(whooshing)
(soft music)
(waves crashing)
(pounding drum music)
- So I'm just gonna show you
how I put my NikonD4S
into AquaTech housing.
So here's the guide track here.
You can actually change this camera
from a Nikon to a Canon,
that's kind of a neat,
flexible thing that you
can't do with other housings.
Four clips are very easy,
you don't have to worry
about having the wing nuts.
Top is focus, bottom is release.
And you can change settings in the back,
you can look at images, you can
set your ISO, change things,
it's just nice to have the
flexibility of doing that.
It's fast, I mean, if the waves are good,
I don't want to be screwing around
with trying to put everything together.
(drum music)
(waves roaring)
(rock guitar music)
It's breaking on the dry sand,
so there's no fins required.
It just, all the water
comes and just throws,
heaves right onto the dry sand.
So we're down there,
we basically lie flat,
stick the camera up, try
to capture video and stills
as it's blowing over and sand's exploding
and going in every crevice.
I think them are barrels!
That is easier than getting, jumping in
when it doesn't break
and it just blows you up.
You can sometimes sneak under, and boom,
and it's not as bad.
I always enjoy the ride,
even when it's flat,
just the jump in the
saltwater is therapeutic
and it's a rush.
It's enough to me to run down there
and at least do a cartwheel.
Keiki is always gonna have the final say.
You can't disrespect this place.
I think it's, to me,
it's the gnarliest shorebreak
in the world by far.
It's like right, you know?
Needs to be a little bigger.
Like they're coming, so it
makes you want to jump in,
like this one might have, might.
I'm gonna go, you might see
me do the same cartwheel.
Maybe the second one might have.
Yeah, if you're not
passionate about shorebreak
you won't put in the time to get the shot.
Like the clouds, a
little bit of, you know,
not big enough, lot of
guys will turn around
and say, "Forget it."
Me, I'm always optimistic
and I'm just waiting
for that next bomb.
It's right on the verge, but as it gets,
as the tide comes, oh, this
might actually a little.
See how it's trying?
When that thing curls up over, game on.
Let's just hope it does.
(rock music)
He's got a pretty good
tuck, duck and roll.
And he's a good kid.
Awesome kid, always shows up.
Good ethics.
I like him.
(waves crashing)
It's good, it's juicy,
it's thick, it's powerful.
(rock music)
Woo!
Woo!
He took off, and then just got worked.
(rock music)
- Woo!
(waves crashing)
- No!
(waves crashing)
(water gurgling)
(driving rock music)
(water gurgling)
Go, go, go!
(waves crashing)
(yelling and laughing)
(rock music)
Oh, what was I doing 20 years ago?
That's a good question.
Um...
I was working at Wahiawa
Botanical Garden. (laughs)
(light music)
I surfed a lot of the shorebreak.
It was just, photography, it
came out of sort of nowhere,
but I didn't know I had that eye
to capture art of waves,
or turtles, or dolphins,
or kind of like a gut thing, some passion,
I just started to upload
what I felt was worthy,
what I felt was interesting and cool.
And it struck a nerve and it
turned into a full time career.
You wanna hold this?
I need my coffee.
I can't forget my coffee.
Be right back.
- I remember the first time
I saw one of Clark's images.
I didn't know it was his at first.
Somebody gave me a postcard
and asked if I could guess
where the barrel was.
And I was looking, I was
pretty sure it was Waimea,
but it definitely had a unique feel to it.
And it wasn't a very safe feel,
it was something about that position,
anybody grows up body surfing,
in big shorebreaks sometimes you just,
there's a certain place
you don't want to be.
- I'm excited to get out there.
- And that's where the photo
was taken from, you know,
it was this image where it's,
it gave you that feeling when you looked
that you're about to get worked.
- I think it's gonna be fun.
I'm stoked, let's go.
- And I flipped it over, and sure enough
it was Clark Little, and it
all made sense just because
if you've seen anybody take a beating
growing up on the North
Shore, it was Clark.
- It's perfect and then uh,
it's gonna be epic out
there, too, holy moley.
- Those days where it was
too big for us to go out
and you just see this guy
dropping in on a surfboard.
- Wanna make sure, I don't want, you know,
sound like I'm a flake,
but 9:30 at the latest, I'll be there.
- Sometimes make it to
the bottom, sometimes not,
and just going back over the falls
or having a lip land on his head.
- All right, brother, take care.
- [Voiceover] All right.
- Shoots, aloha, bye, bye.
Yeah, we're on it.
So that's the okay, we're
gonna get double dip, dude.
- I mean, every once in
a while he'd get pretty,
a pretty good barrel, but most of the time
you'd just see him get worked.
(heavy bass music)
(wave crashing)
(yelling)
(water gurgling)
- On a good day at Keiki I go out probably
five to six hours.
Two, sometimes three sessions.
Morning time I'll go out three
hours, ish, sometimes four.
I'll go back out for an
afternoon, evening session
for another hour or two, and
then sometimes with a flash
for another half hour.
That's pretty much on the golden day,
and I'll shoot anywhere from
probably 1,500 to 3,000 photos max.
So we're talking heaps of gigabytes
that I gotta go through,
and when the waves are
good, sometimes I do that
for a whole day, then I
wake up in the morning,
and then I, the waves are perfect,
and I gotta go right back out there.
(water gurgling)
When Mother Nature's
delivering perfect waves,
you have to strike.
You have to strike while the iron's hot,
or you're gonna miss it.
You can always go back, summertime,
plenty of time to just
go back and edit files.
And that's pretty much what I do.
I take my time when it's time to relax,
and when the waves are pumping,
I'm out there shooting.
(whooshing)
Well, usually I take my kids to school,
have all my camera gear inside my truck,
head straight to Keiki
to Mark's house, pull up.
Flynn's there, JMV, J. Lau,
Dray, Seabass, all the boys,
and we just get together on the beach.
If it's pumping, we say,
"Ah, this section's good,"
or, "This side's good,"
and boom, we all hit it.
I mean, it's, honestly, I
get super excited for it.
I mean the night before
we're texting each other,
"Hey, yeah, it's gonna be good here,
"it's gonna be good there.
"Conditions, the winds,
oh no, too much north,
"too much west," you know, direction and
there's so many different things
that have to come together
for that perfect wave,
and we're chasing it.
Because, honestly, it's
super, super fun and addicting
in a positive way.
Yeah, the crew that we
have right now is insane.
You know, we got a great group of guys
that go out actually will take off
on the biggest shorebreak waves,
even sometimes not
ride-able, and they still go,
and so for me, it's fun.
I mean, honestly, I
scream at 'em, I tell 'em,
"Go, go you..."
'Cause I want to get somebody, a subject
where they're going over the falls
or they make it, it looks so darn radical,
you know, I mean these
guys are getting launched
in 10, 12 foot shorebreak waves
and I'm just like this,
watching, following them over.
Boom!
I love it, I get excited.
You know, rain or shine, I'm out there.
(rock guitar music)
I am a nature freak,
or I am a nature enthusiast.
My dad has always been a
plant guy doing plumerias.
He sells plumeria cuttings,
rare hybrid plumeria cuttings.
So I've always followed in his footsteps,
I've had a green thumb,
that's why I got a job
at a botanical garden
because I am knowledgeable about plants.
It was probably the best
job I could have had
city and county, all the
benefits, medical, dental,
the whole nine yards,
until the photography job came up.
(electric guitar music)
It's been raining, I think
yesterday was raining
or the day before.
Sun's out.
I guarantee the waves are
kind of dropping into a place
where it's gonna be fun,
comfortable, clean, and perfect.
Today we're gonna focus on vortexes,
we're gonna focus on going underwater
and getting the tube
tornado-looking barrels underwater.
You know, everybody used to
shoot the backs of the waves,
which is cool, really neat to see,
the back of the barrel and stuff,
but not until you get caught
inside, open your eyes
and this wave, 'cause you're
gonna get basically blasted.
If you're gonna shoot
a really cool vortex,
you gotta get hit straight on by the wave,
because that's how it
forms, from the front,
not the back, the front.
Waves breaking, they're coming at you
so you don't want to go like this
because it'll crack your head.
You want to put the housing on the side
when you shoot vortexes
'cause the wave's gonna come
and it's just gonna mow you over.
If you have it on the side
and you gotta make sure
your angle's right.
It's neat to show people,
'cause a lot of people
don't want to get caught inside,
but if you do get caught inside
and you face the shorebreak wave,
it'll do these crazy things,
and I'm trying to capture it,
and I think today is
gonna be a really good day
for the vortexes because
of the clarity, number one,
the sun is shining, and there's waves.
So that's what I'm looking for
and I think we're gonna nail it today.
(upbeat music)
Conditions are clean.
It's good, it's coming down,
which means it's not gonna
be real good for subject
guys boogie boarding and stuff,
but it's gonna be insane
for underwater photography.
(wave crashing)
(electric guitar music)
Chaste, clean water.
There's milk always on two sides
where the rip gets sucked out.
You go in the middle where that
clarity and clean water is,
you always gotta swim
and find the clean spots,
'cause that's when you're
gonna get that clean open wave.
We got a clear, super
clear spot right now.
If you can look, it's
like see-through blue.
There was some three foot, four foot sets,
like crystal clear texture of the water.
The wind blowing straight off shore.
It was magic.
Rosa, Tharin, bald head Rosa.
We got a lot of them.
JMV, Tharin.
- [Bald Guy] Bald Brothers.
- Oh, Junior.
We're gonna get action
right now, um, ready?
A little underwater right now.
We were out there for three hours
with perfect conditions.
You know, and a three hour
drive all the way out here,
makes it worth it, so I can't wait
to get back on the
computer, check 'em out,
look at the footage, and
see what kind of goods
that we can put in the gallery.
Let other people see the beauty.
When the waves are junk, or onshore,
gives me time to go on my
computer and get my stuff done.
Yeah, I shoot thousands of
photos sometimes in a day,
and then video, probably
16 gigabytes, 32, whatever.
So there's a lot of work behind the scenes
that I gotta do, and that's why it's nice
when it's onshore ugly so I can catch up
on all the things I need to do.
(building music)
My wife came home with
a picture of a wave,
and I said, "Honey, what are you doing
"buying a picture of a wave?
"I've surfed the shorebreak all my life,
"I can get a picture like that."
That's the true beginning,
it struck a nerve in me,
going, "Honey, I'm
gonna get that picture."
That's seriously how it all started,
is my wife brought a
picture home of a wave
and I told her, "What are
you spending money on that?
"I'm gonna go out there, I'm
gonna get a killer picture
"from inside the tube."
This was shot from the beach.
"I wanna get one inside the barrel
"showing the mean power, raw
beauty of this wave breaking."
I had a small camera, an
SD500, with $150 housing
I bought on amazon.com, and I went out,
I started taking one picture at a time.
In big shorebreak, and
people are wondering,
"What the heck is this guy doing?"
No one was doing it.
No one was shooting shorebreak.
Just shorebreak, waves.
They were all shooting Pipeline.
They were shooting
backdoor, they were trying
to get the cover shot for Surfer
magazine, Surfing magazine.
I thought, I love shorebreak,
I used to surf the shorebreak,
that's my comfort zone, that's
where I'm gonna go play.
So I started playing,
and I started taking
pictures and I shared it
with my brother, I shared it with my wife,
I shared it with my family.
And they're like, "Holy cow,
I've never seen that before.
"I've never seen the sand sucking up
"inside of a tube like that before."
I told my wife, "I'm gonna spend $4,000
"and get a better camera,
"a professional camera,
"and start taking photos
and seeing where it'll go."
So this is, this was
taken a few months ago.
I like the shadow line inside
here and the sand clouds
that are actually getting
sucked up in the wave.
Just makes it look more,
well, not more gnarly,
but gnarly like it should be.
Tharin Rosa shot this image.
Big large set, probably 10
foot high, got two faces.
This is about four foot
and about a 10 foot top
coming over and I love these days
'cause all the water comes
and just heaves on the sand.
And this actually is
the shot from my camera,
straight on of this wave coming in,
and it just gives you another angle,
and to go back home and
put this on the screen,
look at it and go, "Wow."
I mean, that's kind of like
the icing on the cake for me.
Chris Kinkade took a huge flat slab,
I'm trying to of course get the shot,
hold out as long as I can before I try
to sneak out the back of the wave.
I mean, honestly, I look at this and I go,
"Wow, that's like a big wall."
Wedding photography.
No, this is just two turtles, honus,
actually looking like
they're sort of, kind of,
well, I guess they are
kind of holding hands
and going for a little kiss.
It's called Honu love.
Once I went back to the
computer and looked at it,
I just, I couldn't believe it, I was like,
"Oh my gosh, look at, they're
getting ready to kiss."
It's a total keeper, and it's
one of our top sellers now.
(laughing)
I mean, this is just crazy.
So Johnny tried to take
off, and he just got,
a backwash hit, he just got lit up.
Flew way into the top of the wave,
and he's just kind of like stuck there.
And his expression kind of says it all.
And luckily I had the
flash on, so it just,
it lit him up in the face of this wave.
A little bit a luck, and
it, boom, it just came
and there it was, so it has the rainbow,
the lipline, of course the
beautiful mountains and sky.
What a magical shot, I was
totally stoked to get this shot.
I just actually put it up in the gallery.
This is a shot that JMV took.
This is a good definition of a slab,
just fat shorebreak barrel.
I'd say it's probably about
six foot thick right here
and through the top of it.
All the water is just
pushing on the shore.
Beautiful sunny day.
So this is an image called No Way Out.
And if you look way in the back there,
you can see the sand,
and in the front here,
sand from just the lip
hitting it, just blasting up.
Kinda gotta have a good
timing of closing your eyes
right before the sand
gets blasted in your eyes.
Gallery-worthy is just something tack,
for me, tack sharp, it's
clean, it's got something
that moves me.
You know, of course, this
doesn't have backdrops,
but backdrops, coconut trees, mountains.
Hawaii has everything, and I'm
just here to document it, so.
When Mother Nature is delivering,
I'm always out there trying to capture it.
This is brahddah Jesse
King, who is a lifeguard,
awesome lifeguard, and he is the dude
that was out there when
I had my first camera.
And Jesse's still around today,
charging and saving lives.
So right here, I'm in front of the wave,
not the back, the front breaks
and then it causes the turbines to spin
and it makes these crazy
round spiral things.
The air needs to go somewhere
so it makes these cool ropes.
You gotta get beat up to get this shot.
You, there's no way of making it out,
you're gonna get smashed.
Right here, reflecting, and the shoreline,
and the trees and everything
right here on the side.
Got these translucence,
I mean it almost looks
like an ice sculpture.
So this one, yeah, I was
able to reach up high
with a pole and get a different angle.
This is a shot of Flynn Novak at Keiki.
Flynn is just sneaking
right through the tube.
Just a cool perspective, different angle.
It's breathtaking. (laughs)
It is absolutely the coolest feeling
when these things come cruising by.
They're so massive, like a school bus.
I tell you, there's not much
that gets my heart pumping
like a couple whales swimming by.
Just so happens the barrel decided
to make a perfect arc
right around the sun.
There's definitely luck involved.
But you have to be there.
If you don't put yourself there,
you're not gonna get anything.
The right place at the right time, boom.
This is classic Landon McNamara
taking off, grabbing a rail on a solid
20 foot plus Waimea Bay wave,
which is just heavy, I mean,
look at the size of this thing.
It's so gnarly, and he
rode it all the way down,
he skimmed all the way across this wave.
Andre Botha, he was a two
time boogie board champ.
Charges the biggest shorebreak
waves, Pipeline, you name it.
He's a beast, he's a total
beast, and a very good guy.
Just saved a life this
year at Pipeline actually.
None other than John John Florence
doing a little Superman jump here.
So I took this from
Kathy's house on the point,
hit a bump, and poom, he got launched.
Here's Flynn again.
Just, he's tall.
This is a very big barrel and
Flynn charges the shorebreak,
you know, I give him props.
I used to do that when I was a grom
and now Flynn has been taking off
and pulling into big shorebreak waves,
that honestly most people don't wanna do.
It's called King Kamehameha.
Of course it's got the Hawaiian colors,
you know, orange and
the yellow and the reds.
But if you look close in this
shot, you can actually see
what looks like King
Kamehameha, it's got a cape,
got a pole in the back
or a spear, a helmet.
He's actually kind of like
sitting down with a spear
and his cape is right here.
I had to make a decision at one point.
And am I gonna pursue
this photography business
that I think is gonna thrive?
I had a, honestly, I didn't
have any reservations.
I was 100% confident
that this career, I felt,
this career's gonna take off.
(surf rock guitar music)
Coming in, it's just, it's all rocks,
there's no sand, and sets were just coming
it was surging, and I,
cool as I wanted to be,
or try to act, I got lit up.
Onto the rocks, boom, boom,
and I just put my hands out,
luckily my hands hit the reef.
It's gnarly, but it's
really good out there,
so I'm just gonna keep
going and keep trying.
Get something good.
Look at this wave, look,
look at that, look!
(laughs)
I want to get behind Flynn
without his board getting spray on me
as he bottom turns and pulls in.
So I could get a look from
behind him, shooting down.
I might go back and swap again
and get the little camera
'cause it's actually looking better.
In fact I might even get my D4, my tank.
Take that out.
(upbeat music)
I can't give him a complete 10,
if he totally pulled it,
I would give him a 10
but I give him a nine half, 9.75.
- But WSL, that's situational too,
so if you're surfing
a closed out beach ray
three section barrel.
- WSL they would have
frickin' gave him the rip.
I think it was insane.
- For shorebreak, that's a make.
- Hands down 10 for shorebreak.
But WSL they would have
gave him the bird, dude,
I know it.
So you know, the cool
thing about this shot is,
out of all the shots, is
it happened two hours ago.
We were actually in the water
catching these beautiful pits,
you know, big barrels, so.
It's live.
We can share it and say,
"Hey, this was from today.
"I ran, this guy holds on just for months,
"I don't know what he's doing, he's a--"
(laughing)
- [Voiceover] Everybody has a--
- I got, it has to last me through summer.
(laughs) This guy is like, "This morning."
I'm like, "No!"
- I love to get the stuff out fresh.
And I'll still hold on to some nuggets.
Honestly, we didn't
even look at the video.
Look at that, I mean, this
is pretty close to perfect.
And we haven't even touched the videos.
We got two cards of videos.
Two cards of stills that
we shot with a pole camera
and a regular housing.
So there's so much, and it
was in a two hour window.
I could sit here for the
next 24 hours and edit,
if I really wanted to, and
pull out a lot of keepers.
It was a whole new career,
something I've never done before,
nobody was doing at that
time, shooting waves,
just shorebreak waves,
empty waves, not surfers.
You know, and I went for it.
I went out at 5:30 in the morning
with a flash, and I had another
camera sitting on the beach
to trade in after I shot flash
for an hour in the morning.
Nobody around, I'd go to these spots
where no one is around, and
I would just go out there,
and I would shoot for
hours, and I'd go back out
in the afternoon, and then I'd go back out
in the evening with a flash.
So, I put in so much
time, not 'cause I had to,
'cause I wanted to.
I couldn't wait to go
home and see the shots.
(chiming music)
I took some pictures of this sunrise
with these waves backwashing
and just gorgeous looking images
that I felt were very artistic
and worthy and crazy.
At that time I was shooting
for Surfer magazine,
they were paying me a
retainer to send them pictures
of waves, actually, and um,
so I had three keepers
I felt that were just,
to me they were mind-boggling.
I was, I shared it with,
I emailed it to my mom
and I'm like, "Don't show anybody,
"don't send it to anybody,
you know, these are special!
"I don't want anyone to
get their hands on it."
Sent it to Surfer magazine,
and they responded
by saying, "Oh, cool,
"we'll let you know if we use them."
I'm like, "Are you kidding me?
"These are the craziest
shots I've ever taken!"
So sure enough, I swear it was less
than a month or something,
I think, National Geographic contacted me
for the same image that
I sent to Surfer magazine
and wanted to run a two page spread
of this image called
Marlin which was a backwash
that I couldn't believe they wanted it.
I'm like, I mean, I knew
it was a special thing,
and for Surfer to just pass up
and then National Geographic
to come and take it
and pay me for a two page
spread, I was blown away,
I was stoked.
I had a gut feeling that
it was a special image.
Yes!
I would, I swear I would
have paid them money
to get in National Geographic,
here now I got a two page spread.
I mean, something I can carry to the grave
and I'm totally tickled
and excited about that.
I was able to go and do
something I love for a living.
We're gonna go to Keiki, we're
gonna assess the situation,
I think it's four to
six foot, gnarly, huge.
I got one for Derek, I got one for me,
and I have a backup.
You don't want it to repel, you
want it to actually stay wet
so there's a film of water,
real thin film of water
that the camera sees right through.
So you don't want to
wax it and have it bead,
'cause it'll bead up, and
you'll have little water drops.
What you're supposed to
do, and I do, is I lick it.
Probably at least five times,
and I didn't do this one
because I figure I'm gonna
let you do the licking.
- [Voiceover] Right!
- And I'll, it's pretty self-explanatory,
I mean you grab this thing
and you, you get saliva.
And you do your business.
It's the weirdest thing,
and you let it dry.
- Awesome.
All right, here we go.
(laughing)
- It's the best way to
keep drops off of your port
on any, make sure you have some kind of,
you gotta have good saliva, too.
- [Derek] Yeah.
- You know what I mean,
like kind of like the milky,
kind of you know, yogurt.
- [Derek] Gross.
- The thicker it is the
more you get a better film.
- [Derek] Oh, man.
- I know, it is gross.
Hey, whatever.
Okay, so.
(light electronic music)
- [Voiceover] Oh!
- Oh my gosh!
That's so much water.
Pick that, ahoy! (laughs)
That is, that's juicy, dude.
Absolutely, but that from the beach, even.
- [Derek] Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
- I mean you, I don't think,
you don't want to get in there.
Like I'd be scared of...
That's gnarly, did you see that last one?
- You should have seen the
Clark Little wanabee just now.
- [Clark] Did he go out?
- He almost drowned.
- No joke?
- Barely made it in and
then he was on all fours
dragging on the way up.
- [Clark] Really?
- Yeah, he almost drowned.
- This is maxing right now, I think,
those sets were a little bit disturbing.
I think Jacob's gonna
go out and bugger it,
he's all into it.
So that's good, I mean, get
a subject in these right now.
As is, no sun, it's gonna look radical.
Oh gosh, I'm gonna get out there,
it's gonna be insane today.
(hooting)
Look how it's settled?
And that thing's just gonna throw
everything and the kitchen sink.
Ah! (laughing)
That thing is juicy.
Holy mackerel.
(can spraying)
Might be a long day, right?
(sputtering)
(exhaling)
Did I get everything?
Hoo!
(waves crashing)
We might try to go out
and just catch a couple.
Um, you know, in between sets,
if the set comes we just go outside
and we'll see what happens, I don't know.
When it's this big, every
man for himself really.
It's a little scary, I'll be honest.
I mean I'm not totally in my comfort zone.
I mean, I like it big, but it's maxing
like over the size of,
the zone where it breaks,
it's breaking outside of that, so.
It's kind of like you're, never
know what you're gonna get,
Mother Nature, I just, I'm
gonna keep my fingers crossed
and hope I get something.
Yeah, yeah, I saw, but that last one
I'm hoping was just a rogue set.
- [Derek] No it is, it's just a rogue set.
(laughing)
- Otherwise that does not look appealing.
Like I don't even want to be out there.
(clapping and guitar music)
- That was a gnarly one, oh my gosh.
(propellers whirring)
- And I swear, I was in the pocket, dude
on a couple beasts.
(sighs)
- [Derek] Can I get your card?
- Derek, dude, there
was about six or eight,
that first one, it backwashed,
and I was just like this.
And he was going all the way around and,
you see that?
I tell you, Derek, this
is probably ultimate Keiki
for you to see like, you know what I mean,
'cause sometimes it's just
one time out of this year
that it'll get this ripe,
you know what I mean.
Just, phoom, lit,
I swear, like right over my head
and I was sitting there in the pit.
Crazy, insane kind.
I was out of my comfort
zone a little bit on the,
no, you saw it, it was gnarly.
(electric guitar music)
Anyway, long story short, it
turned out to be an insane day.
The one or two ones that
came in were just incredible.
I love being out there.
I love being in the ocean.
I was, I want to be out there,
I don't have to be out there.
I can't wait to get out there!
The night before, I can't
wait to check the swell
and, you know, just get ready
to jump in, in the morning.
Start texting my friends, and just like,
I mean I am really excited,
passionate about shorebreak.
I love getting thrown over the falls,
I love getting tossed in the waves
and then bringing the camera
with me and getting the shot.
(soft guitar music)
I did my own thing
when it came to shooting waves.
I went out to Pipeline before
and there was 30
photographers, 150 surfers,
I didn't like it.
Yeah, I got a couple cool
shots of some surfers,
but I went on my own, and
went into the shorebreak
where I wanted to be.
There was no crowd, I could
shoot all the waves I wanted
without people being all over the place.
It was big, it was fun, it was powerful.
I could capture shots of inside
these big shorebreak waves
that most people couldn't
see for themselves,
couldn't put themselves in that situation
to get that shot.
So, I think that's what
made people excited about it
is just seeing something
so different, so unique,
so powerful yet beautiful.
Nobody was doing it.
So I just kind of jumped on it,
and did what I love.
Once I resigned from the
city and county of Honolulu
full time job, that door that
was cracked just blew open.
(pulsing music)
It's like coconut trees, perfect barrels,
and sunshine, look at that!
Thing's winding!
What?
Look, another one.
Shee, shee, shee, lines.
Lines, lines, lines.
Oh, gosh, we're gonna have fun.
I mean, it looks so fun.
I used to surf contests
over here backside.
Used to have a blast.
Got a little backwash on the inside.
Makaha beach, huh?
That gorgeous?
What's up Ryan?
- Hey!
- How you doing brah?
I figure on this side I
might as well say hi, brah.
Oh hey, I only see you from the (mumbles).
Oh la scrappa boy.
- No!
- Ooh, I love it.
Nice to meet you.
The guy with the, with the,
what is it, the guillotine of the year
Or whatever the frickin'
hell that thing was,
but it was sick, brah.
- Put him in the choke!
(laughing)
- I think I better do this,
but I'm gonna buy you like scrap after.
- Oh no.
- Yeah, yeah, cool.
Right on brah, easy, solid.
Right on brah.
The clarity, the offshore
winds is so sick over there.
- [Voiceover] I don't know.
- We gotta roll but good
to see you again, yeah.
Take care, and then right on frame, brah.
I'll check you out later,
I'll try to come back,
it'll be fun to do.
- Yeah, yeah.
- I'll, uh, okay, nice to meet you.
Yeah I don't know, is it going right now.
Nice to meet you.
How you doing, brah?
- Man, him so wow.
- What's your name?
- Alika, bro.
- Alika, nice to meet you Alika.
How you, brah?
Victor, nice to meet you Victor.
Hey how's it?
Victor junior, right on buddy.
Solid, boo.
Well hopefully we gonna
get some action today, huh?
(water rushing)
(soft bass music)
(guitar music)
Um, we're taking him to
go swim with the sharks.
With no cage.
Out at Haleiwa.
- I'm just lost for words, really.
I mean, what I'm about to do
is like really big for me.
You know, it's my first
time actually swimming ever
with a shark.
I've seen sharks surfing,
like, got bit by a shark,
but I never willingly
went swimming with a shark
so it'll be a good experience and I think
once I do get the full rundown
I'll feel a lot more comfortable
but for now I'm just tripping.
Mom, guess what I'm about to go do.
I'm gonna go swimming with sharks.
- [Voiceover] No, Julio.
Julio, no.
- (laughing) But I'm going anyway.
- You only have to lose a quart of blood
to lose unconsciousness, and like,
somebody like Colin, you
know, who lost his leg?
- [Voiceover] Yeah.
- If Keoni didn't come and
rescue him from leftovers,
he would have died.
- There were four of the
best surgeons in the world
doing a seminar in Hilo at the time
and I was really lucky that that happened
because they would have stapled me.
The lady's like, "You're
lucky that they were there."
But these guys piece by piece
put back together everything.
Like, they put back my
muscles and all the,
everything they stitched it
all back up from inside out.
So I got really lucky.
I feel really safe, I'm with
an amazing group of people
and that's the start, you know?
Good vibes and the day will be good.
It started off right and
we're gonna end right.
- [Man] I like it, I like
it, well let's get out there.
- Clean water, glass, good reflections.
Sun is shining, not a
cloud in the sky basically.
So it's gonna be really really fun,
good day for Julio to go
out for his first time
back with the sharks.
Juan is giving Julu boy a run down
on just shark behavior, what
to be on the lookout for,
just kind of informing him,
making him feel comfortable
so when he goes out there
for his first time back
he'll not be panicking or
freaking out or whatever.
I mean, it's a heavy thing.
Two years ago, you know,
getting attacked by a tiger
and now going out here with sharks,
probably sandbars, galapagos,
possibly tiger, so.
It's gonna be interesting.
And I'm stoked that he's facing his fear
at least regarding, you
know, the shark attack
and I think he'll come
out of this whole trip
feeling a lot better about, you
know, sharks and everything.
- You want to be really
relaxed, really calm.
If you use your fins to kick,
I want to see you bring
your fins down a little bit
below the water line, and then kick,
instead of kicking hard at the surface
'cause you're creating a lot of bubbles
and a lot of splashing.
- [Clark] Oh, there they are, brother!
Holy macaroni and cheese!
Woo!
- I mean, I don't want to do this.
Oh well.
(slow piano music)
(soft music)
I was scared, definitely.
But now that I got in the water
and got to cruise with them a little bit,
it definitely felt good.
Clears my mind, and I kinda like made sure
I didn't overreact or, you
know, get the heart rate pumping
'cause I guess they can sense that,
so I tried to stay calm and that was good.
- He was super calm in
the water, very efficient
with his movements, and
the sharks kind of like
just treated him as an
equal predator, you know,
which is really what we are, and you know,
it can be a really beautiful,
peaceful interaction
you know, if you approach
it the right way.
- My mom's probably definitely mad at me,
but once I get home and
I'm like, "I made it home,"
she'll be solid.
I've always had a super
deep fear about sharks
but I never really told
my friends about it
because like, I mean, it's
not something to laugh about
'cause I got eaten by one, but,
it's just, it's one of those
things that I have to deal with
on my own, like, I never
went to a therapist,
I never talked to anyone
about my problems,
I kind of dealt with it on my own mentally
and kept it bottled up inside of me, so.
- [Voiceover] Yeah.
- To be out here today and to
be swimming with these sharks
it's kind of crazy.
It's definitely a big deal, and I feel,
I feel like that was
good enough, you know,
like I respect those animals so much
that I just wanna, you
know, that's their place,
this is their place and
I give them their space.
(chuckles) Definitely.
(piano music)
- [Clark] Oh!
- [Voiceover] I'm like Rob.
- He didn't make it, dude.
- [Voiceover] I know.
- [Clark] That looked like
you, goofy foot and everything.
- I could do that.
Oh, look at that.
That looks like bigger than it's big.
- I like the suck up.
- [Man] He kind of, over, the drop.
(camera clicking)
- Okay, so anyway, my nickname is Turbo.
Yeah, Turbo, so I've always
been a hyper kind of guy.
- Clark's middle name is Marfield.
So his nickname for a
little while was Marf.
- There's just a weird,
a strange dichotomy
between Clark and Brock,
they both have this,
sort of need for adrenaline, and you know,
it's like built into
their psyches somehow.
- And he hated Marf, he hated it.
So what he started doing was,
he's a really crazy driver,
like he's super gnarly, super
gnarly, if he wants to be.
- You know, Clark, when we
were kids, Clark was never one
to paddle the outer
reef and surf big waves,
but, he was never scared
of big gnarly shorebreaks
or heavy, intense waves.
He just didn't like the big
stuff where he could drown.
He liked to be more in
shallow water and get smashed.
- And so what he used to
do, is like pass five cars
at a time and yell, "Turbo Little!"
Pretty much started calling himself Turbo.
- And, you know, Brock
was sort of the opposite.
He liked that big, deep water stuff
and he felt fine being
underwater, you know,
out of control.
- But then it actually caught on
'cause he was kind of nuts.
And so everyone just
started calling him Turbo.
So he transformed from Marf into Turbo.
And that's how Turbo was started.
- If they require a middle
initial I can deal with it.
But if they require the whole middle name,
I'm a little skeptic, like,
I'm not sure if I can
put Marfield on that.
- Clark kind of captures images of things
that are beyond, they're really
beyond what the surfers see
because we're not really
taking in the look
and trying to keep that
picture in our head,
we're just trying to go
with the wave and make it.
- And for a long time, I was
like, "I refuse to say Turbo"
and da da da da da, 'cause
it was too embarrassing
that he named himself, but after years,
decades have gone by, I can partake
in calling him Turbo as well.
- The pictures Clark takes are
on waves that we can't surf,
that we can't make, that,
you know, it's almost like
that in your head, you
think what if you could
ride that wave and you
could make that barrel,
and that's kind of the
pictures that Clark's getting,
it's sort of the unmakeable
impossible situation
captured in still frame.
- It's not the strongest name.
My mom says, "It's good, it's
the horse traders, from--"
- [Voiceover] Yeah, the horse stealers!
- The horse stealers, oh, whatever.
I don't care if it's a family
name, you know what I mean,
I like Turbo better.
Why couldn't she just name
me Clark Turbo Little?
That's what it should
be, that sounds so good.
- Clark skipped over to Waialua
in seventh or eight grade,
and I didn't skip over to
Waialua 'til like 10th grade
or 11th grade, and so, Clark's pidgin
started taking place in
seventh-ish, eighth grade,
whereas I didn't partake in pidgin
until ninth, 10th, 11th
grade, whatever grade it was.
- Brah, you know you
(speaking foreign language).
- [Brock] Somebody knows us...
(camera clicking)
- Come on.
What, what what bah?
- [Voiceover] You look like Eric Napoleon.
(pulsing music)
- I did it 'cause I love doing it.
And honestly, I didn't know,
I didn't have any intent to
become a full time photographer,
I just wanted that picture for the house.
No, but I just did something that,
I said it a million times,
I mean, I enjoy doing it,
I loved to go out, it's
evolved, it happened.
It, I started posting
pictures of waves and things
and it just happened.
People ask me, "Hey, what did
you do, how did you do it?"
Jeez, I didn't have a plan.
I just did something I loved
and I followed my passion
and it turned into a career.
I can push a button and have it go out
to a million people.
Hey, that helps, you know,
and things like that.
I mean the social media
nowadays, it's the now
and it's another avenue
for me to share my passion
and to share my work with
one push of the button.
It's pretty crazy.
- Learning to use the
camera, I mean, that's all
kind of secondary, you know,
as far as getting surf images.
Just from my experience,
making surf movies,
thinking about the F stop, and you know,
making sure you got all your shutter speed
all the stuff in the right place,
once you have that, that's all kind of
the technical stuff, but
then, really the image
and the beauty of the image comes
from where you place yourself
and years of years of paddling
out and watching your friends
and sometimes you even go like
this 'cause you're pretending
like you're making a movie.
But you just, watch 'em
go by or do an aerial
over your head or
something, and you kind of,
"Ah, if that was in a
movie it'd be so cool."
So when you get a camera in your hand,
as a surfer growing up, you already know
exactly where you want to be.
And so that placement,
but you know, Clark Little
had a unique thing, where he was more nuts
than all of us, and definitely
knew the Waimea shorebreak
better than anybody that I've ever known
as far as being able to take
it on the head out there.
(chill music)
- Yeah, it all depends,
you're running on the dry sand
or you're in a big shallow
wave as it's sucking up.
It, a lot of it is timing,
and it's almost instinctive
of where you're gonna be,
where you're gonna run,
where your camera's gonna be pointed.
It just comes, honestly comes natural.
I think you gotta have it or
you don't have it, you know?
I mean 'cause you can
seriously get injured.
I mean if you mistime some of these waves
I mean the camera can hit your head,
you can get sucked over the falls
and I'm sure break your neck
and there's a lot of different things
that could happen or go wrong.
So timing is very important,
it's just putting yourself
in the right spot.
Believe it or not, it's
like the eye of a hurricane.
If you get into the heaviest,
sickest, gnarliest part
of a wave as it's breaking over,
that's the safest spot to be,
because for some reason, it's the softest,
it's the craziest, but it's
like the eye of the hurricane.
You're in the calm of
the storm, it's crazy.
So, anyway, that's where I try to get
into that heart of the beast
and believe it or not, it can be,
actually almost can go quiet inside
of a big shorebreak wave like that
and of course hell breaks loose once
you wipe out you get sucked over the falls
and you get sucked up
50 feet up the beach,
and, but I like that part of it.
I love that part of it.
I wanna get tossed around
and screaming at my friends,
"Ha, look how far I got
sucked up the beach!"
I mean, seriously, I just
love getting tossed around
and there's a big difference
from having to be there
and wanting to be there.
That's a big part of it,
is just not mind getting
sucked over the falls.
To get the shot.
There's one or two times I kept on going,
"Maybe I shouldn't have went
out," you know what I mean?
But most of the time I'm coming out
with a smile on my face.
(rock music)
I'm looking for something
unique every time I go out.
You know, I want something different,
I want something gnarly,
I want something heavy, I
want something scary, I want,
I want the whole package,
I want something beautiful.
So if I can get all of
these things in one image,
then I've done my job.
(mellow rock music)
Joe!
Look at this kid!
Ha ha ha!
Woo, that's just, that's
what it's all about.
Taking off and getting blasted.
Best feeling in the world.
I'm spent, I can barely
walk up these steps.
After running, I'm tired, I'm so tired.
My body just shut down.
I mean, I'm a little sore.
Both my hips, ankles, my back.
I'm still able to do what I love.
And that's shorebreak.
("Asking For It" by Shinedown)
Can I have a moment of your time
Just a single second so you see
That, indeed, we'll
be leaving you behind
Far across that line
Turn it up so you can hear the bells
Crashing through the clouds
Acid rain down the drain
We know all too well
It's a living hell
Careful what you say and who
you say it, who you say it to
Careful what you say
and who you say it to
Maybe you talk too much
And you were asking for
it, asking for it, asking
You can blame bad luck
But you were asking for
it, asking for it, asking
When all is said and done
You need to tie your tongue
Cause when you spit on everyone
You are, you are you
know you're asking for it
Asking for it, asking
Caught up in the gutter once again
Thrashing through the mud
Flowin' lies, cuttin' ties
Til the sidewalk ends
And the truth begins
Power through the point of no return
Famously deranged
All the same hope you change
If the worm is gonna turn
It's none of my concern
Careful what you say and who
you say it, who you say it to
Careful what you say
and who you say it to
Maybe you talk too much
And you were asking for
it, asking for it, asking
You can blame bad luck
But you were asking for
it, asking for it, asking
When all is said and done
You need to tie your tongue
Cause when you spit on everyone
You are, you are you
know you're asking for it
Asking for it, asking
(vocalizing)
You are, you are, you are, you are
You are asking for it
You are, you are, you are, you are
You are asking for it
Careful what you say and who
you say it, who you say it to
Careful what you say
and who you say it to
Maybe you talk too much
And you were asking for
it, asking for it, asking
You can blame bad luck
But you were asking for
it, asking for it, asking
When all is said and done
You need to tie your tongue
Cause when you spit on everyone
You are, you are you
know you're asking for it
Asking for it, asking
You know you're asking
for it, asking for it
You know you're asking for it, asking