Growing up, extreme sports surrounded me. They made up the base of my childhood. I began cold water surfing as a toddler, free climbing during primary school, skipping senior finals to jump out of planes and trek ice peaks. I knew nothing else.
This is what seeded SUBMERGED. Click below to understand the bones of the project.
It’s a sort of art, an art of control, of knowing how to just barely hold on. Of escaping.
Skipped school for good swells, shaping boards before learning to ride a bike, memorizing tides like the back of my hand.
I will do anything to get into the water, the snow, a rock face. It can be pelting hail, zero degrees, 70 knot wind. Sometimes storms or funnel clouds threaten. Sometimes we drive 6 hours for flat swells or snowless descents. I miss big events; weddings, birthdays, exams. I wait 5 hours in murky water for 12 seconds of bliss. Cramped half-sleeping in the car, waiting for sunrise. You become consumed entirely. Submerged.
Everyone has their reasons behind their actions. Big, little. Often the most mundane bits of everyday are fascinating when you peel back a layer or two and get your hands dirty with the reasoning. Often it goes unnoticed. “Because it’s fun, because I feel alive, because it’s healthy”. I believe it’s so much more than that. You learn who somebody is by the way they spend their free minutes, and I want to see why, to see how we’ve become submerged.
finding purpose through pushing limits
Some say discomfort fuels growth. Others say growth needs comfort to flourish. Look through the eyes of extreme athletes around the globe to understand why some push themselves to the absolute limit of their capabilities to understand life.