On the 9th of March an image of Micheal Bourez standing wide-armed in a backlit Teahupoo cavern blew up on Instagram.
Fingers around the world double tapped furiously and comment threads erupted with superlatives, expletives and accolades. The GOAT, and many others, instantly dubbed it one of the best surf photos of all time.
The iconic image was shot by then 18-year-old Aussie Leroy Bellet, who has been at the forefront of behind-the-surfer photography for several years, after drawing inspiration French pioneer Laurent Pujol.
Redbull have just dropped a film documenting Bellet’s journey to capturing the image and while it’s slightly corpro for our taste, it’s pretty incredible to see the lengths the young Aussie went to, and his flagrant disregard for his own well being, driven purely by the desire to get the shot…
