Behind the curtain of surfing’s most exclusive photo booth

Text by Nathan Myers
Photos by MASTER/Lewhs.com

Before the photographer hands me his camera, he drools saliva all over the lens.
“Sorry,” he says. “But I don’t want your juices mixing up with mine.”
Like a dog marking his territory, he’s reminding me I’m about to swim US$10,000 of his livelihood into a worst-case scenario. Water. Salt. Turbulence. Jagged reef and fast moving projectiles. The tiniest mistake could injure me; injure someone else, and worst of all, damage the equipment.
“Pay attention,” he says, dialing in the settings on his MarkV Canon camera too fast for me to see. “And don’t print these setting in your magazine. People should figure it out on their own.”

We test the camera. Format the cards. Double-check the batteries. Wipe down the lenses. Double-check the settings.
The water housing is custom built for the camera. Lightweight, watertight and very tough. He handles it like a fragile egg. The camera sits in a padded mount. A line connects the pistol grip trigger to the camera inside. “Squeeze don’t pull,” he says, “just like a real gun.”
The front is a clear, plexi-glass plate, domed to accommodate the fish-eye lens. A perimeter of tiny bolts secures the plate to the housing against a rubber seal. The slightest leak ruins everything. The back of the housing is clear, but don’t bother looking through it.

“You’ve got to get close,” he says. “Scary close. You should wear this helmet.” I put the helmet on, feeling dorky. There are already three photogs in the lineup.
One might assume someone’s getting paid well to do this. Nu-uh. Water photographers are surfing’s great starving artists…chasing the same stoke as the guy in the barrel. A sublime vision. An unexplainable feeling. A perfect, fleeting moment that never goes away.

Maybe that’s why photographers are such wing-nuts. It takes a special breed. Dyslexic. Antagonistic. Passive aggressive. ADD. Like caricatures of various social disorders, the better the shooter, the bigger the issues. Sounds rude, but I’m sure they’d agree. Photographers are all a little kooky.
Just don’t ask for examples.
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