Mark Occhilupo, Sunset Beach. Some bottom turns just set up the big top turn. Mark’s bottom turn was a move all by itself. (As a guy with bird legs, I always envied his tree trunks.) I think he had the exact build you’d want for going backside and breaking waves in half. It might be he just needed the extra space in those legs to put his massive heart. Truly a great, humble master and one of the kindest guys alive. In my summer travels I managed to celebrate a few of his birthdays with him, in Indo and at Gnarloo, and the waves always showed up to the party too. Here in winter, at Sunset he found a perfect spot to lay that trademark turn and give me a present. Thanks Occ, this will stand the test of time. #watershotsbook #sunset #surfer
Kahea Hart, Waimea Bay, 1997. Some of you may recognize this looks odd for a Waimea photo. It’s subtle, but we’ve all seen enough shots of Waimea to notice something is different. It’s the light. And the reason is this was a rare September swell and the sun is 4 months more frontlit than we are used to seeing in December or January. People will remember this swell because it was so early and it came up from flat to actual Waimea in 24 hours. The legendary Margaret River madman Pete Collell was visiting and we were riding longboards at Backyards the day before and when I told him it was gonna be Waimea “tomorrow”, he was highly skeptical. Very few places in the world go from tankers to full blown guns in one day.
Noah Johnson, Sunset Beach. On the contest days at Sunset there would sometimes be several of us shooting in the water at the same time. We all knew each other and there was always a lot of waiting. We would pass the time heckling each other and telling stories, but mostly by heckling each other. You’d have to have some funny line when you’d show up and joined the pack. Hank @hankfoto808 would always reach the outside, sit up and say “Oh, Bielmann’s out here? Now I know it’s small” - no matter how big it was. Brian Bielmann though always told great stories, and he tended to distract us all. Kin Kimoto was onto his tactic and swore that “Blian Beerman, talk too much” and would move a little further out. Even though we were all fairly close together we never duplicated photos, Sunset has so many lumps and warps that just a few feet one way or the other would make a big difference. That kept it from being super cut throat and more social. And when the big wide sets would come it’s always much better to get cleaned up with your friends.
May the 4th is Eddie Aikau’s birthday. His journey was cut tragically short when he sacrificed his life trying to save Hokulea’s crew. It’s a poignant reminder that even the greatest watermen are no match for the power of nature and setting sail is always going to be a risk. But as Nainoa Thompson has said many times, the greater risk is to never untie from the dock, to never go. Happy Birthday Eddie. We know you’d still go.
Johnny Boy Gomes, Lagundri Bay. I don’t know how it is there today but the drive from the airport across the island back then was a stomach turner. It may have had something to do with whatever I’d just been fed on SMAC airlines, (which by the way was the sound Fast Eddie said we’d make when we crashed in the jungle) but it detonated. Stuck in back of a large truck/bemo/bus complete with goats and diesel fumes and board bags and locals chain chuffing clove cigarettes I got my head sideways and out the window just in time. Bad news for a bunch of chickens minding their own business on the roadside. Maybe they liked their new airbrush, but I doubt it. Anyway this is what we rocked up to. @_johnnyboy_gomes #watershotsbook #surfer #tripsurf
This is the wave that I mentioned in my recent post of RCJ on January 28 1998. This is Jason Majers, defying the Condition Black ocean condition, and any sliver of good sense. This was I believe the first year a huge prize ($50k) for the biggest wave of the winter was being offered and it looked at that moment to be a very dangerous incentive to offer. I honestly believed he was about to drown and the act of pressing the button felt scandalous or perverse in a way. But I did. And he popped up - though I bet he wouldn’t have described it that way - and safely made it back to the beach after trying to get into some of these waves. When he got to the beach, the crowd at the bay cheered while he was being arrested. It was quite a day. #watershotsbook #surfer #waimeabay
I think this is North Shore legend Kirk Bjerke, father of equally mad, Russell Bjerke. Kirk deserves a better shot than this because he rips, but one day roof riding the barrel will be a thing and Kirk will get the credit he’s due. #watershotsbook #surfphotos.com
Paul ‘Antman’ Patterson, Waimea Bay. It was a ballsy drop, and a pretty ballsy call by the magazine to run this cover without the obligatory blurbs and clutter. It really honored the shot and the act of Ant paddling over that edge.
Ross Clarke Jones, Outside Log Cabins, Jan 28 1998.
The helicopter pilot made me laugh. He gave me a life jacket this day that looked like a bum bag. Pretty sure it wasn’t worth much if we went down. Jeff Neu and I split the cost, back then I think we paid $550/hr. With sets every 45 minutes, that’s $412.50 a set. We missed Ken Bradshaw’s bomb by a few hundred dollars. But it meant I got back to Waimea just in time to shoot Jason Majers surviving an enormous closeout that I thought was gonna drown him for sure.
