Back in the day: A super typhoon was heading straight to Japan. There was a 2 hour window of good waves before the roofs starts to blow off houses. I’m in the car with Matchi searching for the best spot. We’re frantically going back and forth to a nearby island trying to time the arrival of the monster swell. The tide, winds, currents, and weather were all factors. On top of that, the best water photographer in the world at the time “Chris Van Lennep” was on the island chasing the same typhoon. Chris was a staff photographer for US Surfing Magazine so if you get lucky, you will have a chance for your photo to be published in the most prestigious surfing magazine in the world. That was every surfers dream, and that was every surfers job.
We check this river mouth early in the morning. It was stormy. So we drive to the port and catch a ferry to an outer island and it was too small. We get back on the ferry and speed back to the river mouth. As the super typhoon was approaching, the winds turned offshore and everything cleaned up. OMG, nobody out yet as we waxed our 7’0 boards. I see Chris swimming out which I thought was crazy. The waves were huge and the current was raging like a river. The waves were so big that Matchi and I had to paddle out through the harbor. We get out, it’s solid 10′-12′ Hawaiian scale. The photographer is nowhere in sight. The sun pops out as the first set approaches. I paddle my hardest and by some miracle make the drop, I bottom turn and pull into the biggest barrel of my life. That was it as everything suddenly changed. The typhoon hit and everything ended.
Three months later, I open up the new Surfing Magazine and see a 2 page spread of this photo. OMG, Chris got the shot! Since then, this photo has been used over and over in publications all over the world. I got super lucky that day.
Thank you Chris for getting the shot. Thank you Surfing Magazine for publishing the shot. And especially thank you to Matchi for getting us to the right place at the right time every typhoon. You’ve gotten me into some of the best and most memorable barrels of my life. Some sessions published, most not. So when you sent me this photo yesterday, all the memories came back. I am forever grateful for you and your beautiful island. And thank you to all the locals for your hospitality throughout those 20 years of chasing the dream!
