I was floating around Fort DeRussey, worrying the lifeguards every time I paused for more than a minute, taking pictures of silly fish in stirred up water. There was a swell running! 3 to 4' and clean!!!!!!!!! I'll take some surf pics!!! Besides, the lifeguards at Fort DeRussey were miffed at me. Something to do with my doing underwater jumping jacks and deep knee bends 50 feet off of their Tower 1.

I already had the stuff to get out. I had been bodyboarding for years on the North Shore. Mostly Paipo boards, but I had a boogie, I'm gonna take some surf shots! Maybe the best shot ever of some unknown surfer! Now, I was going to become The GREATEST surf photog ever. On the way to fame, fortune and the surf. (I don't think about emergency rooms.)

When there's a swell running, the rip takes you across a channel in front of this boat that travels through it every 45 minutes. the object is to NOT get run over by it and it's big twin screws. The guy behind the helm is pro-surfer. And can't see a bodyboarder laying flat in the water. (I am on a first-name-basis with most of the folks in the Emergency Room.)

When I got out there finally, everyone was waiting for the next set. It seemed calm, the water was balmy and the sun was in the wrong place for good shots. But, I'll try anything once. Kaiser's is a morning place for good shots. But by the time I'ved downed a cup of coffee........It's 10 a.m.. and the sun is already high overhead. But what the heck.

A small set came through and I got the picture of some guy on a Body Board who got tubed. It's been a while since I've had that experience, but the sensation comes back. Occassionally when I'm watching TV, I feel the trickle of water over my shoulder....but lately it's been the roof leaking.

All too soon it's over. And now it's time to think, ponder, dream, wish and wait for the next set again. All the time thinking maybe the next ride will be That Once In A Life-Time wave. The one that leads to fame, recognition or self gratification. The guys on the line-up are probably thinking the same thoughts.

A board rider shows me his shaka. I remember the 60s when some salesman started showing the shaka on TV. It's been with us since. Cool guy. Cool ride. And a cloud to change the lighting. Lighting is All Important!

This guy gets a head-dunk. If he were on a body board......he'd be in the barrel. That's the great thing about body boards.....you don't have to be on a 10' wave face to be in the barrel. But to each his own. Me! I'm too lazy to stand up. Too much effort exerted only to lay back down after a few second ride. I admire these energy filled board riders.

I hadn't noticed it.....but I was slowly being sucked out to the break.....and the impact zone. I was trying to follow this guy on the boogie with the camera when I noticed a fellow to my right paddling out with a sly grin on his face. Did he know something I didn't....or was he just smiling at the camera?

Hmmmmmmmm.....wonder what he's grinning about............Is there something behind me I am not expecting??????????????

Well.....YES!.....There is a monster coming in and I'm not ready, not in the right place and the guy paddling out is probably still laughing. This wave, I felt it was about a millimeter less in heigth as the Empire State Building, dropped straight on my head. Now I don't know how many of you have ever had the opportunity to think of what does one do with a camera when you have to hold on to a boogie board with both hands.....But I have....and at that instant. The thought had never crossed my mind at anytime before that moment.

An old friend of mine. (Maybe that should be Fiend!) Told me that one should always keep pressing the trigger....no matter what happens. I did just that. Just kept pressing the shutter. Maybe it was the contractions my hands were making as the wave rolled me over and over as I tried to hold on to both the boogie board and the camera. The camera had a tether and I released my grasp on it for a moment. In that moment I received a couple of knots on my head that weren't there before that wave hit me.

I saw the light! This would have been my first view of the inside of the white water. What happened to the wave!? It was building power behind and over me at the moment. Sort of the time line of what happens when the primer on a bullet is hit by the firing pin. It builds compressed energy before it shoves the projectile down the barrel.

At this time I'm not sure whether the faint touch of blue in the lower left of the image is the blue of the wave or the sky leaking through.....What ever it is....it's in the wrong place. Am I going to worry about some color in the wrong place at this time?....YUP!!!!!

On this image either I have seen the light, or should have. This is kind of the sight you see just as you are getting banged heavily on the head. I grabbed the camera housing again. Do not use your head to operate the shutter.

Here comes the question of color again....Which way is up!? Is it the sky or the wave in that lower left hand corner?

The knee in this image is mine. I think! This must have been when I assumed the fetal position. Which is the best position to assume when being pummeled relentlessly by a wave, knowledge to have just in case you ever have the opportunity to experience that sensation.

This is the image of the camera's lens cap headed in the direction of my right nostril where it became lodged for some time.

Gee! This is a nice shade of aqua!

In this image I picture myself as an old time Cowboy firing his revolver to the rear over his shoulder as he retreats. Not really aiming at all. This is the instant the wave decided to go Phtoooie!!! and spit me out at a nanosecond less than the speed of light.

A moment of solitude before.............................

Aaarrgh!!!!!!! A sea monster!!! Nah! It's just some tourist with a silly swim cap. Enough to make me want to paddle out again.

I'll submerge and swim past him. I don't want to talk now. (It's hard to hold a conversation while trying to dislodge a lens cap from one's right nostril.)

That set had left it's mark on the beach. It had washed up over a steep enbankment ond onto the sidewalk.

The snack bar was closed. John, the manager, must have run for cover. It's not that often a wave washes up this far.

I'm always in the wrong spot at the wrong time. If I had been lounging on the beach, where I was supposed to be, I could have got a great image of chaos, confusion, panic....my kinda fun. But, instead......I got...........

The Ride!

(Maybe I'll try Ping Pong as a sports photography venue.)

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