Jay Davies, backside plume, Rocky Point

Among all the tubes and brilliantly composed aerials, is there still room on our lives for a simple coiling of the hunter and the slaying of a lip? Can you feel the vibration in a trick that appears so simple but is so difficult? “These are much much harder than a frontside finner,” says Kolohe Andino, not pictured, “and more of an art form.” It’s true! “Jay had a lot of opportunities this day,” says the photographer Seth Stafford. “He kept getting left after left and kept trying Big Spins, but he was going really huge and kept getting bucked off on the landing. It’s amazing how light he surfs for how big he is. Powerful but so light on his feet and he’s so clean when he exists the lip.”