Category Finalist 2010: Spirit

Mike Smolowe

A good friend of mine and I bought a van for 700 Euros in San Sebastian and we spent two months travelling through Spain, France, Portugal, and Morocco. We decided to make the drive to Mundaka, Spain for the WCT contest because we had heard such amazing things about not only the wave, but also the town itself.

I had seen footage from the previous contest where Bobby Martinez got thrown off the wall in the harbor after he won and remember thinking how amazing it must look from the water. CJ won his final heat against Joel Parkinson in the waning minutes of the contest and on a whim I ran back to the van, put my housing together, and jumped in the water.

Within seconds I could see something was wrong. Condensation began building in my fisheye port and I could see drops of water beginning to accumulate under the base plate of my camera. I frantically swam to the wall, climbed out, ran back to the van and quickly exchanged my fisheye lens for my 24-70mm and changed ports. Not sure if the port had even been the issue, I crossed my fingers and ran back down to the harbor, jumped in the water, and anxiously awaited CJ's arrival. Minutes later he got hoisted up and tossed in. My 35mm focal length ended up being perfect. One of those seemingly shot-ruining things that ends up creating an even better image.

PHOTO INFO

Photographer: Mike Smolowe
Athlete: CJ Hobgood
Location: Mundaka, Basque Country, Spain

TECHICAL INFO

Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM
ISO: 200
F-Stop: f 8,0
Shutter Speed: 1/500