A Combination of Zen and Adrenaline

I recently returned from an amazing family trip to Hawaii and one thing I knew I wanted to do while there is capture some amazing images of surfers.

I live in the tundra of the north. The Twin Cities of Minnesota, known for their cold, frigid winters. And we do have surfers, surprisingly, in some of our huge lakes (a story for another time), but we don’t have anything like the surfing that happens in these iconic surf spots.

And to me, it’s the perfect opportunity to test and hone my skills. Fast paced, moving subjects, with “get it or miss it” type of shot opportunities.

So I made sure I was prepared. I got the zoom lens I knew I would need, researched the best spots before hand, and made sure to organize a little time to sneak away from the family to spend a few hours shooting.

I choose sunrise on a random Tuesday. I hoped that a week day wouldn’t deter the die hard surfers I hoped to find, and when I arrived at Ho’okipa Beach, I wasn’t disappointed.

A dozen or more surfers clustered out along the waves. I quickly scoped out my spot along the adjacent rocks and hurried my way down.

The sun was just starting to peak out over the horizon as I took a seat on the hard black rocks. Low tide made for the perfect setting. My nostrils filled with the salt air of small tide pools and I started to get comfortable.

I took some test shots to calm my jitters and then a few landscapes as the sun started to tint the sky pink.

If I weren’t there for the surfers, I could have spent all morning shooting that sunrise.

It was the perfect type of puffy clouds, stained pink and orange against a teal ocean. So perfect, I was tempted to come back another day for surfers, and change my directive for the morning.

But dreams of epic “cowabunga” moments flashed in my head and my ass stayed firmly planted in the direction of the surfers.

It didn’t take long for me to start to understand the hierarchy. The further out the surfers paddle, the more “senior” or “experienced” they seemed to be, and they would get first dibs on their choice of waves.

That made it easy to know who to track.

Did that mean that I immediately got some epic shots? Absolutely not. Sometimes I would trigger too soon and capture just them popping up. Or I would get to excited and capture waves they wouldn’t even catch. But eventually I started to pick up on subtle body language that would queue me to get ready.

I spent all morning out there and got some shots I am truly proud of. But the part that surprised me the most was the ritualistic nature of it all.

I always thought of surfing as this exhilarating, high adrenaline sport, filled with sick moves and powerful waves. And that is most definitely part of it.

But I started to notice a different part, a rhythmic element, a tuning into nature that seemed almost spiritual at times. The best comparison I can think of is that to yoga.

The repetitive action of the paddle out, the wait for the perfect wave, the calm right before that wave crests and then the drop down into the wave, letting the force of the water propel you through. All just to do it again. It wasn’t just fun and cool to watch. It was beautiful.

I feel like that’s why surfers often times end up being such die-hards. This combination of zen and adrenaline. And from a photography stand point, those elements make it some of the most fun shooting I have ever done.