Ah, summer. Photo: Alex Godek
Hurricane Cristobal popped up on Swell Info and Surfline and we were pumped. After a great summer of waves, we had one more swell to finish off the summer of 2014 the right way. I didn’t realize that this would be one of the best swells that I have ever seen at the Jersey Shore.
That morning, we all woke up at 4:45 AM and went down to the beach. The water was dirty with head-high closeouts. We then decided to go home and get our stuff and wait at the beach until it got good. Around 9:00 AM, the water turned into a beautiful greenish-blue color with perfect, hollow, glassy rights screaming down the beach. The waves were steep, heavy, and the sets came in quickly. The lineup was loaded with surfers and they were dropping in, getting covered up and shooting out of some of the best barrels that I have ever seen.
Stoked, I swam out with my friends and got into position. After that, I heard the lifeguards whistling and pointing at me. Debating it, I swam in because I did not want to get kicked off the beach. I went up to the lifeguard on the ATV and he said, “What do you think you are out there?” I told him that I am a surf photographer and a junior lifeguard. He then radioed in to the tower and asked if I was capable of being in the heavy surf. Then over the radio I heard, “He is good, let him go out.”
Stoked, I swam back out and got into position. Then a head-high, perfect set came in. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. I pushed down the trigger on my SPL and shot this wave. A perfect right coming through and I was able to capture it completely. The lighting was perfect and the jetty, the beach, the people, and the houses were perfectly balanced. The camera I used was a Nikon D7000, 10.5 mm Nikon Fish Eye Lens, and my SPL water housing. This is one of my favorite shots from the summer of 2014.
