There is a sculptural elegance to surfing that belies its brutal edge. Although that fluid grace depends on being able to grip and balance on a seemingly wafer-thin board despite all the pounding waves. I’ve surfed for 15 years and have shown very little improvement, or elegance, in that time. The forces of nature can be rough, relentless - and humbling.  Yet for the dedicated or professional surfer, a breaking wave can be a fully immersive, quasi-religious experience. It becomes their path to personal enlightenment. Or at least a groovy ride. 
In my photographs for Unforgiving Surf, I want to show that extended moment when a surfer fuses with a wave and takes on a more iconic stature. There is certainly beauty in the arc and flow and spray of the water and the intimate way a surfer holds to all that. Or touches a wave once in the barrel as if an energizing life force. Of course the rough and tumble truth of a surfer’s life is the many hours they spend bitter cold and scrambling to stay alive. Catching a big wave at the wrong moment can slam a surfer down into the blackest depths. But catching it at the right moment can lead to glory. In my photographs, I try to find surfers who are just hanging on, barely, to that glorious edge.