Steve Dwyer, surfing in Grog's Seaside Heights Pro Contest in New Jersey, in July 1975. Photo by John Ker. I think that was the best day of surf I ever saw in New Jersey. Steve told me that he had paddled out on the other side of the pier so he wouldn't get caught inside, and it worked. His hair was still dry when he caught this wave, he told me in a comment a few years ago when I shared this photo on Facebook.
Here's one of my photos of Gerry Lopez at the Pipeline in Hawaii. As I recall, I shot this at around 1/375th of a second at f6.3 with my Nikon F2 and Century 650mm lens on Kodachrome 25. I was trying to get the shot as he released the inside rail and the lip came over him while his face was still visible, but the camera has about 1/25th of a second delay from the time you push the shutter button, the mirror flips up out of the way, and the film captures the action. That was just long enough for the lip to obscure the top half of his face. If I had known that was going to happen, I would have shot this photo a tiny bit earlier. I like to see the surfer's eyes, both feet and both hands in a photo, whenever possible.
