Beneath the Breaking Light

About this piece

A vast turquoise wave rises behind a jet ski rider, its crest dissolving into spray against a pale sky. Bands of whitewater fill the foreground, while the small human figure gives the sweeping ocean scene its measure of scale.

The story

I watched the turquoise face of the wave rise behind the rider, holding its color beneath a crest already turning white. My eye followed the small red mark of the helmet through the spray. For an instant, the water seemed to contain two different rhythms: the sweeping curve of the wake and the immense forward movement of the breaker. I pressed the shutter where those rhythms met, with the rider almost lost between them.