An Empty, Warm Water Barrel Spinning Over Costa Rican Sand

It started with an email. Nineteen year-old Kalani Cummins had slipped a letter under Stab’s digital door over the weekend. It was a dreamy moment featuring Logan Dulien squeezing his frame into a glass cylinder somewhere exotic. The sand was dark. The background flora appeared far too dense and lush to be mainland US (where Kalani usually shoots).

As inviting as it may have appeared to the wave-starved staff of our humble enterprise, it was still just a closeout tube. A throwaway. Nostalgic and leisurely, not quite scroll arresting.

Then came a second submission. This time the attachment contained something that just had to be shared. A Costa Rican scene, neatly composed of sheet glass and warm lighting encircling the prettiest of almond shaped funnels. 

“Sometimes everything just lines up perfectly,” said Kalani. “When the water temp is 80° so you trunk it, the lighting is perfect, nobody else is out and there’s swell… doesn’t get much better than that.”