Brett Bircher, South of Sydney

Point-of-view surf photography takes commitment. You gots to be willing to float around in the lineup for a long time, and depending on the place or conditions you might have to deal with either cold water, powerful waves, sea life, or all of the above. But something not everyone knows about this type of surf photography is that to really nail a shot, you may have to bite the bullet and go over the falls on that sucker.

Rodeo Owen and Brett Bircher went hunting for waves south of Sydney, hoping the good forecasts would come true and deliver some decent swell. The forecasted conditions never came, so they settled for this place, which was their ‘back-up plan’. On this one, Rodeo let the wave kick him up over Brett, punched his arm out, and hoped for the best. What happened next was a blessing in disguise.

“Just after this frame, I went straight over the falls and got flipped onto the reef. I landed ass-first, which was sweet as my camera was scratch free. This is definitely the most sought-after angle in fisheye surf photography – in my eyes anyway – and is always a tough one to pull off.”