Photographer Ben Thouard
Tahiti

Crash story with Canon equipment of Ben Thouard, Tahiti based photographer
I was shooting with 2 pro surfers at a reef pass in Tahiti close to the famous wave of Teahupoo while the final of the Surf contest was happening at Teahupoo.
This wave is really hard to shoot cause  it breaks super close to the reef and at high speed , sucking all the water from the reef .
I know the area and have shot there many times .
This wave is like gold and happened really rarely !

Anyway, i was sitting on a jetski to shoot the surfers like i do since i live in Tahiti . (jet ski : best and safest way to get close to the wave and do your photo)
I have a pelican Case on my knee with all my equipment .
But all of a sudden a wave appeared bigger than other and was on the point to break on a different spot !
The ski went forward to get out of there but in the same time another wave came sideway coming with a strong wind which push me out of the ski !!
The Pelican case was half closed due to emergency and the other clip opened up during the fall such it was violent .
There was not much i could do .

I ended up swiming in the water in the middle of the waves with my photo equipment
The water finally entered the pelican case and start sinking but i could keep the case with me and pro surfers and jet ski went to grab me .
Unfortunately it was too late and my whole photo equipment was under salt water already.

It may sound a weird story but this is how we shoot in surfing as we always push to get the best photo ever !
I’m always swimming with my camera in housings to get the best photo and best angles of surfers in the tube .
Or i am flying around with my powered paraglider and my Canon Cameras to get the newest angle as possible .
Well I am always shooting in hard conditions but this is my job and am stocked to do it with such great cameras as the new Canon EOS 1DX and pro lenses and Aquatech housings


Here are some pictures that describes how i shoot
You can find my work on my website at : www.benthouard.com
or on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Ben.Thouard.Photography

Photography credits for images of Ben are: