[SPECIAL ISSUE]

PHOTOANNUAL2015

MARCH 2015
W W W. H U R L E Y. C O M
T H E R E E F R O V E R W O R N B Y SHANE DORIAN
photo: Nate Lawrence
 O’NEILL INC. 2014 ONEILL.COM JORDY SMITH PHOTO: RESPONDEK

HYPER DRY
U N R E A S O N A B LY
DRY
 C O N G R AT U L AT I O N S
G A B R I E L M E D I NA
B R A Z I L’S F I R S T WO R L D S U R F I N G C H A M P I O N
 Intro

14 Surfer
 Alex Gray, Mexico.
Photo by Justin Smith

THE
LEARNING
CURVE
Today, we are able to witness every impactful
moment in surfng instantly. We see a barrage
of great imagery on a daily basis, which in turn
allows surfers to know what's happening around
the world and pushes them to go higher above
the lip or deeper into the barrel. Kelly Slater’s
540 was seen around the world before he even left
the beach, causing surfers on the opposite side of
the planet to paddle out and attempt to push the
envelope even further that very same day.
But for photographers, this Insta-world
presents new challenges. Some fear extinction as
technological advancements make it easier for
anyone and everyone to capture a decent image
and broadcast it to the masses. But through all
the white noise, diligent photographers who are
committed to perfecting their craft will stand out,
and while other images fade into the ether, theirs
will stand the test of time.
I have worked as a photo editor for 11 years
now, and every week I see an image that keeps me
excited about and interested in surf photography.
This year’s photo annual showcases a high level
of talent and serves as proof that adapting to the
digital age is only going to further progression,
both in front of the lens and behind it.

Grant Ellis
Photo Editor

Surfer 15
 Contents

MARCH 2015

Ellis Ericson, keeping his

hair dry in the tube.
Photo by Tom Hawkins

032
ATLAS BE
040 048
COLORING PHOTO
084
PART-TIME
PRAISED THE PAST ANNUAL 2015 LENSMEN
A nod to those Re-envisioning The very best Pro surfers discuss
behind the lens, surf history’s surf photos from their passion for
bringing our surf iconic black-and- the very best surf documenting life
On the cover: fantasies to life white images in photographers. on the road.
The early season ofered
a mixed bag at Pipeline. one shot at a time. full color.
Although there were
glimpses of perfection,
erratic winds and an
unwieldy sandbar kept even
the best on their toes.
But at least one surfer found
Plus: 28 Comment 94 Perfect Day
a tunnel through the chaos. 36 The Now 96 Extra
Photo by Tom Hawkins

16 Surfer
NATHAN FLORENCE
VANS.COM/SURF
©2015, Vans Inc. Photo: Russo
DANE REYNOLDS

GHETTO YOKE BOARDSHORT

THE
FISHER —
MAN'S
SON
The Spirit of
Ramon Navarro
Photo: Scott Soens A FILM & BOOK BY CHRIS MALLOY
AND WOODSHED FILMS + FARM LEAGUE FILM TOUR SPRING 2015
 Masthead

Editorial

Editor Brendon Thomas

Managing Editor Todd Prodanovich
Associate Editor Josh T. Saunders
Assistant Editor Justin Housman
Photo Editor Grant Ellis
Assistant Photo Editor Bryce Lowe-White
Video Production Assistant Alex Kilauano
Art Director James Newitt
Assistant Art Director Mike Gonsalves
Social Media Manager Garrett James
Hawaii Editor Jef Mull
Copy Editor Kim Stravers

Contributing Editors
Steve Barilotti, Ray Bergman, Steve Hawk

Senior Writers
Sean Doherty, Matt George, Sam George, Derek Hynd,
Drew Kampion, Ben Marcus, Brad Melekian, Joel Patterson,
Lewis Samuels, Gabe Sullivan, Kimball Taylor, Matt Warshaw

Contributing Writers
Tim Baker, Christian Beamish, Chris Dixon, Ashtyn Douglas,
William Finnegan, Alex French, Rob Gilley, Janna Irons,
Bruce Jenkins, Michael Kew, Maxwell Klinger,
Shea Lopez, Kirk Owers, Greg Thomas

Surfer Photographers
Chris Burkard, Jason Childs,
Todd Glaser, Zak Noyle

Senior Photographers
Erik Aeder, Kirk Lee Aeder, Scott Aichner, Bernie Baker,
Art Brewer, Jef Divine, Steve Fitzpatrick, Jon Frank,
Pete Frieden, Anthony Ghiglia, Rob Gilley, Dylan Gordon,
Ted Grambeau, Tony Hef, Joli, Rob Keith, Jason Kenworthy,
Kin Kimoto, Nick Lavecchia, Morgan Maassen, Tim McKenna,
Dick Meseroll, Mike Moir, Jason Murray, Brian Nevins,
Yassine Ouhilal, Frank Quirarte, Jim Russi, Tom Servais,
Andrew Shield, Bernard Testemale,
Patrick Trefz, J.P. Van Swae

Contributing Photographers
Branden Aroyan, Don Balch, Rob Brown, John S. Callahan,
Sylvain Cazenave, Mike Coots, Donald Cresitello,
Juan Fernandez, Mike Findlay, Ryan Foley, Russ Hennings,
Pete Hodgson, Timo Jarvinen, Alex Kilauano, Matt Lusk,
Myles McGuinness, Don Montgomery, Naki, Mike Nelson,
Steve Ryan, Chris Sardelis, Mike Smolowe, Bryan Soderlind,
David Sparkes, Jon Steele, Ben Thouard, Tungsten

Manufacturing & Production Operations

VP, Manufacturing & Ad Operations Greg Parnell

Senior Director, Ad Operations Pauline Atwood
Archivist Thomas Voehringer

Founder
John Severson
Photo by Foley

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24 Surfer
 Advertising

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Marketing Manager Kellie Cuttrell

Senior Account Executive Bryan Ellis
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Advertising Coordinator Melinda Villegas

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Management Digital Group

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Editorial Director, Digital Senior Product Manager
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Director of Sales/Action
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Manager
Marketing & Events Randy Ward
Director, Events Ofce Coordinator
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VP, Event Sales IT Support Specialist
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TEN: The Enthusiast Network, LLC

Chairman SVP, Digitial VP, Digital

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ALBEE LAYER

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FEATURED STYLE | KNOCK OUT

SEE ALBEE AND MATT IN

(AS IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY)
 Comment

Between this article involving women surfng in Iran and

the skate-istan skateboarding movement in Afghanistan;
this has to be some of the best Middle East foreign policy news
I have discovered in quite some time. I have always said that
skating and surfng change lives; anything that can transcend
the grasp of radical Islam is a powerful force indeed.
Brandon Stephens on, “Iran’s Female Surf Pioneers”

Shane wrote: To Jef Clark: I don’t think grinding
through the bad years means forcing a mediocre
contest to run for fear of people forgetting about
one of the most prestigious waves in the world.
Even if fve years went by with no waves and people
did forget, who wouldn’t be more than willing to
bring their time and attention back to a break as
epic as Mavericks? What sponsor would turn down
a golden opportunity to be part of a legendary
contest, especially if it runs rarely? There’s a
hidden anticipation in surfers always waiting for
This, to me, is an amazing story! Stoked for
them and hope no harm comes to any of them
’cause of some closed-minded fools acting
out in the name of any sort of extremism.
Lou Loz on, “Iran’s Female Surf Pioneers”
that magical surprise swell. The longer we wait,
the greater the anticipation grows, whether we
talk about it or not. Have some faith in us. Your
resistance of a forced so-so contest and losing
“business” is the right move if preserving the true
value of surfng is what you’re after. I don’t want
to remember Mavericks as an average day with
average surf. Just like Coachella, the true essence
of what things were gets lost in overhyped crowds.
Your resistance to selling out got my attention
and respect. Costa Mesa, CA
Brandon McNeely wrote: I’ve seen plenty
of articles welcoming the digital age into every
corner of our lives, but seeing the headline
“The Quantifed Surfer” stopped me cold.
The benefts are easy to list, but the cons feel much
more bruising. For me, surfng is about renewal.
It’s about looking inward, not quantifying outward.
It’s about personal connection, not superfcial
measurements. We know a good wave when we see
it, and there’s healthy competition far away from
any digital connection. Luckily we’re left with a
choice. As T.S. Eliot wrote, “Where is the wisdom
we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge
we have lost in information?” Philadelphia, PA
You don't need to quantify the wave in
Matahi Drollet's January cover shot to know
it's impressive and very dangerous.
Photo by Noyle

Just received the new SURFER. Wow! Stunning.

I’m especially in awe over the Malibu Pier shot.
Over 60 years of surf media and I’m still
blown away. I knew this was a good idea.
SURFER Founder, John Severson on,
“Chasing the Chubasco”
E-mail: surferedit@surfermag.com Follow us: facebook.com/surfer @surfer_magazine @surfer_magazine
Mailing address: Post, SURFER Magazine, 236 Avenida Fabricante, Suite 201, San Clemente, CA 92672, USA

28 Surfer
 Culture
Atlas Be Praised
I magine staring absolute perfection in the face,
all day, every day, capturing golden moments
of beauty on camera for a paycheck. And all
those golden moments are made up of the very
things you fantasize about. Oh, but you can’t touch
those things. At least not while they’re all sexed up
for their close-up. Your job is to sit there and watch,
snatching little moments of the Platonic ideal of
perfection for the titillation of all of us consumers.
To put us there without actually being there.
Come on, now, get that head out of the gutter.
I’m not describing a photographer on some tropical
beach shooting lewd pictures of carefully coifed
models for a magazine centerfold. I’m talking
about the humble, poorly paid, tenuous-grasp-
on-employment surf photographer bobbing in
the channel, fring away at Kolohe Andino as he
tears into a dreamy Indian Ocean reef pass—hair
carefully coifed, of course. There’s really not a
whole lot of diference between the two scenarios
32 Surfer
By Justin Housman
Art by Geof McFetridge
when you think about it. Both the pinup
photographer and the surf shooter are fantasy
peddlers of the highest order.
But there’s no way the surf fantasy as we know
it could exist if there was no such thing as surf
photographers. Without them and their slobber-
inducing, plane-ticket-purchase-inspiring shots,
the surf industry would be nothing. Wait, that’s
not true; it wouldn’t be nothing. There would still
be backyard shapers making irregular boards from
terrible foam, and a handful of bearded dudes
making their own wax in cofee cans, selling it
out of the back of their beat-up Subaru wagons
(so, San Francisco, basically). Surf photographers
are crucial parts of the fantasies that sell the
magazines, the boardshorts, the wetsuits, the
surfoards, the fns, everything. We’re a visual
culture, and the photographers are the cultural
tastemakers. As much as I’d like to credit surf
writers, it’s the photographers who are the�
THE COASTAL OASIS SANDAL

MIKEY WRIGHT
 Culture

Atlases on which our precious modern surf world
is balanced.
But it ain’t an easy way to make a living.
First, there are the psychological demands. As a
surf photographer, one must fend of the bitterness
and rage-inducing envy of watching the world’s
fnest and most coddled surfers do their dancing
on the world’s fnest, most pined-after waves while
they tend to their tripods, sweat, and mind surf.
You think that’s easy? How many times have you
been at the ofce and opened a browser to a surf
cam showing a perfectly pleasant, uncrowded day
reeling of at your home break, only to snap the
window closed, burying yourself in a spreadsheet,
congratulating yourself for possessing the intestinal
fortitude to maintain self-control and stay in
your desk chair? Now put that desk on the sand
at Salina Cruz and then try to fend of that urge.
Is it any wonder that many long-in-the-tooth surf
photographers tend toward the salty?
The digital revolution has actually made it
harder for surf photographers to fll their personal
wave quotas. Back in the flm days, when you had
to spoon coal into a tiny furnace in the bottom
of the camera to power the ancient things (I’m
assuming, anyway), the best photos were usually
taken in the morning or late afternoon, when
the light was at its moodiest and most fattering.
That left big chunks in the middle of the day for
surf photographers to, you know, actually surf.
Nowadays, I’m not sure if you actually need to
point the business end of a digital camera at the
ocean anymore to get a good surf photo, never
mind what time of day it is, or whether it’s cloudy
and gray. Post-processing software is that good.
Those midday glare shots will clean up just fne in
Photoshop. This can glue the modern-day shooter
to a camera all day, eyes glazing over, surfoard dry
in its bag.
The long-term efects of the digitalization of
surf photography remain to be seen. It’s easier than
ever to crank out world-class photos now, and the
democratization of surf photography has fattened
the playing feld considerably. Surf photography
has never, ever been a sensible career choice, but
you used to be able to carve out a marketable niche
for yourself, mostly because there weren’t many
other people who were versed in the magic arts of
manually adjusted shutter speeds and ISO settings.
Those days are gone, though, and with them went
decent pay for good shots. Web space is much
cheaper than print space, and online editors have
more random photo submissions than they know
what to do with.
Lots of those submissions now come from pro
surfers themselves. Whether it’s travel porn posted
to Instagram accounts or look-at-me barrel shots
taken with waterproof cameras fxed like bayonets
on all sorts of pole mounts, lots of pros seem ever
more willing to don the surf photographer’s hat
too. A shame, because a talented photographer
makes you forget you’re even looking at a
composed photo; you’re in the moment with
the rider and the wave. But when a surfer’s
obviously holding the camera used to take the shot,
it reveals too much of the man behind the curtain.
The fantasy erodes.
Throw the food of passable surf shots into a
pot with the economic recession of 2008 and the
rise of online media and you get a drastic drop-of
in what old-school surf photographers could
expect to get paid. Or, as longtime photographer
Rob Gilley puts it, an economic trifecta that
produced a “ramrod that went right where the
01
sun don’t shine.” New-school photographers who
cut their teeth in a world of easily accessible,
high-quality digital photography don’t know any
diferent, though, and aren’t much threatened by
your iPhone photos ruining their gig. “The best
photographs and photographers always rise to
the top,” says Todd Glaser, and he would know,
what with his penthouse view among the rest of
the cream of the crop, looking down upon the
lesser-talented rabble. How you feel about that
fattening of the surf-photography landscape seems
to be largely generational.
Truthfully, most of us not draging around
fve fgures’ worth of camera gear can’t tell flm
from digital anyway. We just want to fip through
a surf mag or scroll down a surfy webpage and be
02
stoked. Since the godfather Ron Stoner inked his
frst deal with John Severson, professional surf
photographers have provided most of that stoke.
For that, we raise our glasses to you. You didn’t
blow the shot of that little tube ride we just got,
though, right?

01
Photographer Zak Noyle’s
tools of the trade: helmet, fns,
waterhousing, and the courage
to get pitched over the falls
at Pipe just to get you in the
barrel there with him.
Photo by Miller
02
As unbelievably thrilled as
you’d be to roll up to this peak
and spend all day surfng it,
surf photographers would be
almost just as excited to camp
out in the bushes all
day shooting it.
Photo by Glaser
03
Without the largesse
born from photographers
selling the surfng dream, this
might still be cutting edge
shaping tech: cement-flled
buckets as a sawhorses, the
open sky as ventilation, and
six-month turnaround times
for board orders.
Photo by Ellis
03

34 Surfer

thenow
Curren Caples on balancing a skateboarding
career and a saltwater addiction
When you’re named after
Tom Curren, you’d better have
a knack for drawing interesting
lines in the water. But while
18-year-old Curren Caples is more
than profcient at punting and
carving across his local breaks,
it’s his skills on a skateboard that
have landed him in the spotlight.
He turned pro last year, flmed
a video part for Flip Skateboards,
and won a gold medal in Skate-
board Park at X Games Munich.
After a surf session in Ventura,
I sat down with Caples to discuss
balancing water and concrete.
36 Surfer
Interview by Todd Prodanovich
What do you remember doing
frst, skating or surfng?
I started skating frst, but my dad
always really wanted me to surf.
He was a pro surfer back in the day,
and he named me after Tom. I was
terrifed of surfng, though. I didn’t
actually get into surfng until I was
about 12. Before that I would mess
around in the shorebreak, and only
in the summer. It wasn’t until I got a
5/4 one winter that I started surfng
all the time.
When you spend most of
your days launching into the
air above concrete, I would
think you’d be pretty fearless
in the water.
For me, I’m defnitely less hesitant
trying to land stuf surfng than
I am skating. The only thing that
you really have to worry about is
hitting your board. But skating, it’s
a lot easier to kick out and get away
from your board when you realize
things aren’t going to end well.
With surfng, your board just seems
glued to you for some reason. Big
waves scare me a little bit as well.
My friends always make fun of me
for liking small waves, but I don’t
care. There’s no reason for me to
surf big waves, so I’m not going to.
You don’t feel any pressure to push
yourself in that way?
I feel no pressure at all to push my
surfng. That’s what I love most
about it: I just surf for myself. Even
when I’m in Hawaii, I’ll just surf
V-Land or Beach Park the entire
time. I don’t have sponsors who
expect me to charge Pipe or Sunset
or anything like that, so I’m just
going to surf fun waves and enjoy
myself. But it’s funny, because a lot
of my friends who surf Pipe will
look at something I did skating and
say, “Well, that’s way gnarlier than
Up-and-coming pro skater
Curren Caples, fying over
a diferent kind of coping
in Ventura.
Photo by Mehren
surfng Pipe.” But it’s all about
what you’re used to and comfortable
doing. The funny thing about
skateboarding is that when you
frst start learning to skate, you’re
also learning to fall. You learn to
tumble out of stuf and kick your
board away. So I don’t see the stuf
I’m doing on a skateboard as all that
sketchy compared to what guys are
doing at Pipe.
Is it tough spending time away
from the coast now that you’re
more focused on traveling and
flming for skating?
Well, sometimes we do skate trips
to places like Australia, and I’ll bring
surfoards and kind of get the best
of both worlds. It defnitely sucks
leaving on a skate trip to Texas
when you know that there’s going
to be swell back home. But when
I’m on the road, I’m skating a ton,
which I obviously love as well.
 Eric Geiselman

Skeleton Coast Boardshort

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 ColoringthePast
Feature

40 Surfer
With a little research and
a lot of Photoshop wizardry,
we breathed colorful new
life into historical black
and white surf images
By Matt Warshaw
World Championships,1965, Lima [Photo: Ron Stoner]
Hector Velarde of Peru is the fellow you see holding the blue board in red trunks, between
Mike Doyle and Fred Hemmings. You probably haven’t heard of Velarde, but if contest ofcials
had decided at this moment to change the event to a Chippendales Male Revue format, he’d
be your 1965 world champ. Muscles like river stones. Smoother than Ricardo Montalbán.
A smile to warm up all of South America. Laird on his best day was Michael Cera next to
Velarde. This photo is unusual in that the area around Velarde’s feet is completely free of
women’s underwear and napkin-scrawled phone numbers.
Surfer 41
 Feature

United States Surfing Championships, Huntington Beach, 1966 [Photo: Ron Stoner]
Helmets were not part of the debut
West Coast Surfng Championships
in 1959. But any right-thinking
Huntington Beach City Council
member that year would have seen
“liability lawsuit” in throbbing red
neon every time a jersey-wearing
surfer took aim at the pier. One con-
testant in the emergency room—never
mind the morgue—and the settlement
check would drop city cofers like a
Sonny Liston shot to the midsection.
In 1964, when the contest was
upgraded to the United States Surfng
Championships, contestants were all
handed a Bell TopTex fberglass-plastic
helmet and ordered to strap it on.
Each one weighed just over a pound
and ft as comfortably as you’d expect
a fberglass-plastic object to ft.
Then again, the waves that year were
well overhead and closed out, and
one guy did in fact go headfrst into
a piling. “The helmet,” Surf Guide
reported, “not his head, was split like
a popcorn kernel.”

42 Surfer
Kemp Aaberg, Rincon, 1959 [Photo: John Severson]
This Kemp Aaberg shot ran in the the thing out! Played around with it,
second issue of SURFER. An image then kind of gave up and just fred of a
meant for bronzing, and a fne example bunch of rolls. A week later I get it all
of how things break your way when back, all these long strips of negs, 36 at
you’re on a roll, the way John Severson a time, and everything is black. Every
was in the early 1960s. “I took that shot single frame. Just black. Except one.
at Rincon,” Severson remembers, “using The shot of Kemp.”
a borrowed lens. I could not fgure

Surfer 43
 Feature
Mark Allon, Portugal, 1972 [Photo: John Witzig]
There are sparkling highs to be found out there on
the fringe looking for surf, and a few harrowing
lows, and in the vast midlands between the two are
days like this. Of course you’re going to pick up the
boards, crab-walk down the clif, eat a handful of trail
mix, paddle out, and make the most of those mushy
44 Surfer
boulder-pocked little rights. What choice? But at this
road-weary juncture you will momentarily turn the
surf-travel fantasy inside-out and project yourself
back to the Strand, the Boardwalk, the Double
Down—all those suddenly magical places within
a 2-mile radius of your front door.
 Feature

Tom Blake, Waikiki, 1929 [Photo: Bishop Museum]

Surfng’s great master of melancholy. Am I the only
one who feels that way about poor Tom Blake?
Separated from his parents before he was a year old
(mother died of TB, father hit the road), then passed
around from one Wisconsin relative to the next, Blake
was never able to settle down—and apparently just as
unable to make deep, lasting connections with other
humans: “I found the water good; better than the land
I was cut of from.” Surfng didn’t repair the damage.
But it helped. And Blake, bless him, returned the
favor tenfold.

46 Surfer
coming to your local surf shop in January

freewaters.com
 Feature

PHOTO
ANNUAL
48
2015
Surfer
 Dave Rastovich, the high
priest of Byron Bay’s
Church of Anything Goes,
can surf everything: 12-foot
olo replicas, stub-nosed
fshes, alaias, paipos, his
own body, dolphins, and
even, believe it or not, a
modern high-performance
shortboard. Constant access
to some of the best waves
in the world means Rasta’s
got plenty of time to tinker.
Case in point: this golden
racetrack. On a wave this
pristine, it doesn’t matter
what kind of surfcraft you
choose. Just get to your feet
and aim for the lip.
Photo by Swilly

Surfer 49
 When it comes to dolphins
and porpoises, every wave
is a party wave; they’ve got
no problem whatsoever
sharing. Kelly Slater and
Yadin Nicol tap into their
inner cetaceans at Pipe.
Photos: Hawkins (left),
Van Gysen (right)

50 Surfer
Surfer 51
52 Surfer
 Feature

Left
You’d think that
wide-open, truck-sized
barrels would be easier to
navigate than smaller fare.
Unfortunately, paralyzing
fear prevents most of us
from ever fnding out
for sure. For Kamalei
Alexander, however,
that doesn’t seem to
be much of a factor.
Photo by Noyle

Below
Stephen Koehne and Koa
Smith survey the lineup.
Photo by Ellis

Surfer 53
 Feature

54 Surfer
 Joel Tudor is like a human
time machine. Wherever
he surfs, he dials the clock
back a few decades and
reminds us of how simple
surfng used to be. No fash,
no stickers, one fn. “It’s not
just how much you can do
on a wave,” Tudor once told
an interviewer. “It’s also
how much cleaner can you
make it. How much more
beauty and style can you put
into it.” Oceanside, CA.
Photos by Glaser

Surfer 55
56 Surfer
 Nate Tyler grew up
and still lives in Templeton,
California, a tiny Central
Coast agricultural outpost
a dusty 20-minute
drive from a handful
of temperamental reefs
and beachbreaks. This
particular setup is so moody
that it can go years without
a remotely rideable wave.
It required the might of
Hurricane Marie to rouse
this shreddable little left
to life, and it took Tyler’s
lifetime of poking around
this sleepy coast to snif
out its existence.
Photo by Burkard

Surfer 57
 Feature

Many people associate

Alex Knost with tiny
waves in Southern
California, but if you
happen to fnd yourself
on the North Shore when
he’s there, you’re in for a
treat. When the surf climbs
overhead, he scales up
his well-rounded act just
fne, and his fascination
with retro equipment just
gives him more tools
to work with.
Photo by Hawkins

58 Surfer
Surfer 59
60 Surfer
 Feature

Chasing hurricanes on (Clockwise from top left)

the East Coast requires Jesse Hines,
patience, a board you capitalizing on Hurricane
don’t mind breaking, Gonzalo’s power.
a four-wheel-drive rig, Photo by Lusk
a meteorologist’s expertise, Torrey Meister, proving
and a ton of patience. there are more than just
Add those things together barrel sections along
and you might score the Outer Banks.
an all-time North Photo by Ellis
Carolina session. Macon Humphrey,
solitude is bliss.
Photo by Lusk

Surfer 61
 Feature

In recent years, visiting

surfers have been calling
this wave in Portugal
“The Cave.” But while
the true Portuguese name
shares similar spelling
(A Cave, pronounced ah
kAHv), it actually means
“the cellar.” When surfers
like Sebastian Zietz
drop down numerous
steps into a dark, tight
space, both names sound
plenty applicable.
Photo by Glaser

62 Surfer
Surfer 63
 Thurso, Thurso East,
Castle Reef: Whatever you
want to call it, it’s a long
slice of Scottish perfection.
Thurso River cuts a wide
swath through a big,
fat hunk of granite reef
that juts out toward the
Norwegian Sea, along which
right-handers rife perfectly.
Photo by McKinnon

64 Surfer
Surfer 65
66 Surfer
 Feature

Panama’s Caribbean
coast is all about
short-period, quick-hitting,
punch-packing swells.
Scoring requires sticking
and moving. (Below)
Dane Reynolds, foating
around the Panamanian
countryside. (Left)
Reynolds, stinging.
Photos by Glaser

Surfer 67
 Twilight trek
to the shoreline,
somewhere in Mexico.
Photo by Maassen

68 Surfer
Surfer 69
 Feature

70 Surfer
 Top
At times, it seems
like Dane Reynolds would
prefer to just vanish from
the pro surfng scene
without a trace. If Reynolds
truly wanted to fade
away, he could do worse
than setting up camp in
mainland Mexico.
His power and the fabled
right-handers in Oaxaca
are a match made in
regularfoot heaven.
Photo by Maassen

Left
Dillon Perillo,
pulling a disappearing
act of his own.
Photo by Craig

Surfer 71
 Feature

There’s more to
Alana Blanchard than
what she posts on
her Instagram.
Photo by Hodgson/
A-Frame

72 Surfer
Surfer 73
74 Surfer
 Rob Machado punched
the clock often during the
Hurricane Marie swell last
summer. In addition to
putting in a solid day’s work
at Newport Point with the
Orange County crew, he
snuck of to rack up some
overtime here at one of
San Diego County’s most
closely guarded secrets.
The work of a tube
hound is never done.
Photo by Glaser

Surfer 75
 Feature

Teahupoo (right) has

a knack for teaching
humility. Its brute force
and atom-bomb power are
enough to make artifcially
created waves look about as
meaningful as a ripple in a
bathtub. Josh Kerr tames
the former.
Photo by Thouard
Portugal’s Wavegarden (left)
humbly embodies the latter.
Photo by Miller

76 Surfer
Surfer 77
78 Surfer
 Feature

These days air reverses

are often met with a pinch
of cynicism, like a song
played on the radio so many
times you can’t help but
be annoyed by it. But with
Craig Anderson’s unique
style, even the most
played-out tune sounds
as fresh as the frst time
you heard it.
Photo by Respondek

Surfer 79
 Feature

Often the moodiest parts

of the surf experience don’t
take place in the water at all.
Photos by Maassen (left),
Gordon (right)

80 Surfer
Surfer 81
82 Surfer
The softer, more peaceful
side of Teahupoo.
Photo by Thouard

Surfer 83
 Feature

84 Surfer
 Fito, a local
Mainland Mexico surfer,
putting on a clinic
in backside tube riding.
Photo by Rusty Long

Pro surfers turn the cameras away from

themselves and discuss their passion for
documenting life on the road

Surfer 85
 Feature

″My interest in photography sparked when I was a kid looking through surf
magazines and the pile of National Geographic magazines we had in our garage.
I’d always look to see who took the photos, and I really enjoyed certain styles
of work and the way photography showcases the world. This is a photo (above)
I took from the lookout right on the edge of the Clifs of Moher in Ireland.
Aileen’s is one of my favorite spots in the world. Walking down the little goat
path to paddle out with the clifs towering above is something else. There was
incredible swell in the water this day, with a much biger interval than Ireland
normally gets. Aileen’s needs a lower tide, so I had just been waiting for it to
drop, wanting to get a panoramic lineup shot of the Clifs with a perfect wave.
As the tide dropped, this wave came, which was one of the frst to actually tube
that day. It’s often hard for me to capture these moments because I’m usually in
the water when they happen, so to capture that, then paddle out, was sweet.″

86 Surfer
 Opposite
Aileen’s, one of Ireland’s
most harrowing waves.
Right
Early one fogy
morning in Mundaka.
Bottom
Tread lightly when surfng
this Irish left-hander.

Surfer 87
 Feature

″It seems like everything on the road is a photo waiting to happen. I love it,
because it provokes me to look at things from diferent perspectives and fnd
something unique in everything. This shot (bottom) is one of my favorites
because of what it represents to me. It’s when I went to this secret wave in the
Caribbean while flming for Get-N Classic Vol. 3. To me, it encapsulates one
of my all-time favorite trips, and thinking about how far we had to go to
experience this moment makes it even more special. I love the vibrant color
of the ocean in the image, with this perfect unridden wave and the driftwood
twisting in the foreground. Later that afternoon, after surfng for three days
straight, I got sick from sunstroke and had to spend the rest of the trip lying
in my bed, just sweating and dreaming about those fawless barrels. This is the
image that stuck in my head when I was lying there, and it’s still always on
my mind.″

Top
Hanging with an Icelandic
race horse between swells.
Bottom
Nothing but perfect
barrels and driftwood on
this Caribbean isle.

88 Surfer
 Left
Joel Tudor knows waxing
at blurred speeds
provides the best bumps.
Right
Dane Gudauskas and
Danny Fuller, refreshments
in Namibia.

"Recently I started to really realize how invaluable a photograph is, because

I want to remember the trips that I get to take and all the little moments
that defne them. Even a bad photo can become a good photo because of the
storytelling aspect. I’m a horrendous storyteller, so I kind of rely on photos
to tell people about trips. This photo (above left) was special to me because it
was from a great trip to Jefreys Bay with my brothers, Andrew Doheny, Nate
Florence, Dylan Graves, and Joel Tudor. We rented a place on the top story of
the African Safari Lodge and all stayed together. It was about two weeks straight
of picture-perfect J-Bay. I don’t think it ever got under 6 feet, and the crowd
was getting surfed out. But not Joel. He brought a whole bunch of boards—
twin-fns, quads, single-fns—and he was just frothing like a grom. This photo
makes me think about how stoked Joel was to be there, surfng his guts out at
one of the most perfect waves in the world. I guess we all were."

Surfer 89
 Feature

Top left
Van life with
Stephanie Gilmore.
Top right
A lone local presides over
this Sri Lankan point.
Bottom right
Hills like Sri Lankan
elephants.

″I take photographs mainly to try and remember all the places and people
I see along this wild little journey. One day when I’m old and my memory is
fading, it will be nice to be able to look back at a kind of visual diary of my life
and recall some of those amazing times. I think nowadays we are all exposed to
so much photography that you end up unintentionally learning about color and
composition. Once you get a hang of the basics, it’s quite easy to take a pleasing
photo. This image (above) is of a huge elephant I saw on a trip to Sri Lanka.
I really enjoy awkward crops and macro sections of biger pictures because it
stops you for a moment to really think about what you’re looking at. It leaves
you guessing.″

90 Surfer
″I pretty much always travel with my camera these days, and I can’t wait to
look back at all of my photos 30 years from now. The frst flm camera I had
was a plastic Holga, but it really sucked, so I picked up a Canon 35mm AE-1 and
that’s when I started getting some cool shots. This is actually a photo of Creed
McTagart’s feet (bottom). I shot it in front of his dad’s house a while ago when
I was staying with him over in West Oz. I really like this shot because the colors
are pretty interesting and it focuses on his rad tattoo.″

Top
The sprawling
New Zealand countryside.
Bottom
How Creed McTagart
gets around.

Surfer 91
 Feature

″My mom was always taking photos when I was growing up, and I think
I got into photography from traveling around and wanting to capture the
places we were going. All of these photos are from traveling through Africa.
I took the pink elephant photo (below) with this infrared flm I was testing,
and I think it actually came out cool. It’s pretty crazy, because in person
the elephant was blending in with the bushes, but the infrared makes it pop.
The photo of the wave (above left) is from a beachbreak we were surfng where
I put my camera in a waterproof bag and swam out to shoot a few of Albee
Layer, and the last photo (above) is of a hut we saw on the trip. It’s amazing
traveling around and seeing the way diferent cultures live.″

Top Left
Albee Layer,
driving in Africa.
Top Right
Under construction.
Bottom
African elephant,
shot on infrared flm.

92 Surfer
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 Perfect Day

94 Surfer
Photo by Chris Gurney WESTERN
AUSTRALIA
“This wave is kind of hidden, so you can score it by yourself
if you are on it,” says Peter Hayes (pictured here) of this West
Australian keg. “I spent a few days surfng it solo while camping
in the desert with my buddy, and it was pretty crazy. There are
these fngers of shallow reef right in front of the wave, so you’d
better make the tube—otherwise you wash up onto a dry shelf
covered in urchins. And the wave often looks like a closeout
when you check it, but then you get days when it teepees up
and forms a heaving, well-shaped barrel. This day in particular
was amazing. The swell, the tides, the wind, and the crowd—
everything lined up. That day pretty much sums up why I’m a
surfer. It was an all-time high.”

Surfer 95
 Extra

Caddy Shack
When Backdoor is at its most terrifying and unruly, that’s when J.O.B. pulls out the big guns.
The squishy, bright pink, made-for-children-ages-5-and-up big guns. Maybe he’s lost his mind,
or maybe this is part of a completely logical progression that only makes sense to those who can
ride a Pipeline foamball in their sleep. Either way, there’s bound to be some breakage when
you fnd yourself between a thick lip and a shallow reef. Might as well caddy for yourself and
paddle out with a backup, right? Makes perfect sense.

Photo by Noyle

Surfer (ISSN # 0039-6036), March 2015, Vol. 56 No. 03. Published monthly by TEN: The Enthusiast Network, LLC, 261 Madison Ave. 6th Floor, New York, NY 10016.
Copyright © 2015 by TEN: The Enthusiast Network Magazines, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the USA. Periodicals Postage Paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing ofces.
Subscription rates for 1 year (12 issues): U.S., APO, FPO and U.S. Possessions $20.00, Canadian orders add $12.00. Foreign orders add $24.00 (for surface mail postage). Payment in advance,
U.S. funds only. For a change of address, six weeks’ notice is required. Send old as well as new address to Surfer, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS.
(See DMM 707.4.12.5); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to Surfer, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235.

96 Surfer
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