Jake Halstead, Blacks, US

Throw the smallest hint of meat to a pack of hungry wolves and they’ll go crazy for it. Throw some swell at a pack of wave-starved surfers and you’ll likely get a similar effect.

“Only the third south swell of the summer just got here and the crowds are out of control at Lowers and that whole zone,” says photog Jimmy Wilson. Not one to jostle with hundreds of others to link up with his subjects, Jimmy and pal Oli Kurtz decided to try and find some seclusion. “We drove south to go surf La Jolla reefs, straight into gridlock traffic, just for something different. We were averaging about eight km an hour and were just struggling, until I texted Jake Halstead. He told us to turn around and go to Blacks with him and his friends, one of which has the key to drive down to the beach.” The nature of access to Blacks will trim any crowd down, so Jimmy and Oliver took the offer. “It ended up being pretty fun. If you’d walked all the way down you’d have been bummed, but driving in is boss shit.”

So, Jake (pictured here) doesn’t just have a quick way into Blacks – he also has a mean backside throw.