First Light

There is a window at Waimea Bay, brief and specific, before the wind arrives and before the morning fully settles in, when the first shafts of sunlight reach down into the bay and illuminate the water in a completely different way.

This was that window. The barrel lit from within, turquoise and clear against the deeper blue of the surrounding water. The lip folding forward, the whitewater catching the light in contrast with the shadow still holding across the rest of the bay. As a photographer, you learn to be there early for exactly this reason. The ocean and the light align for only a few minutes before the conditions shift and the moment closes.

Andre Botha, a two-time bodyboarding world champion, is centred in the frame, and he rode it well. What stopped me was the wave itself, the form, the colour, the way the first light was moving across the surface. Some mornings the ocean simply offers you something and your job is to be ready when it does.