In my photographs for Unforgiving Surf, I want to show that extended moment when a surfer fuses with a wave and takes on a more iconic stature. There is certainly beauty in the arc and flow and spray of the water and the intimate way a surfer holds to all that. Or touches a wave once in the barrel as if an energizing life force. Of course the rough and tumble truth of a surfer’s life is the many hours they spend bitter cold and scrambling to stay alive. Catching a big wave at the wrong moment can slam a surfer down into the blackest depths. But catching it at the right moment can lead to glory. In my photographs, I try to find surfers who are just hanging on, barely, to that glorious edge.
