Water Photography Tip – Don’t Shut A Section Down On Kelly Slater

Here’s an interesting one from the first round of the Rip Curl Pro 2013, a water videographer shooting the Rip Curl Pro at Supertubos in Portugal was ordered out of the water by Kelly Slater after shutting a section down on him in his round 1 heat.

Thanks to the wonders of modern surf competition coverage you can check it out on the heat analyser here: http://live.ripcurl.com/rip-curl-pro-portugal-2013-heat-analyzer.html

Go to round 1 heat 5 and click the third blue circle to see Kelly’s fourth wave (with the replay symbol immediately after it) to see it happen, watch the full speed version because the replay is from a reverse angle which doesn’t show it very well.

Interestingly I think he might of got in the way a bit on Kellys first wave too, so watch that one and see what you think, I reckon this didn’t help when he made a bigger booboo later on, if it’s the same guy it looks like he’s one of the videographers for the event because you can see the water angle he shot in the official highlights video here (the footage from the first wave is at 1 minute 59): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxanxb00AVk#t=123

There’s some commentary on it from Jeff Flindt on his Facebook page, with Kirstin Prisk adding a nice little montage of frame grabs showing the two incidents, the consensus seems to be that Kelly was justified, moderate even, in his response because the video guy was not getting out of the way, this in a critical stage of the world tour in which a successful 12th world title potentially hinges on every heat.

It might look a bit borderline whether he’d of made it without the videographer screwing with the section but we’ve all seen him make deeper barrels than that, and there’s no real excuse for the guy to be right in that position anyway, it looks like he’s given up trying to get the shot in the frame above, probably because he knows he’s not going to be able to get it without being completely in the way, especially wielding a two handed video rig, rather than a lighter, more manoeuvrable still camera housing.

I’ve shot photo’s in the water at Supertubos myself, the only people in the water were there my mates so I wasn’t in any danger of getting ordered out, saying that the currents are fairly strong and the banks can make it difficult to get in position for the sets so I can empathise with the videographer a bit, it’s hard work making sure you get the shot and staying out of peoples way.

This is one of my shots from Supertubos of Jim Sutton, there was a little less at stake, I had a broken arm at the time so I was wearing a rubber glove over my cast which I had squeezed inside my wetsuit, it was hard to keep position even though it was small because the peaks shift a lot and there’s some mean currents.

Here’s another one from a few minutes later where I’m ducking out of the way of a closer than he looks Jim:

The whole situation makes me wonder what credentials or even fee you have to supply to be a water photog’ at a CT tour stop, the commentators only say you have to check in and there are limits to the numbers, I found the link for requesting media accreditation on the Rip Curl site, it says “You may be required to present proof of media when picking up your pass.” but even so it looks to me like it was an official video person rather than a freelancer who’s responsible in this case.

What I learned:

I think everyone who shoots in the water can learn something from this, obviously it’s not every day you’re shooting an ASP event but there’s some good rules of thumb that this illustrates:

• Stay out of the way if you don’t know the surfer, even if you know them, if you haven’t spoken to them about what you want to do it’s best to keep clear and let them ride the wave how they want.
• If you’re shooting video or using a long lens (using two hands to operate the camera) be especially careful to get out of the way sooner rather than later, surfers can travel quickly and looking through a viewfinder can be disorientating.
• Respect the surfers wishes – even if they aren’t Kelly Slater, if a surfer doesn’t want you taking photo’s, don’t take photo’s, this goes for shooting from the land too, if it’s a sensitive spot ask permission from anyone surfing first and don’t assume they want to have their photo taken.