Andrew Quinn is a talented filmmaker, photographer and surfer from Manhattan Beach, California. Ceto asked Andrew to share his thoughts about this awesome shot captured at a recent “Paipo Stokefest” in San Diego. Pure stoke!

“My approach to photography is rooted in my background as a documentary cinematographer. I strive to capture unsolicited, vérité glimpses of fleeting moments which I was lucky enough to witness. This shot is the epitome of that ethos. This photo was taken during one of several meet-ups that have been held between LA and San Diego over the last year. Organized thru social media, people arrive en masse with their homemade, purchased, and/or custom crafted handplanes, paipos, surfboards, surfmats, stolen cafeteria trays, inflatable pool toys, and things I don’t even know the names for. After attending a “Paipo Stokefest” in La Jolla, CA and not being able to describe to others just how awesome these flash aqua-mobs are, I decided to forego catching rides on the next few occasions and instead brought my camera to capture the stoke. Endless smiling, hooting, hollering, giggling, laughing – it’s just ridiculously pure excitement. When I took this picture, I knew that I had just captured something amazing. If you strip away the machismo, ego, timidness, stress, or whatever from all of us grown ups, we’d all look and feel just like this. Unaware of the camera, not thinking about school, or work, or girls, or boys, or debt, or fortune – not even thinking about the wave he’s on or the tube he’s in – just completely engrossed in a moment, a feeling. It was as if the combined stoke and excitement of the dozens of kindred souls in the water was squeezed into this 1/1,600th of a second all at once.”

For more amazing photos from Andrew
aqsurf.tumblr.com
instagram.com/aqsurf

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Filmmakers and surf film lovers take note ~ SDSFF welcomes international filmmakers to submit to their 2013 festival!

Filmmaker submission dates
• “Dawn Patrol” Now until Dec. 31, 2012 ~ Shorts $20 and Features $40
• Regular submission Jan thru March 15th, 2013 ~ Shorts $25 and Features $50

All-Acess VIP NAUTILUS PASSES are being sold at a reduced rate as well. $80 until Dec 31 and $100 after. All films, after parties, panels, expression sessions, music, food and drinks included. HOOTS AND SHAKAS!

More info on SDSFF
www.facebook.com/SanDiegoSurfFilmFestival
www.sandiegosurffilmfestival.com

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Chris Burkard is known as a unique visionary whose photography has the ability to catapult the viewer into the moment. At 26 years old, Chris has accomplished a style and composition all his own. In this visually stunning video, Chris talks about what inspires his work:

“I’ve always just aimed to do something that would keep me passionate and keep me sort of smiling, enjoying every second, and being challenged. If you put yourself in the right situation, your work can really make you grow, it can make you a better person. As far as work goes, the ocean has always been my favorite canvas, although that’s not really where it began. I think it all started with a passion for landscapes and, for me, the biggest goal has been just trying to merge that passion with anything I’m shooting.

I never take photos to do a place justice. I just take them as a record of my experiences there. And that’s really the beauty of doing what you love for work. The search is your reward. If that mind set comes with you anywhere you go, then you’ll always be successful. The second I get outside of my comfort zone, that’s where I find inspiration. It’s those moments that test you the most ~ these refining moments. In the long run, they’re the ones that give the most reward. This is where the inspiration is. It’s part of the process. My goal is always to just compose an image where the landscape is the hero – where I pay homage to these places that we get to find ourself.”

For more info about great work by Chris Burkard
www.burkardphoto.com/
www.facebook.com/ChrisBurkardPhotography
chrisburkard.tumblr.com
@chrisburkard

“Insivity” videos  www.insivity.com
Produced/Directed by Kellen Keene www.kellenkeene.com

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“Shooting my Venezuelan friend Rossany Alvarez from the Junior Team who was visiting the island of Bali to compete at the 2012 Oakley World Pro Junior Championship surf contest. On this day the waves were very small, so I decided to do something different and try to get some pictures with a good background and also show her sponsors on it, so we got this great photograph. For this shot I used my Canon 20D, tokina lens 10-17mm using a 10mm on Av mode Manual Focus f/5.6, 1/800 sec iso 400, SPL water-housing.” Edwart

For more photography by Edwart Ramirez
www.edwartramirezphotography.com
www.facebook.com/pages/Edwart-Ramirez-Photography

Thanks to www.thephotographersjournal.tumblr.com for turning Ceto on to Edwart and this great shot.

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Ryan Scura and Dylan Ladds are surfer/filmmakers from Concord, New Hampshire and the creative team behind New England Blood. This visually stunning portrait of New England surfers offers a sneak peak at what will become a feature length documentary. Ceto can’t wait to see more!

Ryan and Dylan: “It’s been over a year now since we began this project. We have collected hundreds of hours of video and audio from the New Hampshire coast and its surfers. Our ultimate goal is a feature film about this community, which will be released in April, but we’ve made many short films along the way. New England Blood is the most recent, and it’s different from our previous shorts. This is the first time we’ve tapped into our entire collection of media, rather than focusing on a specific person or event. It’s a lot of fun to look through our footage and realize how many awesome people we’ve met. They’ve let us interview them – usually at their houses – follow them around, and stick our cameras in their faces out in the lineup. We’re very lucky to be working with this welcoming group of people.”

More about the work of Ryan Scura and Dylan Ladds
www.facebook.com/surfnh
www.thegranitestoke.blogspot.com
Twitter/Instagram: @thegranitestoke
Contact: thegranitestoke@gmail.com

Mark Tipple is a surfer/photographer from Sydney, Australia and creator of The Underwater Project. Mark’s stunning underwater series began with a split second decision while caught inside by a big wave: “as I dove underwater, I suddenly thought I’d see what the kids next to me were going through – I turned the camera on them.” Here Mark shares a few harrowing moments with buddy Mike while shooting his most recent installment of The Underwater Project on a razor sharp reef in the Cook Islands:

“I’m done bro, I’m done.”

With those few words, Mike rose to his feet in ankle deep water and began the 10 minute walk towards shore. Even from behind the waves, I could see a stream of blood run down his arm, and t-shirt turn red across his shoulders.

This was in the first hour of a 10 day shoot. We both knew the reefs on the island were shallow; we’d been there before and surfed the waves, but shooting The Underwater Project dictates no boards and definitely no wetsuits – meaning the danger of losing skin was increased tenfold. With a wary eye watching for rogue waves, I watched as Mike left the water. He stumbled on a few urchin spines adding insult to injury; and I wondered if there was something else that I could shoot underwater. After a few technical adjustments (read: complete confusion with new gear I wasn’t experienced with), the Mare Vida series found me.

To see the full Mare Vida series
www.theunderwaterproject.com/mare-vida

“The day before the destructive forces of hurricane Sandy arrived in New England, she yielded seemingly endless lines of brawny overhead swell down in Rhode Island. The crew rallied at a beachside campsite and headed out to meet Sandy in all of her dynamic glory. I captured this image of Mike in the midst of composing a sequence of steps and maneuvers to accommodate her complexion.” Arianna

For more great work by Arianna Photopoulos
instagram: @staystokedphotography
facebook: www.facebook.com/ariannaphoto

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Adam Fraser is a talented photographer and surfer from Salisbury, Massachusetts. Ceto asked Adam to share his memory of the caffeinated antics captured in his brilliant series of photos from one hazy-lazy summer dawn patrol session:

“I snapped this shot during a groggy morning session at The Wall. It was knee high and glassy and I think we were all feeling as mellow as the weather and the waves. Mike had a cup of coffee from KB’s that he understandably didn’t want to leave unfinished, so he carried it down and nonchalantly paddled out with the thing on his board. The fog was creating this beautiful atmosphere around us. It was so thick that it dampened the sound and made everyone look like ghosts at a distance.

For me, these are the best sessions, when I can lazily slide into each wave without all the adrenaline and anticipation reserved for bigger days. The waves keep coming yet it’s enough to just sit out there and enjoy the setting. Of course, a photographer can never really “just” enjoy a perfect day when the lighting is right. So, I naturally paddled in and grabbed my camera. No sooner did I get back to the shoreline and start wading into the water than I see Mike coming down the line towards me on this wave. He’s sitting on his board backwards, clearly figuring things out as he goes. I fired off 11 frames and was lucky enough to have the coffee cup visible in 2 of them.” By Adam Fraser.

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For more awesome photos from Adam Fraser
www.afaceinacloud.com
twitter: @afaceinacloud
facebook: www.facebook.com/afacinacloud

Just as smooth in the shaping bay as in the water, Ashley Lloyd is a beloved shaper, surfer and musician. Ashley’s passion for the ocean began as a young girl in Malibu, California. By age twenty she was ranked among the world’s top ten women longboarders and began shaping her own surf boards. Over the past ten years, Lloyd’s shaping has transformed from part-time hobby to a full-time career. A rare distinction – few women in the world have pursued the craft of making surfboards.

What made you fall in love with surfing?
I think it was just the lifestyle of my family. My mom always took us to the beach and my brother starting surfing … anything he did I thought was awesome so I followed him out onto the water. I loved being on the beach, playing on the sand, playing in the tide pools. I still do. I guess surfing was the next progression and it became an addiction.

What are the big life lessons you’ve learned in the water?
I’ve learned so much from being in the ocean. Humility – that’s the grand one right there. It’s such an individual sport where you’re working against or with the ocean and the ocean is always going to be more powerful than you. It’s impossible not to be humbled by that. Then there’s the whole social aspect. I grew up surfing Malibu and man, it’s really funny what people bring into the ocean psychologically with them. Some people go there to just to be free. I guess for everyone the ultimate thing is that feeling of being present and doing what you want on the wave, but then throw a crowd into it and people just get kind of nuts sometimes.

I think everyone goes through this at some point where you start taking too much because you can. When you first start out surfing it’s so hard to catch a wave and then finally you get into this rhythm and you want more of it. But I’ve reached a point where, just because I can catch a wave, it doesn’t mean I should. You know, there can be a lot of taking in surfing. And I definitely believe in carpe diem, you’ve got to seize the moment. But, just lately, I’m not so hungry for waves all the time anymore … I guess because I’ve caught a lot of them in my life.

Something that I think is really important is having respect for the ocean, the power of the ocean, taking care of the ocean, as far as not polluting and picking up trash even if it’s not yours, and having respect for other people in the line up whether they are years into it, a veteran, or just a very beginning person. I think that surfing doesn’t just mean surfing the wave. There’s a lot to surfing that goes beyond that and the lessons are really endless. A lot of it’s a psychosocial thing; are you brave enough to go out in huge waves? There have been points in my life where I thought I was going to drown and then I think back on it and I was probably eleven and that wave was probably two foot high (laughs) and would not have hurt me at all. But then a couple years ago when I was surfing pipeline (Oahu, Hawaii), I discovered a whole new realm of bravery. There’s always something that’s going to challenge you.

Why do you think surfing brings out so many different emotions?
It’s like driving. All of a sudden you get in the car and you’re like, whoa, road rage! (laughs) When you’re driving free and you have this feeling of freedom and then you get that taken away from you because someone else has the wave, you have to learn to deal with that. And some people don’t want to be patient with it. It’s easier for them to get upset. I don’t know what it is about being immersed in the water, it does bring up all these emotions and maybe allows people to have some sort of an outlet of pent up emotion. I think it’s different for everyone. I feel like I’ve gone though all of that. I’ve felt, “oh, I can’t catch a wave and this is depressing.” I’ve felt extreme gratitude for catching one wave and I’ve also felt ego for being able to take whatever waves I want. I’ve also felt humbled by something pounding me and wondering when I get to take a breath. I’ve been whacked on the head and gotten a huge egg on my forehead and scar from my surfboard on a really simple day. You never know what’s going to happen. It’s not a controlled environment but we try to somehow harness that power. I was giving a surf lesson the other day and I was trying to explain it as a calm desire. You have that desire but you try to find that calm line inside of you that can take it all in. The best surfers have this focus to them but they look so relaxed and graceful and fluid. There is definitely an adrenaline happening inside them as calm as they may seem. It’s such a contrast but a beautiful one.

People have really different ideas of what makes a great surfer. Has that changed for you over the years?
From town to town that I’ve lived in, I’ve appreciated different kinds of surfers for the different waves we’ll get. In Malibu, for example, I really gathered an appreciation for style and maybe that was ingrained in my head from the opinions around me, “you gotta look calm (laughs)!” I have always loved someone looking like they’re in control but always pushing it, always pushing the line. Josh Farber is a great example of that. I love short boarding too even though longboarding is more my forte … just anyone that’s having a blast. That’s something that is definitely conveyed in people surfing if they’re having a good time and I think that’s very alluring.

Do you have any favorite women surfers?
My neighbor Zeuf Hesson. She’s a life inspiration for me and she’s very smooth and graceful. She’s paddled across the bay here from Santa Cruz to Monterey. She’s just an incredible water woman and right now she’s struggling with cancer, but her inspiration just continues on. Her love of the ocean is really inspiring.

Lynda Benson (World Champion ‘59; US Champion, ’59, ’60, ’61,’64,’68; Surfing Hall of Fame 1992; Director of the Linda Benson Women’s World Longboard Pro). It’s just amazing to me that she surfed Waimea at age 15, the first woman to surf there on an old longboard. Linda really helped us with our World Championship contest over the last decade, helping to reestablish longboard professional surf contests for us ladies. It’s been so in and out throughout the years as far as sponsorship of the events and of the individual surfers. It’s been really fun surfing with her and getting to know her. Linda borrowed a board of mine and it was the coolest day when she tried a few waves. She’s a hero.

The list really goes on … Carla Roland, Julie Cox and Kassia Meador. We were just a gang when we were teenagers. We were each other’s peers as far as surfing goes. I’ll always love their surfing. Also, Heather Tiddens from the movie “The Women and The Waves.”

How has the mainstream perception of women surfers changed over time?
I think it is changing, it’s constantly evolving because the numbers are going up. When I started surfing I felt like I was the only girl out there. And guys, when I’d hear them talking about women surfing, it was always, “oh, she sucks.” It wasn’t the common conception that women could surf and it made me always feel like I had to prove myself or surf as good as the guys. A lot of times there weren’t a lot of gals so, if there was one out, she wasn’t always the best surfer in the line up. Not to say there weren’t great surfers. Throughout the years, I’ve met some amazing, amazing women surfers that have just been core surfers that have been surfing for years. That reminds me of a couple of other of my favorite women surfers … Cori Schumacher and Leah Dawson. They’re amazing water athletes.

Women’s surfing did start to get popular when Lisa Anderson (World Champion, 1994 – 1997) started wearing the board short and Roxy started marketing her. Lisa Anderson was not a flashy model girl. She was a core surfer. It’s interesting because a lot of this popularity started off of her but branched into surfer girl models – all these skinny girls that were surfer girl models. And for me, as a teenager, when this was all getting popular, it was kind of confusing and frustrating and an easy thing to call lame because I wasn’t one of those girls. I wasn’t a tiny model that was cute (laughs). I was whoever I was, a strong surfer girl. But I have friends and I’ve see younger girls get caught up in this image of being this cute little skinny person in a bikini and having eating disorders and that is not what surfing is about. It’s not about how cute you are in your bikini. I think you can look at it a lot of ways. The Surf Industry produces what they think people will glom on to and what causes them to buy a product. So are they making an image that people want or are they making whatever image they want that people are going to follow?

I have a lot of older women friends that say, “I used to paddle out in the line up and people would call me a dyke.” But then it turned into this thing of a surfer girl that’s like a bimbo. (laughs) I don’t know, everyone kind of makes of it whatever they want. And for me, I do appreciate the fact that women’s surfing has gotten popular, even though they’re not always the doors that maybe I could walk through or other surf athletes could walk through. Because these doors for the surf models have been opened, it does allow, down the line, other doors to be opened … I’m hoping. It seems like that’s starting to happen …

STAY TUNED FOR PART II OF THE ASHLEY LLOYD INTERVIEW – more on women in the surf world and Ashley’s shaping career.

More Info
• For more info about Ashley’s custom surf boards, music or surf instruction: http://www.ashleylloydmusic.com
• Contact Ashley directly: ashleylloydmusic@mac.com or (831) 566-8759
• Ashley’s boards are also available at Bing: http://www.bingsurf.com/surfboards_ashley, http://bingsurf.com/team_ashleylloyd.html
• Ashley’s music: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ashleylloyd
• Photo credit: Neal Casal http://www.nealcasal.com/about.html