Bruce Irons backlit ariel at Backdoor Pipeline 2001
This was maybe 1999, and it was super late in the day. Heaps of photog's had packed up and left for the day, and there were only a few left on the beach at Off The Wall. I saw the golden light starting to build in the sky, so I headed down towards Backdoor on the off chance that if Bruce busted an air, he might do it against this one golden bit of sky, thus at least giving me a backlit silhouette of him. Sure enough, Bruce goes huge, and I took about six slides of it at at about a 40th or a second. Here's the amazing bit: during just that moment of inertia at the height of his maneuver, he was still enough for me to produce a reasonably sharp image. None of the others were anywhere near as good. Photo: Sean Davey
Airs are really hard to do on a surfboard. Well, landing them, at least. There are so many variables to consider in the attempt, all of which are constantly changing. That’s why the progression is so awesome: it’s really, really difficult, and more and more people are nailing bigger and bigger aerials. Surfing is no longer just about the wave. The canvas has increased in size to include that airspace above it. And we love it.