I know it’s not everyones cup of tea, but I always enjoy hearing background stories to photos and video that I see. Probably why I often try to include fun facts, relevant stories or perspective shifting commentary along with my work as well. I figure that if a person is not into reading lengthy extras, their eyes won’t even land on the writing in my captions and hence, I won’t “hold them up”, “bore them” etc…which makes for the perfect lead in, to one of those longer stories.

Yesterday, I was on the now infamous social media platform, Instagram. My eyes soon landed on a mid 1990’s image of pipeline posted by Woody Woodworth (@woodywaveswoodworth). I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting Woody, but have recently reached out to him on Social Media since I love his work, and would enjoy hearing about his surf adventures. I let him know that I’d love to “talk story” anytime we could link up(and it’s why I titled this post as I did). I also essentially worked as an independent contractor for the guy, because I can’t tell you how many customers I sold a “California Classics” poster, while working in surf shops throughout my life. Anyways, back to the Pipeline image Woody posted. This image had been burned into my mind at a young age, and here it was…some 20+ years later, attached with an awesome background story by the person who took it, Woody himself. I found the caption very intriguing, and felt that it gave me an even deeper attachment to the photo than I already had. I enjoyed it so much that I’ve included a link to the instagram post itself here: @woodywaveswoodworth as well as included the caption literature below.

“Been thinking about this shot after seeing so many awesome Pipe shots from this winter.
Today it showed up on @oldsurfermagswith my story about it when it was published in @surfersjournal back in 1996.

I thought the shot was a bit dark, so here it is with some adjustments.

The Caption Read: “I don’t go to Hawaii that often, this was only the second time in 23 years. My goal was to get dreamy backlit Pipe. When you’re 43 and watching low tide, third reef Pipe washing all the way in, the vision blurs a bit. But I made it out one armed (the other carrying the 7 pound water housing camera), rested outside, then moved in. The next thing I know, @rizaltandjung took off (7 shot sequence: Surfing Magazine Cover June 1995) , then @stridersworld (5 shots, # 3 shown), then @liam__mcnamara (10 shots). The roll was done (near end) and I swam in, mission accomplished!”
Photo and caption by Woody Woodworth in @surfersjournal, 1996

REMEMBER ALWAYS
“Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by those moments that take our breath away. George Carlin””.

It got my mind thinking so many different thoughts. “I don’t go to Hawaii very frequently either”, “What a stud…3rd reef pipe…one roll of film…and he banked all that!…WOW”, “I wonder how much money he’s made off that one roll of film?”, “I wonder if he had to haggle with magazines forever to get his money back then too?”, “look at Strider!”, “I’m 37…I wonder if I’ll swim 3rd reef pipe by the time I’m 43?” and so on. I mean…it really got me thinking. When I finally controlled my wandering mind, I got back to a business plan I’ve been working on and proceeded to do an all nighter. At about 6 yesterday morning I came to a good stopping point and proceeded to do a social media post before trying to catch a few hour nap. For some reason I chose to post a recent image of the Golden Gate bridge. I was super tired and admittedly hurried my caption so I could get to bed asap. It simply read “Left in the dark. Bridge in the light.” and I have included a link to it here @whattheschnell . When I awoke a few hours later, Woody had ironically left a comment on the photo, politely saying something to the affect of “for a guy who hounds me to talk story…you sure don’t put much story out there yourself”. I could only respond with a touché like comment and promise better in the future. So instead of simply re-editing the caption of my prior post, I’ve decided to share a different image of the Golden Gate, that wound up being a bit more important to me as a photographer…and “do better” by sharing a story about my adventure that day.

During late January, California experienced a weather phenomena that stacked three storm systems, back to back to back, and aimed the swell generated by them straight for our shores. Having studied meteorology, I was super excited about predictions for a specific window of time on January 21st and wanted to take advantage of the uncommon conditions, accentuating one of the most fickle, temperamental spots the state has to offer. Although difficult in almost every facet of the word, I find it one of the most beautiful anomalies in the surfing world. My goal this day was simply to produce a fresh look at something we’ve all seen a million times. Everything wound up transpiring exactly as predicted and I spent four, magical hours, checking off angles on my shot list. The double to triple overhead sets were arriving with lots of momentum and gaining extra power as they interacted with the rapidly dropping tide. Now I know Woody sacked up and swam out at third reef pipe in his story…but I’d venture to say that in a different way, swimming would be impossible,  or at the very least, extremely dim witted to have tried in the conditions. So I played it safe(a.k.a. pussed out) and began moving to several locations that I had wanted to shoot from land. I proceeded to rack up somewhere around a thousand photographs(I think Woody may have just puked in his mouth…) and was super amped on the dark contrasting mood that the weather had provided. I would pay money to go back to that day and get the chance to shoot just one roll of film like WW, but I just don’t know how to make that happen. Anyways, of the one thousand images I shot that day, this photo happened to be the first image I ever had utilized by SURFER magazine. To get the shot, I entered the Fort and went to the second floor, where I proceeded to frame the shot and wait for a set. I was really happy with the shot, but would add a person for scale if I could, as the wave size looks so much more impressive in the photos I captured with surfers in them. Anyhow, SURFER magazine used it for Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram etc…and if I ever get paid for it, I stand to make $20 USD. We’ll have to see if Woody will share how much he made off of his cover shot. My guess is, that even if he paid for the film and processing…his results will make my stock look like the most volatile, penny stock the NYSE has never wanted to see.

Image shot on a Canon 7Dii using the crap 18-55mm kit lens. EXP 1/400 F8 ISO 200 Focal Length 29mm