A couple days ago, the north shore was firing! 5-8ft waves were on the forecast but the ocean had different plans for us that day. This was the first time I’ve experienced the power of a large wave. I swam out and there were roughly 10 surfers in the lineup. After finally swimming out to them, I started taking photos of the waves and some nearby turtles. That’s when I noticed everyone was paddling straight out. I knew this meant that an outside set was about to clean us up, and I kicked as fast as I could to beat it, but I wasn’t fast enough. That sonmgun had so much power that I couldn’t dive deep enough to avoid it. I went straight down to the bottom, got picked back up, and then rag dolled like I was a quarter in a washing machine. About 20 seconds had passed which felt like 2 minutes. I came up to the surface, gasped for air, and then took a nice shampooing to the face of the wave behind it. Round 2 was no weaker than round 1, and boy was she just as brutal. At this point all I was telling myself was to stay calm and lower my heart rate to conserve oxygen. My emotions took over and I began to panic. I’m sure if someone was out there to take my photo I would’ve looked like a 3 year old kid who dropped his ice cream cone. Then the third wave built up like an evil mountain of energy. As she came crashing down, I gave up. I almost let go of my camera in hopes to swim with my arms as well, but thankfully it was tied to me. I didn’t care about anything in that moment other than my burning lungs. The yin and yang of the whole situation was a dark sense of relief as I let go. My body was no longer in my control and the panic started to dissipate as oxygen filled my lungs. I realized I was not ready for these waves and they broke me mentally. After swimming back to the beach and giving the ocean her water back, I felt inadequate to call myself a surf photographer. A couple hours go by, and I am looking through my camera. All I see are your average photos that are throw aways. Then I’m scrolling along and find one sequence of a surfer that is half way decent. That’s when I found this image and my whole day was made.

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW