Labor Day Swell

After two weeks of flatness and weird weather, seeing a forecast with a solid south swell coming and good weather had me and many other surfers up and down the coast salivating. It was, however, Labor Day weekend, which meant a lots of people and not a lot of parking. Due to a recent knee injury, I didn't feel strong enough to spend the entire weekend shooting in the water so I decided to rent a 400mm lens for the weekend and mainly shoot with that. I hadn't shot from the beach in a while so it was a good refresher and practice.
The first day of the swell I drove down to Trestles to meet up with my brother and a few other friends from San Diego. After parking the farthest I've every parked at the top of the trail and getting down to the beach, I was stoked to see the guy suiting up next to me was Gabriel Medina, who won the Nike Pro at Lowers a couple months ago. He proceeded to go catch more waves and land more airs in such a short period than anyone I've ever seen, which made my job really easy.

I spent the next two days shooting in at 56th St in Newport and Northside Huntington Pier with Bryan Van Arsdale. Bryan is always a standout at Northside so it was fun working together all weekend with him. Both days were a little bit frustrating due to the variety of swell in the water at the same time which made the waves a bit wonky and not working to their potential. Despite these factors, we were able to get some decent shots.

Well I hope you enjoyed the pictures from this weekend. I'm having my knee looked tomorrow so hopefully its nothing too serious and I won't be out of the water for long. Until then, thanks to everyone who helped me out this weekend.