surface some old gems that somehow slipped through the cracks before. This photo is from one of the very first Nike 6.0 trips to Fernando de Noronha in Brazil. It is truly one of the most scenic and beautiful place on earth. We had been shooting waters for a few hours and this was one of the last frames I popped off as the sun began to set behind the rock.
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