Sam Hammer, suspended in a salty stratosphere, NJ

Sam Hammer is a classic New Jersey surfer, but this ain’t no classic New Jersey setting. You see, the water is unusually warm, the atmosphere is somewhat summery, and Sam has shed about 2mm’s of rubber off his suit. And for a gent that lives by the saying “life is best in a 5mm”, that’s a big deal. “This was the first real swell that we could wear our 3mm wetties and it was sunny all day,” says lensman Ryan Mack. “Working with Sam is great because you know you are going to nail at least one or two shots a session. His surfing is real powerful and timed out perfectly. He usually already knows what he’s going to do on a wave the second he stands up. Right after this air, the wind came up pretty hard and Sam called it quits, but not without nailing a couple of fine frames.”