A Lesson In Capturing Chaos With The Best Water Filmer On Earth

To compare Tom Jennings’ latest reel to any surf video made in the 2000’s, is to realize the massive leap that both filmmaking and surfing have taken in the last couple decades.

Though the clip is almost exclusively in slow motion — a medium that can be notoriously tedious to watch — we couldn’t peel our eyes away. 

At this point, it almost feels as though we take the technology behind today’s surf-cinematographers for granted. To watch every water molecule spin in a shimmering vortex around Kerby Brown’s voluptuous beard would have been life-altering just a decade ago. Now, the surfing public seems somewhat jaded in the appreciation and understanding of clips like this.

Imagine showing this to someone in the 1920’s, and explaining that people in the future do that for a living.

Of course, it isn’t just the tech that’s made footage like this possible, we also need folks who want to place themselves, calm and calculated, in the belly of some bathymetrical beasts. Luckily, Tom Jenno knows a handful of them. 

Based on the above reel, he also knows a thing or two about beauty.

Even though the footage is nearly two years old — ancient, by today’s standards — it’s still lively, relevant, and extremely engaging.

Click the link for 10 minutes of your favorite surfers, engaged in their beloved dance through Oz, Indo, Mozambique, and Hawaii.