Evolve: Sean Davey’s Transformational Moments

At the time, this was the biggest wave ever surfed there, and it caused quite a stir in the magazines. What was really rad about this photo for me was that we were in a tiny little dinghy, five of us (four photog's and one driver). Our driver was a local surfer, very familiar with the reef at Teahupoo. He was very confident and would often have us sitting some 30 or 40 feet closer to the action than the other boats. This continually unnerved me. Then this thing came through, and I looked up at it thinking, "we are done. There is absolutely nothing that I can do, so I will simply shoot it," just on the off chance that we somehow make it out of this situation. It was that serious. Scared the crap out of me, but I did get the shot. Kissed the ground when I stepped off the boat that afternoon. Moral of this story was always shoot if you can, even if it means going down in a blaze of glory, which thankfully, we didn't on this occasion... Photo: Sean Davey