Behind The Shot: Lucas Chumbo at Jaws
Though it's not known as a big wave spot, Saquarema in Brazil is a powerful wave at size. Brazilian journalist Julio Adler assures me of this. More importantly, Julio says Saqarema has a long tradition of wild man surfers, a lineage of loose units with a taste for the big stuff both in Brazil and Hawaii.
Lucas 'Chumbo' Chianca is the latest in the pedigree. If you've paid any attention to XXXL sessions the last two seasons you couldn't have failed to notice him, falling out of the sky at monolithic Nazare, holding position on the bowl at Mavericks, or blindsiding the left at outsized Peahi. Chumbo is this generation's Mark Healey: the Fear-O-Meter is set to zero so he'll sit deepest and find himself in the most radical of positions, getting cleaned up or swinging late for a wave others have deemed a preposterous proposition.
This sequence was shot during the recent Peahi swell. The swell that notables such as Billy Kemper and Paige Alms considered too dangerous. Tim Bonython was shooting from the water:
"After spending a good part of the day shooting on Keith Baxter's boat, we decided to head across to the left which is a lot more precarious as it has a tendency to close out quicker than the right. It doesn't actually fully close out but breaks across the bay where you're running the gauntlet."
"Kai Lenny was foiling and Chumbo, who's a goofy, was focusing on the lefts. The light was perfect with 15 to 25 foot waves unfolding across at us. Then the horizon darkened and there it is, Lucas on top of a monster dropping down in full control as it seems to expand as the wave well and truly hits the reef!"
Ol' Tim is prone to a bit of excitement but when he called it "the perfect ride - a 10 out of 10" it was hard to argue. The sheer size, the critical takeoff including a wayward board and an airdrop, and then the lip cascading down from the troposphere.
"It was a moment where the stars aligned," continued Tim, "where we were sitting in the perfect place where history went down right in front of us. I reckon I was as stoked as Lucas was. It was a great feeling all round."
And what about Chumbo's future? "Lucas is a guaranteed future world big wave champ for sure," says Tim, before reconsidering. "...but then there's Kai Lenny. It's like John John and Gabriel Medina with those two. They're going be the two to watch."
Sequence by Tim.
PS: For anyone who's wondering, 'Chumbo' means 'lead' - as in the heavy metal - in Portuguese.
Comments
Wish they wouldn't shift the horizon angle to make it look bigger...tilt your head to the left and it becomes dramatcially less evil...
Interesting! Is this a common trick in surf photography? Are you a surf Photographer.
No..surfed all my life and read more surfing magazines than is healthy....its been happening as long as surfers have been photographed.
Hell men! I mean that seriously for Chumbo and ironically for the Bungan charger.
Im not having a dig at their courage in the slightest. 20 feet or 50 feet...same bloody thing to me. Beyond my limits. I know what I can and cant do and surf that is not something I would ever pretend to do. It was a comment on the way people try to misrepresent to impress - nothing about the act itself.
Horizon shifted? Not sure about that. Here's video footy, filmed a little further out and into the channel, but it still shows the angling lip line.
Doesn't make the plight of the poor sod caught inside look any less terrifying...
10 points for surviving being caught inside.
Thats flimed from a boat so of course the horzon is shifting - pause it at 5 sec (straight horizon) then pause it at 7-8 sec - completely different scale. Once again....Im not a hater - they are all displaying courage that is beyond my realm. Just observation about representation through media. Its the instagram age....angles, colours, filters....its just good to be aware.
https://www.swellnet.com/news/surfpolitik/2018/01/24/post-it-and-they-wi...
I dont see the diff between 17 sec and 20 seconds. I mean, you can't even see the horizon but the lipline. Anyway, whatever...it's happening cos of the rocking of a boat which is a little different then doing it intentionally as you originally implied.
The stills though Stunet - they're all angled. Thats intentional. Takes 3 seconds on iPhoto to change a horizon line. I was tempted once on FB to post a photo of me from Cloudbreak. Cropping the lip out changed it from 8 foot to 12+. I didnt though! Changing the horizon line would have made it look 15+.....What represents the reality? If you're throwing your hat into the ring for an XXL award - I reckon you have a reponsibiltiy to represent reality as best you can. You can't honestly tell me that in shot three there is NO difference when you tilt your head 30 degrees to the left. As is - looks like he has literally 20-30 metres to reach the trough. Tilt your head - and the wave changes. Awesome? Yes. Fearless? Yes. Insane? Yes. But not 50-60 feet of wave....
Im talking about the representation of the reality - not the courage of the rider which is unquestionable.
Mate, the stills were sent to me straight off the camera. I could tell because of the file and the size ratio. I don't want to crop anything cos the WOTD frame is a different ratio - see pics above compared to WOTD frame - and I would've lost more width than is ideal.
Tim films all the time, puts out about a movie a year, there's no way he sits there with his head cocked to one side filming at an angle.
Skepticism is good....within reason.
Yes, that makes sense - I wouldnt want to crop a surf photogs work. Would be like doing plastic surgery on someone elses child....
All good! Keep up the nice work....
Land angle. It was also, along with Bianca Valenti's wave, considered one of the biggest that came through all day.
I know this is really rude! But can we get an interview with the guys caught inside and what happens some how please.
Nice wave again.
What an animal, that's some serious positioning.
Anyone who sits deep on the left has to expect some punishment, the takeoff shifts more than the right and waves swing wide, and If there are follow up waves and you've inflated then the rocks are a very real possibility. It's goofy's dilemma.
Bungan33, of all the thoughts going through Tim's head - as he rocked from side to side on a jetski in the channel, waiting for this enormous wave to bore through the lineup - I doubt it was "oh man, gotta remember to tilt the camera slightly so the wave looks bigger".
Good point.
Re-read my comments - I am not saying the fliming was intentional - that's just stupid. Hes filming from a boat or jetski. Of course he's havign trouble with horizon lines. But the stills havent been readjusted for horizon line - in effect making the wave look bigger. Checking shots and then doing post shot touch ups are not exactly a new idea. It is standard procedure from anyone from pros to Instagram warrios. Hell - as an older school amateur photog who only moved off flim a few years back I detest the "shoot, check, change" mentality. If you take a shot, the horizons line is wrong so it makes the physcical reality look more dangerous or serious or dramatic - and you DON'T adjust it knowingly.....is that the same as faking it?
So my question (I will state one again) - is a broader, philosphical question about reprsenting reality - not a dig at the surfer or the actual moment of pressing the shutter and taking of the photograph. In this day of fake news I reckon media has a responsibility to play the truest line they can.
Well, that’s a slightly different line of thinking.
Should we run a shot of someone in the barrel if they didn’t make it? A lineup shot if it was deceivingly unsurfable? How about a photo of an average surfer that made them look much more competant than they actually were?
BTW, your first post was:
”Wish they wouldn't shift the horizon angle to make it look bigger.”
I read that as an accusation.
thermalben - I generally try to live by the scientific principle of basing oberservations on known parameters - then if they are proven wrong I integrate that into my new parameters - not cling to the old. So I open Swellnet - which in my mind does not misprepresent surfers achievements and has generally beautiful or awe inspiting WOTD - and I see an obviously skewed horizon that makes the wave more menacing and dramatic. So I say "wish they wouldnt...." - because SOMEONE has. See it as a pondering question not an accusation. I am corrected by the video footage and realise the still is an accident from the moving boat - so not the surf photogs conscious doing. That leads me to assume it has been left in by Swellnet (because I assume a photog has done standard post production) - then Stu jumps in and explains the cropping issues with WOTD....leaving the harder question of "should we knowingly misrepresent the image ?". 90% of surfers would see that it is not a straight photo so to leave it uncorrected is the same as adjusting it (but I take the points about the constraints on fitting the image into the website space and not taking it upon ourselves to readjust a famous surf photogs work!).
Anyway - I think its an interesting question that all media have to face into - and Swellnet is the media.
Did they make it? Did they fall? Did the wave barrel or not...slightly different question as to whether someone is riding heavy Jaws (straigt horizon) vs something that is beyond comprehension (skewed horizon). I reckon most surfers want the closest thing to reality that the photo can get. And I reckon most surf photographers wouldnt want to misrepresent the reality of their work (sure - adjust light and colour for dramatic effect but not size). Otherwise its a slippery slope to click baiting and those photos you see on the internet of a barrel with an oil tanker photoshopped in, really really small...way way down the bottom....
Holy shit. You’re way over-thinking this. It’s just a surf photo!
Yep! Youre right.....outta here!
The Trump era has made me oversensitive - have to reel in my fake news rants and remember that these forums are just a bit of fun.
Totally agree with Bungan33. The photos are clearly on an angle inconsistent with the horizon, and the effect is that it makes the wave looks a lot bigger than it it actually is. I only know the very basics of photography, but I'm pretty sure one of them is that you keep your image level with the horizon. Even if the raw images came out on an angle, as Bungan says, it'll take a second or two to correct the misalignment. However, I don't think Bungan's really having a crack at the photographer or you guys specifically, but rather expressing his exasperation (which I too share) about the superficiality of the modern world. It seems to me that so many folk these days are trying to inflate the reality of their lives so that they come across to everyone else as being that much 'better'. It's all a bit silly, really.
Hmm if you get a magazine pic
look clean side on from the edge into the tube of a wave like chops from a boat angle it gives it a 3D effect.
Never heard of tilting a cam but the fish eye makes it look psycho.
Are you guys looking at the photos above? The sequence? There's no horizon visible in it.
Yes they are stringer
.. I'm more interested in the guy who got caught inside.
I have always harboured this deep dark thought. Where I wish Mark Healey went over the falls on that wave during the thundercloud comp.
To see if he would survive... It never leaves now this thought.
Bad hey.
Doesn't matter dude, the horizon is always level ;)
I don't disagree that the photo's on an angle.
I disagree with the suggestion that Tim has intentionally "shifted the horizon angle to make it look bigger".
interesting subject and exchange of 'points of view' and therein lies the answer IMHO.
It is all about perspective, you know that bizarre scientific twist that delivers an 'altered state of reality' depending on the relative position of the observer to create a viewpoint that can then, if viewed (or captured) through an aparatus other than the human eye, like a telescope
or camera lens must be subject to the distortion the particular apparatus provides the viewer.
Some forces of physics survive the potential of distortion, one being gravity. so IMHO we should look at that first in respect to the images in question.
So gravity will (mostly) control the lip falling and the vertical angle (upright position) of humans who might be captured in the image. All four images show a vertical (relative to the frame sides) falling lip and head/body/full person image of observers being in a substantial vertical position. This also applies to the trailing lip spray generated by the offshore wind, which admittedly could alter slightly depending on wind direction, but appears to align in theses frames with the vertical fall angle of the lip.
Yes I agree Bungan33 that pic tilting is an old trick in still pics to add a dramatic perspective but IMHO this is a case of the perspective created by Tim's camera angle/position with the lens he was using at the time has created the resultant perspective that makes the lip line on RHS seem tilted. It is simply because it is closer and shot from an angle. Think of a pic of a row of trees running along a road that runs into the distance. the closer the tree the bigger it seems and, depending on the lens used, the more or less distortion the trees in the immediate foreground, will appear to be vertical.
Wide angle lenses flatten perspective and telephoto lenses accentuate it and that is compounded by the both relative vertical and horizontal points of view an image is captured from.
Just saying there are many forces at play and those pics stand the credibility test IMHO.
Hehe, shifting horizon is called a rocking boat/ski. If it was straitened to the horizon line you would lose some of the lip. I am sure Tim was pissed he didn't shoot looser/wider or get it straight out of camera
Regardless, its one hell of a ballsy & successful drop. Don't think anyone can argue with that.
Imagine holding your ground waiting for that thing to come at ya?
Then thinking, yeah, I want a piece of this - and actually pushing yourself over the edge?
Respect.
Not to mention the crusty old photographer (joke) as I know some swim for hours.
But surely they are not as prepared fitness wise and with the same breathing "holding" capacity's as the surfers..
Or am I wrong.. Do these guys train in pools for disaster moments such as the surfers or when it goes wrong and a togy gets a two wave hold down does that spell the end?
...and then having to tighten your line ever so much because of a stray board drifting up the face while fighting 'target fixation' to concentrate on the drop. It's a hell of an effort.
As for horrorshow caught inside moments, I still put Dan Ryan's dive at The Right up there with the worst (look for the yellow board):
Oh yeah! That was the sickest photo full spread I remember looked crazy in the stills.
Is that the exposed reef shelf you can see?
Watch on a big screen - that's absolutely exposed reef shelf
stunet i hear that it was his tow partner Jeremy? .. not dan
Ha the internet is funny isn't it? Crazy sequence of some Hellman riding a Pacific monster and the main response is...the horizon is crooked?? Hey Bungan send in your shots of you at " 8ft cloud break" well see if it really does make it look 12. Too funny, great shots and wave guys. Hey Lost doggy about the Right, I hadn't surfed it (and never will) but have watched from afar, I don't think there's any dry ledge , a big rock after the wave though. It's super deep out there and those boils are just pure water displacement. It sits on the 30 mt line and needs a huge swell to break hence them doing there eardrums on wipe out . Crazy wave for some crazy lads!
Thats a good point mezkal. I should have started with "Insane..." - then made my observations. Like all of us I think we get numbed to the sheer awesomeness of what we see these days (and I mean awesome as in true awe - something so far beyond belief that you are struck...not a mcdonalds staff member saying "awesome" when you have ordered your mchappy meal).
And as for the Cloudbreak shots...yes..right...that would start a WHOLE new debate that would disappear into a firey mess...your 8ft vs mine vs others...would be funny though. But I dont get a thrill from talking up surf. Thats for the insecure and the arrogant. I surf coz I love it - not because I need to prove myself (I am assuming the inverted commas on "8 foot" means you are sceptical.) When the Tavarua life guard sitting in the line up with you calls it 8 foot...well then I just go with him.
Actually bungan I would Llike to see the pics of cloudbreak! Not for any comparison I just want to see them do you have one that you're pretty much covered in the barrel but with some nose out so as not to give away your identity?
Hmm yeh I checked it on the big screen, def does look like a dry shelf, I didn't realize there was one there. Makes it even more hectic if that's even possible.
I think it's just the water bubble drawing up and down as the wave pulls the water back over the reef down below sealevel towards the wave.
Also the water is deep and clear..
When I worked out at sea when its ks deep you can sea down hundreds of meters! It looks like space.
Not that it is ks deep here but with the water clarity and depth I think it just magnifies the reef..
Could be wrong but seen it at smaller slabs I surf.
Pretty sure it’s a massive boil and it’s the water just coming back up. Never heard of a dry shelf there
Thats right goofyfoot no dry shelf there mate
Ok, in the RIGHT, that's a massive boil (i would love to see the reef set up on a calm day, but there's some huge sharks around place/reef) re Lucas's wave i was using a Cine Zoom lens, no special effects. They are screen grabs of my footage. For your information i've been creating screen grabs for about 10 years now as they for the online use not to create posters from. Normally the land angle makes the wave look bigger but in that land angle posted on XXL is looks actually smaller i recon. Its all about where on land you shoot from. Lower the better. The good news is Lucas is coming to surf Australian slabs in April so there's going be some great action go down which i'll be chasing.
I HAVE noticed a few big wave shots at an angle that have enhanced the apparent size of a wave. I do think they were accidents, not intentional.
I do NOT think this is an example of an angled shot, intentional or not.
The base of the wave is not truly visible and the lip-line did have an unusual angle but these are just coincidences. EPIC sequence.
Whenever I see big, amazing Hawaii photos I'm reminded of Saul Baker's poem/piece about the best wave of his life (at Sunset I think). Anyone have access to that Poem?
Fixed!
https://imgur.com/kbUWm1h
Still WAAAY bigger than any doubters on here have been near.
Well I have just sat there like an idiot tilting my head back and forth and all I see is a huge f--k-n wave and someone with the focus, skill and bravery to catch it.
No idea how to measure it but do know that having surfed say somewhere like Mainbreak on a descent size day the reality of been out on that wave is beyond even the comprehension of us mere mortals.
The aamount of water moving around, the actual thickness of the lip and amount of energy you have to place yourself in front of and basically under to paddle in is incomprehesible to me.
And I agree with the poster about the right as even the still above looks lie water running off a shelf so that is a wierd boil if that is what it is
Hey Bungan yeh I probably did come across a bit sceptical, sorry, the ironic juxtaposition of the internet warrior ( in that case me oops) Prob more a reflection that I'd be peaking myself at 8ft Cloud break, jeez I'd love to give it a crack though. Yeh we certainly get numbed down these days, if it's not 30ft and square it seems a bit dull. It all makes my surfing feel a bit irrelevant, that is until I pull out of a sick one to that warm rush of endorphins, it's all relative. Keep chargin' !
Bungan you correct . They've been doing it lots lately !
Yep Bungan i know what ya mean and you are correct !
Ive seen it increasingly in the last few months on instagram, especially !
Everyone knows its for faking it.......
Instagram is rife with faked shapes.......of female bodies especially.
Only dumbshitz that can't understand what he was trying to say in the first place... bungan is quick onto it.....and hes right !
Well done Bungan! Now let's get back to the boil! Reef or water even though Tim B was there?
Ok Ok Ok, just forget that Jaws shot, yup its big, yup 99% of you guys wouldn't be in the line up, now back to WA has that Mick Corbet wave got dry reef hanging out or is that camera angle too hmmm ?