| nick bannehr photo |

"Surfing photography has been described as starvation on the road to madness. It has long been observed within surfing circles that there exists an abnormally high rate of mental illness amongst it’s photographers. Common symptoms of this illness may include alcoholism, prescription & non-prescription drug use & abuse, an inability to sustain any kind of long term relationship, paranoia and delusions of grandeur. Yeah, your average surfing photographer is unstable and unreliable but in times of crisis they will suffer stoically through the most difficult conditions and in my opinion are ultimately undervalued. If you need to find a cheap van driver in West Sumatra, a seaworthy boat to rent in Papeete or a bag of weed to placate the latest 17 year old Brazilian superstar in the south of France, then it is the well seasoned, sunburnt, probably intoxicated man wearing clothes with gigantic surf brand logos all over them (they were free of course) with whom you will need to turn. There are no secretaries, personal assistants, gophers or catering trucks in the world of surf photography. We truly are one man bands. Travel agent, baby sitter, chauffeur, cook, psychologist, wingman, bouncer, foreign diplomat, nurse. We are all these and more to your average traveling sponsored young surf star (who we know is getting paid 20x what we are). In our downtime we are expected to control the weather, the waves and the tides in order to come back with the dream line-up photograph and the poster worthy action shot proudly displaying corporate logo to all and sundry and not miss the ONE time said surf star finally decides to land his latest radical aerial maneuver out of approximately 3000 attempts. Put these minor quibbles aside though and at the end of the day we are just standing around on tropical beaches or swimming delightfully like babes through cerulean seas. This is no war zone; its a fortunate life we lead, and besides the odd shark sighting or malaria scare, the risks are low and of the degenerative kind."