Dusty Payne breakfasting on a Backdoor bowl, HI

It ain’t just Seth de Roulet (three spreads previous to this one in Stab issue 66 Full Frames) using a wide-angle lens to shoot from way back, either. Brent Bielmann made this photo of Dusty Payne on a six-to-eight-foot day just a few weeks back. The swell was particularly north and Brent set himself up in a zone where he figured he’d steal the classic shot of a surfer taking wide sets and riding past in the tube. But that ain’t Dusty’s idea of a swinging time. The Maui-born 24 year old likes to sit real deep at Backdoor, almost in the Pipe channel, and hunt the super north bombs. “I haven’t really seen Dusty go Pipe,” says Brent. “He’ll always go Backdoor over Pipe. That’s what he’s waiting for. And, this day, he had four in a row, just like that wave. And, yeah, he came out.”