The Best Performance of 2014 - Surf Photography

Words by John Streit. Photos by Shaun Devine, Colin Breland, Mickey McCarthy, Jon Carter, Justin Rienerth, Jill Thomas, Allen Harcourt, Jennifer Phan, Briar Nelson & Streit.

This next feature in our Best of 2014 photo retrospectives pays tribute to all of those “in-between” days. All of those days that may have not have offered up perfect barrels, but rather offered up perfect launch ramps and rip-able lips. While barrel riding carries a special significance in surfing — called “The Ultimate Thing” in The Endless Summer for good reason — performing exhilarating athletic performances in the surf is a close second.

If the surf photography displayed of this web site are a sports league, then these are the all-star performances. The Most Valuable Player and Comeback Player of the Year awards go to S&A team rider Tyler Balak, who returned stronger than ever from rehabbing a knee injury this fall and absolutely pumped out some of his best performance images to date!

Again, in combing the site for the top high-performance moments, it became clear another big photo gallery was on deck. And again, it was awesome to see all the transitions of the year across our region. From cold brown water days in full wetsuit armor to clean & green summer sessions in boardies. From technical aerials to small-wave stylin’ and everything in between, you can bet the boys were always ripping!