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Jimmy Nalick. Valentine's Day 2010. Love at first sight. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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Mark Carter. 1983. This wave is extremely fickle. It only appears on the biggest swell and highest tide. Also, this shot was a SURFER Magazine cover. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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Kelly Slater / September Boost Mobile Pro 2008. Conventional wisdom dictates that while competing in man-on-man heats, once the surfer with the lead gets priority, he keeps the other competitor from scoring. However, twice in the 2008 Boost Mobile Pro, Slater took off on tweeners that seemed like tactical errors but scored enough points to win the heat and the contest. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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July 2010. The Wedge is ruthless. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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Corban Campbell. November 2009. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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December 2009. Frankie D'Andrea pulled into five or six big tubes, but when he got home he said, "Send me a photo of that sunset." This is an HDR image made from 5 bracketed exposures. There's a lot of hate for HDR and a lot of ugly photos but the technology is here to stay and we'll have to learn to use it to make good images. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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Gabe Garcia. November 2009. A bomb set on a beautiful day with shifting peaks and crystal clear water. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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December 2009. This is the break closest to home - about a mile down my street. I rarely shoot there and almost never get anything. Brad Ettinger surfed the same spot this day at sunset and said he caught two of the best waves he's caught in California, and he's caught a lot of good waves. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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Brad Ettinger. December 2009. He's caught a lot of good waves. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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January 2011. Last blast at Blacks. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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Joey Buran. October 1978. In 1978, Surfing Magazine started calling Joey “the California Kid” because he was the only pro from California on the tour. The name originated in the same episode of Happy Days that coined the term “jumping the shark.” Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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Luke Davis. February 2010. Luke pulled into the wave of the day and disappeared. Guys in the water with the angle could see him dodging the foam ball. The view from the beach was obscured by the wave in front and diffused by a lot of moisture in the air. When he came out in a shower of spit, it was testament to the value of remaining completely calm and relaxed in the heaviest situation. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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Corban Campbell. November 2009. Cross lit by the sunrise. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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Sean Marceron. November 2011. Right at 3 PM the wind came up straight offshore. It was much appreciated. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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February 2010. The film Koyaanisqatsi illustrates the loss of balance between nature, man, and technology. This shot does too. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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April 2009. Second thoughts. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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December 2009. Glass, bright morning light and clouds. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
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December 2009. "The more you see how strangely Nature behaves, the harder it is to make a model that explains how even the simplest phenomena actually work." Richard Feynman. Photo: Chuck Schmid/Surf-Shot.com
Chuck Schmid has been surfing or taking pictures of surfing for over forty years. Born in Germany, Schmid moved to California in 1966, and started shooting surf photos with a sixty-dollar Vivitar camera that he bought from K-Mart. In 1971, only two years after he began shooting, Schmid had his first photo published in SURFER Magazine.
In 1985, after struggling to make ends meet as a photographer, Schmid sold his camera gear and chose to focus on other endeavors, but his passion for photography never dwindled. In 2006, when his wife started shooting digital he decided to pick up a camera again.
“I shot surf photos in the seventies and eighties, got some shots published, made some ads, took a couple trips, but never made a profit,” says Schmid. “I think what I’ve been most interested in depicting has been what a good surfer does in a critical situation – not shooting oddball angles with weird equipment. With water shots, I try to show the perspective you get paddling out and capture the feeling of being there.”
“Today, I’m 56 years old. I don’t surf. I don’t smoke or drink. No cell phone, no tattoos, no Facebook, no iPod, and no Blackberry,” says Schmid. “Every dollar I get costs me two dollars. I’ve worked in other people’s factories for 38 years. I’ve never said ‘sick’ or ‘shacked.’ What I’m after is great photos – trying to catch some great surfers out in good surf and ripping.”
To view more of Chuck’s work, visit Surf-Shot.com.
