SHE SCRIBES

WITH ACCOMPANYING DOUBLE EXPOSURES

{from the photographer}

The following images were all shot at Queens in Waikiki, on the South Shore of Oahu, with a Nikonos III camera from the 1970's. Using in-camera techniques, I exposed 35mm film two or three times to different scenes, both on land and in the water. The idea was to have images of surfers layered over textures of the foliage found throughout Oahu, brining together visions of the land and the sea – two powerful forces that combine to create an ideal backdrop for women surfing. The photographs are a celebration of the simplistic beauty of wave riding, especially when executed with a feminine touch of style and power

RISK AVERSE

BY LAUREN HILL

There are guys on either side of me, scrambling to nudge me out of position, willing me to fall, as the clean face of a three-foot peeler prepares to stand up over the shallow bank. But I’m in just the right spot, deep enough to have priority, but not so deep that I’ll get caught behind the section. I swing, take a few deep strokes amidst the froth of the other’s kicking feet, and pivot into a shallow bottom turn on my single fin, sun illuminating the steep, growing section ahead.

This very moment is my purgatory. I want to pull in, but I’m scared. So I’m half-trimming along, the lip grinding against my feet and ankles, watching the wave face curl over itself; the place where I should be, but am not. It’s a hypnotic interplay of blues and whites and clouds of khaki sand. Why am I here in the flats and not tucked in right there?

My mind gets overly involved and, inevitably, the lip cracks my rail and sends me flailing. Again. One of my rails knocks my shin as I become a tangle of lycra, fibreglass, legrope, and self-inflicted shame for blowing another beautiful wave with hesitation. Further, my bikini bottoms have been ripped clean off, saved only by my leg rope. Underwater, I needle my feet back through the leg holes and yank the bikini back into place before resurfacing to a pointy nose and three fins searing past my head.

Do you have a regret about your surfing life? With 20 years of wave riding behind me, I do. I have a regret.

I grew up