Fishermen know the ocean as well as any of us. They understand the nuances of tide, current, and wind. That’s why often, fishermen make great surfers. Or surf image makers. Such is the case with Tucker Wooding, a commercial fisherman in the summer (he actually owns and runs his own boat), and a videographer and drone pilot in the winter.
“I love fishing,” he told The Inertia. “It allows me to do things that I probably wouldn’t have had opportunities to do, like getting into filming. You can start off by filming on a budget, but for the most part it’s a lot of money to travel and camera gear is expensive, so having fishing makes it all work and I think it will always be my main thing. But if filming were to take off in a different way, then I’d have to think about it.”
So, you probably heard about the mega swell that first lit up the Hawaiian Islands this winter, then blew up Cortes Banks during its march through the Pacific Ocean? Well, Tucker was there to capture it. And his work is gorgeous, as you can see above. In fact, he was basically all the places at once during this particular swell.
“I actually filmed a couple days before at Jaws,” he wrote, “then went off to chase the same swell! I took the red eye after to make it on the trip to Cortes. We left San Diego Thursday Night and got to Cortes early Friday morning. Surfed from morning to about 3:00 p.m., and then headed back to San Diego and got back early Saturday morning. It was a quick and precise trip. One that I will always remember!”
Sounds like he isn’t the only one. The session was apparently filmed for HBO’s 100 Foot Wave, and the trip’s organizer, Bill Sharp, a big-wave promoter, writer, editor, and producer, who has appeared on the show, called it “The Greatest Surf Trip of All Time.” Wooding’s work definitely makes it look pretty damn good.
