Duck & Cover

We asked Daniel to talk about the day he scored this insane inside-looking-out perspective of Laird Hamilton’s cover up at one of the gnarliest reefs on the planet…

- Daniel Russo

…What was the day like? Did he get drilled after snapping our cover? Here is Russo’s story:

There comes a time in your career path when you choose to either be a follower or a leader. I didn’t want to just be good: I wanted to be the best water photographer in the world—and to pull that off was going to take practice in waves that had consequences. I have to give credit this day to Raimana [Van Bastolaer, “The Mayor of Teahupoo”] for giving me my initial positioning and to Simon Thornton [Tahiti-based surf videographer], who gave me land lineup points to watch while swimming at Teahupoo.