The first time I tried in-water surf photography, I was on vacation in Hawaii. I’d just bought a new housing for my full frame Sony A7iii and was stoked to get out into warm water to test the new gear. I had a blast during my first session, but my new fins HURT!
I have an extremely wide toe box, and I found myself cramping like crazy. So, the next morning I found a shop that rented fins for $3 a pair, and I rented all 6 pair that felt like they might work well for me. At the end of the day, I bought the pair that felt the best and thought I was finally done with that part of my journey.
Unfortunately, despite being better than my prior fins, they still squeezed my feet and I found myself cramping badly during a few big days at Steamer Lane here in Santa Cruz, California. The Lane is a super fun spot and amazingly photogenic, with a constant stream of preposterously talented surfers and beautiful cliff walls in the background. But the cliff walls wrap all the way around, meaning if you find yourself caught getting thrashed by a set of double-overhead waves and you’re in the middle of insane Charlie horse style cramping, you might, you know… die!
I managed to make it out, but not without a bunch of people on the cliffs above watching and yelling as they watched me in actual danger of not making it out of that session alive. As I came up to the top of the stairs after the session, I saw an old-time surf photographer watching the waves. He looked at me, looked at my fins, and simply asked, “do your calves cramp out there?”
I said yes, he told me about Force Fins, and the rest is history. I bought a pair that week and never looked back.
I’ll never forget the first time I went out with them. The current was strong that day, and as I started swimming against it, I was just… confused! I was confused because I could see the water moving in the opposite direction I was swimming. With all the other fins I’d ever tried, on a day with that strong of a current, it would feel like I was barely moving against the current. But even on that first session, I suddenly felt and so clearly saw that I was moving through the water more quickly than I ever had before, and with considerably less effort. It was amazing!
I’ve had a lot of amazing experiences in my Force Fins, and plenty of moments where I was very grateful to have them in sketchy big-surf conditions. But I’ll never forget the scariest, which was when I got a gig with United Airlines to fly to Honolulu to shoot their anniversary flight and tacked on a few days extra to shoot the surf there.
In an amazing coincidence, my seat on the flight was next to… a surf photographer! He lived in Honolulu, and by the time we landed, we’d sealed plans to meet up the next day at dawn and get out to shoot at Bowls.
He picked me up the next morning and drove us to the spot, and when we got there and he pointed out the waves in the distance, I realized we had a solid 20 – 30 minute swim just to get out there!
That morning when I woke up I’d checked the surf forecast and it said 6 – 10 feet. Then as we arrived there we checked again, and it said 8 – 12. Well, we were there, so out we swam….
Swimming out indeed took quite a while, but the water was warm unlike here in Santa Cruz, the sky was blue, and I was full of energy, excited to shoot a killer spot full of shredding locals on a big day with a gorgeous sky.
When we finally made it out to the spot, I was just blown away. The waves were easily double overhead, and every one of the roughly 10 surfers out there was just absolutely tearing it up! I got some fun shots, though I stayed a bit further out than normal, as I was nervous about the big waves, intense currents, and shallow, sharp reef.
We were having a blast and I was starting to feel realy comfortable and getting ready to get closer to the break to get some better shots when suddenly I heard someone yell at the top of their voice, “OUTSIDE! Everyone, OUTSIDE, go go GO!!!”
I looked out and… shit… I saw a massive set coming at us, a solid 50 meters or so further out than every set that had come for the past hour. I started swimming as fast as I possibly could, though I knew I wouldn’t make it, nor, looking around, would a single surfer out there.
As the monster wave approached, I dove as deep as I could, keeping my hand out in front of me to protect myself from swimming full speed into the razor sharp reef. I got lucky on that first wave, staying close to the bottom, kicking like hell with my Force Fins to gather as much speed as possible against the direction of the wave.
Finally, it was right over me, and while I didn’t make it smoothly past it no matter how deep I was, the washing-machine experience wasn’t too bad. I got thrashed around a bit, looked up and found the light, and swam toward it.
As I came to the surface, I looked out and saw another monster wave coming right at me. I dove again, but this time there was shallower reef so I couldn’t get deeper, so I just swam straight toward it, praying I’d make it through. I didn’t, but I did have enough speed to only get a semi-intense thrashing.
It was a huge, powerful set – 7 beasts in a row just tearing through the ocean on a rampage. Each time I came up I was more out of breath, and just focused on staying calm and kicking with as much power as possible without wasting unnecessary energy. At that moment I could feel my fins and the speed I was able to gather.
But unfortunately, there were not only two waves in that set. Nor were there only 3, or 4, or 5, or 6. It was a huge, powerful set – 7 beasts in a row just tearing through the ocean on a rampage. Each time I came up I was more out of breath, and just focused on staying calm and kicking with as much power as possible without wasting unnecessary energy. At that moment I could feel my fins and the speed I was able to gather. While I got my ass handed to me 7 waves in a row, it was definitely not as bad as it could have been, and that was a good thing, since I honestly started to wonder if I was going to actually drown on the last two waves…
Finally, after the 7th wave, I came up and looked out with fear in my heart, but the ocean was flat, as if the monster set had been simply a figment of my imagination. But I knew it hadn’t been, as I heard all the surfers coming up and calling out to each other, making sure everyone was safe. They were all over the place, as they’d been pulled even harder than us, due to the waves grabbing their leashes like handles and thrashing them to no end underwater.
Less than a minute later, two lifeguards sped over on jet skis to check on everyone. They came to me and the other surf photographer first, since we didn’t have boards to hold onto to float, and I said I was ok. Then the other photographer said, “We’re ok, we’re safe. But… if you are offering us a ride in, we wouldn’t say no…”
The guards told us to hop on, so we did, and then they took off! I can’t decide, until this day, what caused me to feel more adrenaline – the 7 waves that had just nearly drowned me, or the 60 second ride back to shore, with the lifeguards clearly enjoying giving us a bit of a ride and a show – speeding right up and then just cruising literally along the top of 10 – 12 foot waves, then dashing back down the face as if they were surfing the waves themselves with us hanging on for dear life from the rescue sleds dragged behind.
We got to shore and spent a while just lying in the sand, stunned by what we’d just experienced. It’d been hairy as hell, and I never wanted to have an experience like it ever again.
But I was safe. And I got some great photos. And I’ll never use anything but Force Fins ever again.