Tucker Wooding is as good as they get when it comes to drone videography in the big wave scene. If you’re lucky enough to scroll by a clip of his on social media you can’t help but stop and appreciate his unique style, which combines some strong piloting skills with composing shots you feel like you don’t find anywhere else. Yes, plenty of people fly drones over lineups. But Wooding has a touch that stands out. You just know it when you see it.
Funny enough, his style is partially a product of trying to stay out of the way and respecting others — surfers, obviously, but also the photographers who are shooting from land.
“I see a lot of shots that just get butchered because there’s a drone in it, like right in front of the wave,” he told The Inertia last winter. “It can look good, maybe as something unique, but it would suck if there are drones in every (shot). I want to be respectful of those guys that have been here, so I do my best to shoot at an elevation where they can’t see or from the side, find different angles, and just be there at the right time.”
Wherever Tucker’s style comes from, it’s working. Expect this coming big wave season to be one filled with a lot of gems from the commercial fisherman who moonlights as one of the best drone videographers in the game. El Niño should provide us with a busy winter and for Wooding that may mean a lot of bouncing around between the North Shore, California, Maui, Europe…you get the picture. And opening day(s) at Jaws and Maverick’s threw him right into the routine earlier this month. He caught the action at Pe’ahi on its opening day and squeezed as much as he could out of the same swell on the California side of the Pacific.
“The same swell that hit Jaws hit Maverick’s in Half Moon Bay,” he points out. So he did exactly what he does best and “took the redeye from Hawaii to California to chase it.”
