Story Behind The Photo: Fiji In The Rearview

If there is a god or whatever, rainbows are just his version of how we play with laser pointers and cats. Add Cloudbreak beneath one and it makes for a great frame, like the one you see above. Let’s have photographer Tom Servais break down the scene.

“The Fiji Pro had ended on Friday,” Tom tells Stab. “June 16 and Saturday provided a solid swell for competitors who stayed on. It was a really good day of surfing, but more was on the way.

“This week on Tavarua Island was a wedding week for Tavarua’s manager Dylan Fish, who was marrying Julia Mancuso, a Maui resident who won a gold medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics in giant slalom. She loves surfing, and Dylan is a seasoned veteran at Cloudbreak.

“One of her wedding guests, Big Wave World Champion Paige Alms, was sitting in the boat and had never seen a rainbow like this one. And she lives on Maui, home of the rainbow. It was Thursday morning, June 27 and the new swell had filled in. A less crowded swell as surfers like Kelly Slater had left, but just as good.

“Since the reefs around Tavarua Island opened up several years ago to the public, the early surf boat leaves the beach at first light. Which gives surfers an hour or so of empty waves before other boats arrive and the chance to see the sunrise from Cloudbreak. For some reason, the sunrises in Fiji are better than the sunsets. This shot was taken just around sunrise, as the early rays lit up a distant rainstorm and coincided with the rising swell.”