Jay Watson Photography

My first bike was a yard sale gem. It had 20″ wheels and the forks were raked out like a motorcycle chopper. I was crushed when the cranks broke. It was a repair that cost as much as a new bike. The only problem was I didn’t want a new one.

If you are a cyclist you have ridden or read about the epic road rides that start, loop, or end in Palo Alto, CA. A decent cyclist can be out of town and in the country within 30-60 minutes of saddle time. Once you make it over the first climb – you’ll be in the rolling hills of Northern California. A little bit farther – you’re at the coast. Palo Alto is a Bay Area cycling mecca. It’s also the home of Palo Alto Bicycles which is one of the oldest bike shops on the west coast. Below are some outtakes from a photo shoot with the staff of Palo Alto Bicycles. The Northern California roads look pretty good and so does the shop’s new apparel.

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Things seen in Palo Alto:

1) Let’s just ignore the weekend traffic in town.

2) On the roads you’ll see large group rides, pros training, retired racers rolling at the same speed as in their prime, and a random kid on an old 10-speed that’s too big for him gunning it up Old La Honda.

3) A man standing on University Ave with large Foldger’s coffee cans around each ankle. You know – for protection.

4) Cyclists can be spotted wearing full fingered gloves and earmuffs in 95° heat, or riding with nothing but shorts and a cotton t-shirt on early morning winter rides in the rain.

5) Robin Williams once did some impromptu stand-up in the repair shop area of Palo Alto Bicycles. Steve Jobs has also shopped there.

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One wave up. Two surfers sliding down. Mavericks, Half Moon Bay, CA. Nikon 300mm 2.8 w/ TC-17E 1.7x teleconverter.

This makes me smile. Nikon interviewed me and featured 12 of my photos for an article on surfing photography. You can see the entire interview here: Nikon Reflex Action: A Surf Photographer’s Top Tips. The Nikon editors choose lifestyle and action photos I’ve shot of various surfers and California spots. I was really excited about the opportunity, but not sure what tips I could provide. I don’t have any secrets so I kept general sports photography in mind, and a few things I’ve learned shooting surfing.

Surf Photography Tips (some not included in the Nikon post)

1) Study all the focus options and don’t skip the manual. The modern DSLR has infinite focusing options. It’s overwhelming enough to make a person not even try action photography, but practice is the key. Learn all of the focus features inside and out. Memorize them. Have them mastered so you can react quickly to the action without fumbling with your camera. I like to shoot with continuous focus (focus tracking) and make use of the focus lock buttons when needed. This minimizes the risk of loosing focus from body movement or if shooting from a moving boat.

2) You don’t have to shoot at world class breaks to get great photos. Don’t be afraid to make a road trip, but make the most of your local spots first. Surfing is primarily on the coasts and not accessible to everyone. However if you are landlocked practice shooting action sports in your area to prepare for a future surfing trip.

3) FPS (frames per second). Shoot with your camera’s highest frames per second. Nearly every modern DSLR shoots with enough speed to grab action shots in short bursts. You don’t necessarily need 11fps.

4) Lens choices. Put your money in the glass. Fast zooms and fast fixed lenses have faster focus and better optics. The 70-200 F2.8 is a sports standard, but you’ll need something longer for your distance shots. A good back up solution is a teleconverter. The Nikon TC-14E (1.4x) and TC-17E (1.7x) both work very well on the 70-200 F2.8 and the 3oomm F2.8.

5) Don’t drop your camera in the drink and be safe. A camera can be replaced but you can’t. People get swept up in rough business every year throughout the California coast. The stories are horrible. Take your photo blinders off and live to tell the story.

6) Pro level waterproof camera housing for a DSLR is +$$$$, but there are some inexpensive options. If you are already a surfer with an interest in photography, you can get wet, shoot photos, and spend less than $10 a day. See: GoPro camera rentals available at Borrowlenses. Staff photographer for Surfer Magazine Zac Noyle has been posting some great looking work on Instagram shot with the Watershot Inc iphone water housing. It doesn’t get much budget friendly than that. An entry level water housing for a DSLR isn’t much more expensive than your favorite prime lens on the used market. Check the base model by Liquid Eye.

7) Check out the not-so-cheesy surf mags. Follow photographer and editor of Carve Magazine Roger Sharp. Sharpy always shares great info on surfing photography along with his work. Here’s his in-depth buyer’s guide for water housing for cameras and surf photography.

8) The biggest and most important…don’t get in the way of other surfers.

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Greg Long at Mavericks. Half Moon Bay, CA.

Full post here: http://www.nikonusa.com  A Surf Photographer’s Tips 
Featured surfers in the link: Carlos Burle, Kenny Collins, Greg Long, Peter Mel, and Zach Wormhoudt.

Thanks to Nikon, and to all the surfers for their support.

One of the best things about skateboarding is that it doesn’t discriminate against age. This was proven at the X Games this year in the Skateboard Big Air competition in Los Angeles. First place and second place winners on the mega ramp were separated by 20 years in age! That’s a decent chunk of time. Think how different the world was 20 years ago. Computers, cameras, sports – everything was different.

This isn’t an “old guys rule” or “look out for the groms” post. It’s just a high five to skaters Bob Burnquist (age 35) and Mitchie Brusco (age 15) for showing everyone that skills are more important than age when it comes to clearing a 70 foot gap and getting 45 feet of air off the ground. Or maybe it just doesn’t matter at that height when all you have are 4 wheels and a piece of wood under your feet? Check out ALL of the links below. What do you think?

Skater Mitchie Brusco, at age 15 won silver at the X Games Big Air contest on the mega ramp in LA. After I photographed Mitchie someone nudges me and says,”Hey that kid does 900s on mega ramps.” My reaction – “You’re kidding me. He’s not much bigger than his skateboard. How does he get the speed?”

Well he rips, and this is how: (video of Brusco 2012 x-games).

Bob Burnquist, a skateboarding veteran of big air still raises the bar at age 35. Naturally I was thrilled to finally meet him in person and he didn’t disappoint. Bob is wearing knee high rubber boots in this photo and the only skateboard with him this day was bolted to a surfboard. Here’s Bob in action with some backwards fakie business that won him first place in the big air comp (video Burnquist gold 2012 X Games).

Long live the Scorpion King!

Below are a few sports images from a shoot for Magellan GPS that were photographed at locations in the Santa Cruz area. The campaign will be used for advertising and promotion of a new fitness product line by Magellan called Switch. Five Bay Area triathletes were the talent for this lifestyle shoot that mainly included running and cycling at some terrific spots. These athletes really made the difference for the action shots and were patient enough to let us light them and try various options for each scene. Thanks to the amazing Judi Oyama from Maximum Impact for taking care of the location scouting, styling, casting, and excellent production work! My assistant on this gig was Nils Carlson who did a great job tracking subjects with the strobe and for handling the long day like a champ.

Fact or Fiction?
Did two seagulls really steal our sandwiches while Nils and I were working during our lunch break? Yeah it really happened. Those birds are like wolverines with wings and a license to do whatever they want. It was kind of sad, but very funny. “There goes our lunch!”

Athletes in these photos: Eric Clarkson, Tommy Zaferes, Josh Bjornstad, Stephanie Hocom, Elle Washburn.

Triathlete Tommy Zaferes running at Rio Del Mar Beach.

Magellan GPS Switch. Triathlete Eric Clarkson cycling in Santa Cruz, CA

Triathlete Josh Bjornstad.

Runner Stephanie Hocom running with the Magellan Switch.

Triathlete Elle Washburn at Rio Del Mar Beach.

The Magellan GPS Switch campaign.

Northern California skater Roger Mihalko has one of the most unique styles of anyone I’ve ever seen. He truly brings creativity and soul to the sport and rides as if he is making a piece of art in the process. Here is a video of Roger getting nice with ripper Bob Lake, and a barefoot adventure of Roger at the skatepark in Pacifica, CA (one of my favorite digs). A former rider for Gravity Skateboards, Roger now rides planks for Solitary Arts.

A portrait series of surfers from Santa Cruz, CA photographed for the book titled Cold Water Souls by author Chris Nelson. Outtakes, selections, and archives on Northern California surfing below.

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Zach Wormhoudt, Santa Cruz, CA. Cold Water Souls

Zach Wormhoudt represents Santa Cruz well. His father Ken Wormhoudt, built the legendary Derby skatepark in 1976 that has been featured in classic skate videos and magazines. The park still stands today as a mecca for skaters visiting Santa Cruz and is a landmark to local residents.  Zach is also a humble and well respected surfer in the lineup at Mavericks and has won a Billabong XXL Award for the biggest paddle-in wave one winter.

California skate culture owes a big thanks to the Wormhoudt family. Not just for Derby but for all of the amazing skateparks Wormhoudt Inc has built up and down the state. It has made a huge impact in the lives of skaters young and old with me being one of them. I’ve worn out plenty of shoes, gone through numerous decks and wheels, and had some great times with friends riding these parks. So what do you do when you get to photograph a person who has played a role in your life by building bowls and pools that you previously only dreamed about? You come with gifts, a handshake, and gratitude.

click to enlargeZach Wormhoudt surfing Mavericks Half Moon Bay, CA. Cold Water Souls

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Cold Water Souls, by UK author Chris Nelson is NOW available at select book shops, surf shops, and on Amazon.com

update:
Cold Water Souls (1 of 4)
Cold Water Souls (2 of 4)
Cold Water Souls (3 of 4)

A portrait series of surfers from Santa Cruz, CA photographed for the book titled Cold Water Souls by author Chris Nelson. Outtakes, selections, and archives on Northern California surfing below.

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California surfer Richard Schmidt

Richard Schmidt has been a dedicated big wave surfer, competitor, professional, and surf instructor for decades. Though most of his time now is focused on his surfing school in Santa Cruz, Richard was a regular in the line up at the North Shore every winter for 15 years. A multi year invitee at the Eddie, many people are not aware of Richard’s role in the history of Mavericks. He too was one of the early pioneers along with Jeff Clark who helped figure out how Half Moon Bay’s behemoth could be ridden. I have a deep respect for Richard and his presence commands attention. This comes from either his heroic stature among Santa Cruz locals or from his reputation and list of accomplishments. However I like to think it comes from his quiet manner that gradually diffuses any preconceived ideas that go along with a legendary status. That to me is cooler than charging monsters and slaying giants.

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Sunrise over Cowells. Santa Cruz, CA

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Cold Water Souls, by UK author Chris Nelson will be published world-wide January 25, 2011. It will be available at select book shops, surf shops, and on Amazon.com

update:
Cold Water Souls (1 of 4)
Cold Water Souls (2 of 4)
Cold Water Souls (4 of 4)

A portrait series of surfers from Santa Cruz, CA photographed for the book titled Cold Water Souls by Chris Nelson. Outtakes, selections, and archives on Northern California surfing below.

click to enlarge

John Hunter is one of the product designers at O’Neill Wetsuits. In fact he created the exact same wetsuit that I use – the O’Neill Mutant. For that same reason, I can say that John has made a significant contribution to not just me but to many other surfers. He makes the cold stuff much more tolerable. John is extremely dedicated to his job, his love of surfing, his love for Santa Cruz, and he has an insane quiver that I am dying to see.

The O’Neill R&D department is old school and legit! It consists of the Pacific Ocean right in their own back yard. Non surfers see a wetsuit as a weird neoprene monkey suit, but once someone points out all the features they’ll be surprised at how much technology is used just to provide warmth and freedom of movement to surfers. As for genius product design, take a look at the Zen Zip on the O’Neill Psycho wetsuit – yup another Hunter design.

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Darryl “Flea” Virostko at Mavericks in Half Moon Bay, CA.

Darryl Virostko is a cold water legend. I have not had the privilege of meeting him, but will hopefully someday get the chance. This cat has definitely lived an epic life. There have been some injuries and demons, but the three time winner of Mavericks should never be counted out as long as he is in the line up. This image of Flea was taken at the 2010 Mavericks contest. He took a terrible spill in the first heat, but here he is in the first heat of the semi finals with a few tricks up his sleeve.

• • •

Cold Water Souls, by UK author Chris Nelson will be published world-wide January 25, 2011. It will be available at select book shops, surf shops, and on Amazon.com

update:
Cold Water Souls (1 of 4)
Cold Water Souls (3 of 4)
Cold Water Souls (4 of 4)

I was commissioned by a publisher in the UK to shoot a few portraits of surfers from Santa Cruz, CA for a book titled Cold Water Souls. The publisher also ran a few images from my archive of surfing spots in Northern California including Capitola, Santa Cruz, and the biggest monster of them all – Mavericks!

Cold Water Souls will be published world-wide January 25, 2011 and will be available at select book shops, surf shops, and on Amazon.com

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Outtake from Cold Water Souls. Steamer Lane. Santa Cruz, CA

from www.coldwatersouls.com:
Cold Water Souls: In Search of Surfing’s Cold Water Pioneers is the ultimate journey of discovery. It has seen author Chris Nelson embark on an epic exploration of surfing’s most frigid outposts to track down those pioneering souls who call the world’s coldest and least hospitable line ups ‘home’. From Iceland, Thurso and Hokkaido to Nova Scotia, Alaska and beyond he has journeyed into the heart of surf culture to tell the story of each destination through its surf community, exploring how the landscape and harsh environments have shaped their lifestyles and surfing experiences. Never before seen archive images and photography contributed by some of the world’s leading surf and documentary lensemen, including Brian Nevins, Jeremy Koreski, Jay Watson, Nick LaVecchia, Richie Hopson and Tim Nunn help capture the essence of these regions. In celebrating this underground seam in surfing’s rich culture, Cold Water Souls goes to the very boundaries of modern surfing, exploring waveriding’s final frontiers thorough fresh perspectives and stunning imagery.

British author Chris Nelson was recently interviewed in Huck Magazine. He surfs all the cold stuff and has published several travel books on surfing in Europe. Too bad I didn’t get to shoot Chris or the bearded Wayne Vliet from Vancouver Island. Thanks to Chris and Demi for the gig.

Over the next few days, I will be posting more images and outtakes I shot for the book.

update:
Cold Water Souls (2 of 4)
Cold Water Souls (3 of 4)
Cold Water Souls (4 of 4)

Drift Surfing published my account of the Mavericks surf contest with my words and 28 full screen size images here. The piece is not a commentary on contests or corporate sponsors. It is about my personal experience of what it was like shooting from the media boat.
“Incoming” now viewable on www.driftsurfing.com

“The entire Mavericks experience was both awesome and horrible at the same time. On the 13th of February 2010, there was no place I would rather have been. Conditions were good. I heard thunder all day long and fans hooted even when waves went unridden. It was also the most physically demanding thing I have ever done with a camera. With all of that power tossing and turning the boat, my body wondered early on, “what did you get yourself into?”

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1AM Still Packing

The Build Up
As epic as the words may sound, it is really only half of the story that surrounded the day. Contestants voted on Wed Feb 10th to compete on Sat and the announcement was made public on Thursday Feb 11. I was shooting assignments on both Thursday and Friday leaving less than 2 hectic filled days to prepare for the waves. This included selecting my lenses, picking up rental gear, packing, researching more info on the surfers, picking up the media pass in Half Moon Bay, and lining up two back-up plans for boat access. I slept less than 3 hours the night before the event and was at the docks early Saturday morning at 6am. There was also the uncertainty I would even get a spot on the media boat the morning of the contest. The waiting list was 5 times longer than available spots, yet I had to prepare as if it was going to happen.

Maybe I was lucky to get a seat on the boat, but I really worked “it” to get there. If I didn’t prepare and was granted a spot, it would have shown in the images. It was better to play it safe than to be sorry for it later. This doesn’t happen everyday and the last contest was 2 years ago.

Queen Of Hearts

Darryl “Flea” Virostko in person.

Western swell with light winds from the south.

Ion Banner robbing trains.

The Aftermath
I was hung over on Valentines day from the shoot. It lasted for 2 weeks, but not from the motion sickness. It was due to late nights processing well over 1200 images, making selections, writing captions, and working on a layout and sequence for the piece. The writing alone included 5 edits in total. Then came the unexpected side of the story.

As I was working, I witnessed numerous journalists, papers, bloggers, and fans post their take on the event. Some of which were very good and similar to my own images. Why was I spending all this time on something already well covered? It was becoming ancient in today’s live status and real time world. Nobody wants to see images of President Obama’s inauguration 1 year later. True. Unless there is a unique perspective.

I can’t complete with news media outlets. They are more efficient and can bust out a story in hours. My goals are different and spending 2 weeks on the Mavs project forced me to choose some less typical images, and tell a less obvious story. Drift’s presentation for an online editorial publication is very original. They create both multi page features and short daily blog entries. As a feature, they ran all 28 of my selections FULL SCREEN which is a refreshing way for Mavs fans to view the waves online. So it was rewarding to read the promoter comment “one of the coolest contest-day perspectives we’ve seen, great stuff.”

That was the intention.

Special thanks to Glen Sakamoto and Joe Conway for the support. You can see the entire post of Mavericks on Drift Surfing. More effort went into it than simply pressing a button on a black box. Hope you enjoy it.

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UPDATE: Select images from the series “Our Only Summer Swell” won an honorable mention at the 2010 International Photography Awards in the editorial category.