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The epic swell brought by Hurricane Marie created a playground for some surfers, while for others - well you could see it in their eyes as they straggled back to the beach. The inner dialogue going on in their heads as they clutched the pieces of what were left of their boards. Many felt like they had come just a little too close to not making it back at all. To say the least, most surfers felt a little humbled that day. Sure, the Laird Hamiltons of this world were shooting the pier on 18-foot faces, but for mere mortals, the average Joe, it was more a question of pure survival.

As a surfer, and as a photographer, recording the drama of that day made my own pulse pound with the fear and adrenaline that these surfers were all experiencing as they desperately tried to make it out past the giant waves that were “drilling” them into the rock and sand at the bottom of the ocean. Feeling like a building has just collapsed on you. You struggle to make it to the surface to get a gulp of air before the next giant wave crashes down on your head, slamming you
again to the bottom, holding you down while you fight desperately to try to make it to the surface for another breath. The dreaded “tombstone” seen in some of my shots is one of those surfers
being held down by a breaking wave while his leash remains attached to his ankle and his board. The board floats somewhere above his head, sticking straight up out of the water, and in some cases when the leash is snagged on either rocks or coral, if the surfer can’t free himself he drowns.

By choosing the black and white “film noir” treatment for the Hurricane Marie series, I threw the focus of the action on the overwhelming architecture of the giant waves, and how they dwarfed and minimized the puny humans that dared to play upon their surface. In many of the images, there are just as many surfers desperately paddling back toward the beach as there are those struggling to get past the breaking waves in order to get that ride of a lifetime. Yes, there are
bigger waves that are ridden throughout the world, but Malibu’s “Big Wednesday”, as it would later become known, was something very special. Surfers from all over the world flew in to ride those waves, and photographs taken from the vantage of the cliff tops showed the incredible multi wave sets looking like corduroy stretching out past the horizon as they wrapped around Malibu’s iconic pier. Some of the pier’s piles were torn loose at their base, rocking back and forth like pendulums on a clock. Time was indeed ticking by - one surfer lost his life that day. This series is dedicated to all those average guys, the ones who had the courage to paddle out, or the insanity, depending on your point of view.

Photography Gallery
Oct 3rd - Oct 25th 2025
Reception: Sun May 19th 2-4pm

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