A few weeks back a short clip dropped from Red Bull documenting Mick Fanning and two Norweigan photographers quest to capture a shot of surfing under the Northern Lights.
The picture was pretty amazing and at the time we reflected on how impressive it was that never before seen images of surfing were still being created in 2016, however, as always happens with a new concept, it hasn’t taken long for someone to come along and do it better, and unsurprisingly, the man behind the improvement was adventure photographer extraordinaire Chris Burkard.
Burkard grew up searching for remote little corners to surf on the Central Californian coast and after discovering photography at 18, he decided to dedicate his life to travelling and documenting surfing. Since then he has gone on to become one of the most prolific and successful cold climate, adventure surf photogs arguably pioneering the pulled back, snow-capped mountain backdrop genre of surf photography that is so ubiquitous today.
In this clip, Burkard describes his beginnings and tells the story of the tumultuous trip to Iceland on which he captured the image in question. It’s all a bit American and not pitched specifically at a surf savvy audience, but it’s still pretty entertaining and well worth a watch on this fine Sunday afternoon:
