Lee Wilson, Mid-North Coast, Australia

Lee Wilson’s surfing doesn’t match his personality. On land he’s relaxed, friendly and as happy a man as you’ll likely meet. But in the soup, he goes for it, as hard and fast as you like, spinning super-quick and committing fearlessly to some ankle-threatening landings. Fun to watch, to be sure. And, he’s got a decent strike-rate, too. This sequence was taken by Nate Lawrence during a SUPERbrand trip to the Lower Clarence. The purpose of the trip to finalise shots for the new Superbrand movie, Sorry, We’re Open, which’ll be cover-mounted to Stab issue 50. Lee was an integral part of the trip, always keen to get in the water and down to surf anywhere, anytime. During the four-day sojourn, seeing him settle a rotation like this wasn’t unusual. Visually, when it comes to sequences of backside aerial spins, we’re down with the fins-to-the-beach, looking-at-landing shot as the main image, much like this one. It screams control, speed through rotation and ain’t your average ass-in-the-face depiction. Shooting multiple surfers at once is a tough job, so when Nate Lawrence told us the sequence started with the first shot y’see here, we totally understood. If there’d been three (or even two) shots at the front end, it would’ve made the magazine as part of our SUPERbrand trip feature. There’s still a divide between images that’re online-worthy and stuff that is good enough for print, but with the level that surf photography’s reaching these days, the line continually grows thinner. Which is why we’re running this sequence – even though it’s a little older than we usually like to use in Full Frames, it’s too good to never be seen.