One of the most popular extreme sports today, the world of surfing has an uber-cool feel to it. It takes more than just a steady pair of feet to conquer some of the mightiest waves. These ten photographers showcase some totally tubular surfing photos from around the world.
All images are used with permission and are copyrighted by the respective photographers. The lead image is by Chris Burkard.
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Chris Burkard
You’ve probably only heard of Iceland as a photography destination for landscape and astro photographers. But did you know that Iceland’s coastline has excellent waves for surfing too? Check out Chris’s surfing pics from here, where he had to brave ice-cold weather to get these great frames.
João Pedro
Using just a GoPro 3 Silver, João took these incredible photos while surfing. Read our interview to learn about his unconventional way of getting water off the lens while out there.
Ryan Williams
He still prefers surfing to photography, but his love for the sport helps Ryan Williams get some really radical photos while out on the water. Ryan also tells us about the one time he got trapped under some really massive waves while trying to get a photo.
Mark Tipple
We’ve all seen humongous waves that surfers like displaying their talents on. But how many of us have seen the world under the surface of those waves? Daring to go under them with his camera is photographer Mark Tipple.
Ryan Struck
Previsualizing helps Ryan achieve greater success when photographing surfing on the East Coast. Even though you can’t always predict what’s going to happen, he feels you need to embrace this with a desire to keep learning.
Every wave is unique, no two are the same
Ryan Struck
Brooks Sterling
Taking the difficulty level up a few notches, Brooke Sterling challenges himself by doing surf photography on analog film. He took up photography because he was terrible at drawing, and he’s done really well for himself behind the camera.
Swen Bachmann
Aside from a lot of his underwater work, Swen loves to float on the surface and capture the life that passes by. A lot of times, this involves photographing surfing as well. The pièce de résistance? He does all this on his Hasselblad 500 C/M.
Roland Kraemer
A love for surfing is what brought Roland to photography. He dearly wanted to capture the beautiful waves that were so close to his heart.
Mario Daniele
Viewing surfers from a fair distance can give a completely different perspective on the sport. That’s exactly what Mario did with a minimalistic outlook in his series called Surf!
Carolin Unrath
Whoever said surfing was restricted to the ocean obviously hasn’t seen the Eisbach River surfers of Germany. The difficulties of the Covid-19 period of 2020 didn’t dampen Carolin’s spirit too much as she set out to create a series about these surfers back then.