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You’ll need a pretty sweet camera and a water housing to nail a shot like this. Photo: @thomson photo. Surfer: @jack monchau
Surf photography is still just photography, but water can complicate things. It can affect your camera (break it) and, of course, alter the way one deals with light. Since the gear to deal with such problems is highly specialized, it’s worth getting some advice before hopping in the deep end.
I’ll be honest; I’m no expert on surf photography, but I know a couple of people who are. I hit up Brent Bielmann, Todd Glaser, Morgan Maassen, and Zak Noyle, four of the world’s best-regarded professional surf photographers, to learn a bit more about what they do. They were gracious enough to share what equipment they use as professionals, and, more importantly, what equipment they recommend for those of us (myself included) trying to get into the surf photography game.
Brent Bielmann, Morgan Maassen, Todd Glaser, and Zak Noyle weigh in on the best cameras for surf photography for any level from beginner to professional.
Gallery: The Best Images From Pipeline Valentine
Photographic highlights from four days on the North Shore
Flynn Novak. Photo: Jeremiah Klein
Marcus Sanders
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As mentioned more than a few times already, we’ve seen some amazing images and videos from the Pipeline Valentine swell along the North Shore. We reported on it in realtime right here. We have three days of cam highlights from Pipeline right here. We nominated a Photo of the Swell right here. This was not a giant, Waimea/Outer Reef swell (though there were a couple moments on Saturday), but Pipeline and Backdoor took center stage and had moments of sheer brilliance, as showcased in the photo gallery below. (Stay tuned for some outstanding O’Neill Wave of the Winter as well. Oh, and fair warning: basically everyone in the below photos is going straight. There are no turns.)
Jet-Ski Mayhem on Super Swell Saturday
Ryan Moss and Cam Richards talk about their harrowing PWC incident at Oahu’s outer reefs
Framegrab: HighSeas Plank
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Of all the action that went down on Super Swell Saturday – and there was
a lot of it, see our realtime coverage here – one incident stood out for its sheer shock value. And it wasn’t even anyone surfing.
During the XXL session at Oahu’s outer reefs, a group of jet-skis got stuck inside when a bombing set rolled through. What followed was like a scene from the 1995 film
Waterworld. Skis scrambled, some turning around and gunning it towards shore, others pinning it to try and make it over the avalanche of water.
Watch: John John Florence’s Outer Reef Behemoth
JJF packs one of the biggest caverns from Super Swell Saturday and not where you d suspect
Frame grab: Brent Bielmann
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The first thing we thought when we saw this was, “Wait, is there any rule that states that the Wave of the Winter must go down at Pipeline, Backdoor or Off-the-Wall?” Because this weekend, John John Florence threw a completely different wrench in the works at an Oahu outer reef.
And wouldn’t that just be the perfect ending to what’s looking more and more like a perfect winter for the two-time World Champ? Over the past couple months John’s spent his time freesurfing with his brothers and closest friends all over the North Shore, throwing his hat in the ring early at Pipe for the 2020-21 O’Neill Wave of the Winter, dropping bangers in the (virtual) Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, and… oh yeah, winning his first-ever Billabong Pipe Masters.