This season was particularly busy in the water at Ho’okipa and some days there were six or more photographers in the impact zone at one time, making it a pretty dangerous place to be for both the sailors and the paps. As Polakow hits cruise control and drives though his bottom turn, directing his board to snap under the lip, I was still hanging in there fully-committed – despite the fact I was probably munched by the approaching wave. For my shot I was using my trusty Aquatech water housing and a Canon 50D, with a 24-105 zoom attached. Right at that 1000th of a second that I pressed the shutter, the lens was zoomed out to 63mm for the duration of the sequence.
Jason Polakow
“I think I prefer the water shot as it gives you a view from the sailors’ perspective. Of what he is looking at and where he needs to go. The water shot also gives you a good insight as to where I am initiating my bottom turn and how I keep my speed through the turn. In the first few frames you can really clearly see how much board rail I’m using and where I’m looking and wanting to project the board. With the cutback, I kind of hit the lip and just float there for a bit. I would have liked to have seen myself really bash the lip and send a large amount of spray out the back of the wave. The water shot gives you a very nice look at how to have your body positioned and hand placement on the boom when coming off-the-lip. From the land the smack looks a little more radical but I’m still just floating around the lip. The land shot also gives you a good view of the line I took in the bottom turn and on the wave face before I hit the section. Go rip it up, JP”