Remington pulls into a frigid, square barrel. Photo: Denny.
Ocean City, Maryland, is mostly known for summer time activities that methodically revolve around Thrasher’s French Fries, neon t-shirts, The Dew Tour, boardwalk games that yield oversized stuffed pets, cruiser week, bike week, import week, drunken bus rides and forgettable nights at Seacrets. If that’s the Ocean City you know, then you will be the first to claim that there are no waves. Well then, my trans-fat induced friend, here is the other side of the Ocean City, Maryland, story.
The change in the ocean that occurs with the change of the season is as prominent as the change from packed-house summer crowds to winter’s stillness and solitude. When the crowds leave, the sun becomes long in the sky, the temperatures drop and the swell comes up, there is a community of local surfers who head towards the ocean. Two pieces to that puzzle are Nick Denny and Waldon Remington.
Photographer/surfer Nick Denny has been gaining significant traction within the surf photography community since the fall of 2011. Although he’s been at it a lot longer than that, type in “Hurricane Sandy” in any search engine and you’re sure to find some of his work. Whether Denny’s on the beach in below freezing temps or swimming with his water housing in the deep, dark depths of February and March, he’s shooting with Waldon Remington. Remington is a locally grown surfer, known for powerful all around surfing in any condition. Both are two of the best people you could meet, it only gets sweeter as you realize how good they are at their craft.
I was able to chat with Denny and Remington about surfing’s influence on them and about surfing (and suffering) through the winter months in the forgotten Mid-Altantic region.
Denny first became attracted to photography through his family; he was practically born to be a photographer. “My grandfather and uncle were really big into photography. My grandmothers were obsessive about taking and giving pictures,” he remembers. “So I always had little cameras throughout my whole life.” Photography’s influence on Denny became more profound when he added his love of surfing to it.
During the time when Denny was developing his craft of surf photography, he was offered a position at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory as assistant photographer with a dreamy starting salary.
“It was a legit job. Locked down. Columbia [MD]. 9-5. No ocean, couldn’t surf… and I turned it down,” said Denny. A decision that would ultimately decide which way photography was going to take him – a professional career or a risky struggle. “It took me a month to figure it out. I said, ‘No I’m not doing this, I’m going to the beach and I’m going to get barreled.'”
As many central Maryland 20-somethings do, Denny headed to the beaches of Delmarva for the summer. Among the hazy summertime festivities, a semi-acquaintance of Denny’s left a low quality point and shoot camera. “With that point and shoot, I shot midtown OC and surfed there by myself all winter. I would tell friends back home that the waves were awesome, but no one believed me. So I took pictures with that shitty point and shoot to show them.” That shitty point and shoot quickly progressed to a handheld, then DSLR and on and on, “I didn’t even put my name on my pictures for five or six years. I was hoarding them,” Denny concludes. In 2006, Denny broke his ribs which kept him out of the water for some time. It was then he started to develop and refine his trade, gaining heavy traction within the local Delmarva surf community. Cue Remington.
When you meet Remington, he’ll most likely be wearing a tank top as some layer of clothing and always greeted with an energetic and enthusiastic “What’s Up!” Remington accrued a BS in biology, and flirted with a chem degree from Salisbury University. He also has a few jujitsu tournament championships. However, Remington is known for dropping into cold, spooky barrels that most surfers won’t suit up for. If it’s overhead and puking square barrels, you’ll be sure to find Remington’s face in the crowd of a few. Remington has spent long cold hours in the water; his skill, hard work and passion is evident when the conditions turn on.
