Surfing
The terrifying moments of night photography
“We thought it was only four foot, but then the sun came up…”
“This was a couple months after our first shoot with the lights. We saw a big swell pop up and knew just where we wanted to go – a couple of my favourite slabs south of home. For years these waves have been our go-to spots, and I’d always wondered what the fringes of the day could look like with some illumination. This was our chance to find out.”
Welcome to Edition Two of The Lengths We Go, a night photo series shot by Steve Wall for Red Bull. For the next few months, Steve is going to take us through some of the heaviest situations he’s gotten himself into, all in the name of getting the shot. From broken down jet skis in the middle of an open ocean swell, to finding himself in the impact zone of a 20-foot slab, Steve’s done it all. And there are the moments he remembers most.
An offshore breeze glowing in the darkness
© Steve Wall
“As per usual, we met two hours before sunrise and set everything up. It was a classic gloomy winter morning down the coast, and we knew we wouldn’t come across many others on the same program. Or any.
“It’s always super exciting when you get all your equipment sorted – everything is running on time and you can just go out and focus on getting the shot. Over the first couple of night shoots we did, we were constantly dealing with on-the-fly tech problems, cables and connectors breaking, or even just falling apart and into the sea. Tying this stuff down to the back of a ski and burning through the open ocean is a pretty challenging environment for delicate photographic equipment to work.
“We got a little bit too keen on this particular morning. It was still pitch black, so we sat a safe distance from the wave in question – we could just barely see (and hear) the explosions back-spitting off the rock ledge. Dom Dixon (lighting assistant, on the ski with me) said ‘Dude, it’s only like, four foot’ – and for a second I believed it. But then I realized we were so far away from the wave that it looked calm. It was one of those days where you knew it was going to take a while to get light.
About as close to the shoulder as you can get
© Steve Wall
“As sunrise approached we crept closer to the reef to figure out what was going on. This particular wave breaks off a little finger of rock with deep water on every side, except for where you end up if you don’t make one – which is pretty much dry reef. To get in the sweet spot here on the ski, you’re basically sitting on the corner of the dry reef and seeing how late you can hang in there before you get caught by the end of the closeout. You want to be on your game, as it’s not going to end well for man nor machine if you misjudge one here.
“The waves were actually bigger than we expected. It was solid 6-8 foot, with the odd bigger wash-through cleaning up the whole reef. It felt like it took forever to actually get light, with a couple of passing storm fronts coming in and raining on the parade briefly. We actually shot with the lights for nearly two hours. And anybody who has tried their hand at flash photography in the water knows… that’s a very long time for the light to still be making an impact, as the sun comes up and everything becomes bright.
“We banked a couple of pretty cool empties amongst all the rogue sets, and then called it a day and continued on our way. This was a epic way to start what turned out to be a three-surf day!”
And then, dawn is broken
© Steve Wall
Get more moments from the mind of Steve Wall, in the next edition of The Lengths We Go, coming soon.