Jeff Flindt, Behind the lens in Hawaii and Helsingborg
Foton bildspelet: Jeff Flindt
Well Mr Jeff Flindt, we´ve heard a rumor about you spending time in Helsingborg. That´s is pretty far away from the world class surf destinations you usually travel to. The first question is- why on earth Helsingborg?
My wife is from Helsingborg. I travel so much with my job so my wife, Caroline, wanted to live closer to her friends and family while I’m on the road.
Have you met any surfers in Helsingborg yet? You know that you are close to some of the best surf spots in Sweden, don´t you?
I’ve had a chance to meet Freddy Meadows, Didine Bedraoui, and a couple of the surfers in Mölle. I was very surprised to meet German and Danish surfers when I was checking the waves in Mölle and around. I never thought the waves could get that good. It has a proper rock/reef bottom that makes the waves break really good when the winds are blowing really strong. It’s a really good set up for surfing.
What place do you consider home?
I call Helsingborg my hometown right now. The ocean is my office. My wife and I still own a place in Southern California,
Can you tell us about your relationship with the ocean and how you became a surf photographer?
I grew up in southern California going to the beach and bodyboarding whenever I could.
My father used to own a couple of One Hour Photo labs when I was a teenager. When I was in high school I starting studying photography so I could work for my father at his photo lab. When ever I was not working or going to school I would go to the beach. Some of my friends started to become sponsored and getting photos in the surf magazines. I would hang out with my friends, shoot photos of them surfing, and started submitting photos of my friends to Surfing magazine in America .
Where can we find your photos published?
You can find my photos in Surfing Magazine in America. I’ve been working with Surfing fulltime since November of 1997. I contribute to other surf mags around the world, Surfinlife in Japan, Tracks Australia, Australia Surfing Life, Surf Europe, Zigzag, Surfers Path in England, Surfers Mag in Germany, Trip Surf in France, and Fluir Magazine in Brazil. Some of my stuff is published on Surfingthemag.com and my personal website Jeffflindt.com.
Do you have a niche as a photographer?
I try to shoot in the water as much as I can. I like being in the water and interacting more with the surfers, waves, and ocean. I guess that would be my niche – shooting from the water. It’s a good way to separate myself from other photographers. The water shots are so much more impressive when you get that one really good one. It’s more rewarding for me to shoot so I’m rather in the water than land.
Your photos are often unique and far from the typical slash-and-burn action surf photo. From where do you get your inspiration and ideas?
I use to get inspired from Chris Van Lennep, Larry Flame Moore, and Dong king. Now a days I get inspired from other photographers outside the surf industry like Vincent Laforet, and Dan Milnor.
What is the biggest challenge for a surf photographer today?
The biggest challenge is the quantity of photography that is being shot. It’s very easy to buy a digital camera and shoot surf photos. The surf-industry is flooded with photography and it’s very hard to make it look fresh. Also, there are photographers all over the world shooting everywhere so it’s hard to travel to unique remote places and get photos.
You spend a lot of time on the road, what´s the craziest journey you´ve done so far?
Every trip is crazy. The latest trip I did was going to Namibia in Africa. It took about 24 hours of travel to shoot two days of swell. I was in Portugal when I got a call to be in Namibia the next day. I had to fly from Lisbon, to Frankfurt, to Cape Town, to Namibia then take a four hour long bus ride. I shot for two days then had to fly back from Cape Town to Johannesburg, to Frankfurt, to Copenhagen – all in five days. I was home for seven days then I had to fly back to Lisbon and do a train trip from Lisbon, to Biarritz, Paris, London, and Scotland in two weeks. It was crazy to travel all that way in only one month.
Is it important for you to be on the North Shore in the winter and other places “where the action is”?
To me the North Shore is like the biggest football or rugby game of the year. It’s where all the top guys gather to prove themselves. I love the North Shore! The waves are big, the weather is good, I have lots of friends, and good times there. I’ve spent over 10 seasons on the North Shore. The Hawaiians are great and I love their culture. If you understand their culture and respect them, then there aren’t any problems.
How important is fear management when swimming in the line-up at spots like Pipeline?
Pipeline is one of the heaviest waves in the world. The fear factor is like no other. I try to mentally and physically train for shooting waves like Pipeline. I think if you’re physically and mentally fit then you have a better chance of surviving a bad situation. I wear a wetsuit to float my body in case I get knocked out or drown. I also wear a helmet in case a surfer hits me or I hit the reef with my head.
How important is fear management when passing the locals on the beach on the way to shoot Velzyland?
I know a lot of the locals on the North Shore. They are actually pretty cool to me. Some of them are really good friends. It’s really important to respect the locals anywhere you go.
Talking about locals, is there a pecking order among the photographers in the line-up and on the beach?
On the beach there is no pecking order, its pretty much open to the public. In the water it’s a little different. Most of the photographers out in the water know each other. We know what our abilities are when it comes to the waves. Most of the time we try to work together or go shoot somewhere else if it gets too crowded in the water. I’ve spent over 10 seasons on the North Shore, so I have paid my dues and worked my way up the pecking order. It can get competitive in the water with the photographers.
Which surf spots in Europe do you think are the most popular with professional photographers nowadays?
I noticed Ireland is getting a lot of attention with all the tow-surfing going on. I think France is the most popular because a lot of the surf-companies are based in France.
Are there any destinations in Scandinavia that you want to explore?
I want to go spend some time exploring Norway. It looks like there are some good setups for surfing in Norway. It gets a lot of weather, but the storms that go over the UK produce some nice size swells that hit Norway. The problem is the weather that comes with the storms – usually rain or snow. I also want to try to get some more good swells in Skåne. I would also like to shoot on Gotland when the wind blows over there. I’m in no rush, I have plenty more years to go and explore Scandinavia.
If you are an unknown Swedish surfer with a big self esteem but crappy technique, is a brutal wipeout in front of the photographers on the North Shore your best chance of having your picture in a big surf mag?
The wipe out would have to be really serious to get your photos published in the big magazines. It doesn’t matter where you are from. It really depends on how good you surf. I know it’s hard for a Swede to get a really good quality wave in Hawaii because the locals will not let a good wave go by not ridden.
You recently visited Galapagos, please tell us a little about the trip and the amazing environment you experienced and documented.
The Galapagos were one of the exotic places I’ve been to. I guess they have just recently in the last couple of years opened some parts of the island for surfing and sightseeing. The place is pretty much like you see it on TV, like the National Geographic channel. I wasn’t able to go deep in the ocean and swim with sharks and big fish, but all the animals on land are really there. I was really surprised to see a lot of trash on the beaches. We were not supposed to touch the land or the beach but I would swim to land from our boat and check out the iguanas, lizards, sea lions, birds and stuff.
Every time I went to land, I would always see lots of plastics and trash on the beaches. There is so much trash thrown off the boats in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that drift for weeks or months and finally end up on the small remote island in the Galapagos. Since no one is allowed to go onto the island, there is no one picking up the plastics, so it just piles up over the years.
My favorite part of the trip was swimming with the sea lions. They were just like dogs, very curious, and would get really close to me in the water and check out my camera and my fins on my feet. I loved swimming with them. I got some really cool shots of the sea lions and I realised I might not ever come back here. The surf was not as good as I expected, I think the reefs and the ocean floor need to be a little better for the waves to have better shape.
Where are you now and where are you heading next?
I was just home in Sweden, I’m in California right now visiting friends and family with my wife. Then I head to Hawaii for the winter season. I’m glad to be in Hawaii instead of Sweden during November and December. I go back to California in January then back to Sweden in February.
If you get an amazing close-up photo of a surfer in the tube of the season at Cloudbreak but the guy unfortunately has an extremely hairy back, can it ever be a covershot?
If I’m shooting a guy with a hairy back, I would make him put on a rash guard or wear a wetsuit so his hairy back doesn’t cover up the lens. Its possible to get a shot of a hairy back, we have Photoshop.
You, like myself, is a fan of both surfing and yoga. What is going to be the last word in this interview- Aloha or Namaste? Why?
It would have to be “namaste”, which is pretty much the same as “aloha.” I sometimes call yoga, “stretching” so people don’t judge me a certain way. If I say I’m going to do yoga, people think I’m going to some Indian temple to chant and worship some crazy God. They think I’m going to go walk on water or walk on fire, or something like that. If I say I’m going to stretch-class people say, “oh man, stretching is so good for you, it makes you more flexible and its healthy.” It depends who I’m hanging out with – sometimes I say “yoga class” and sometimes I will say “stretching.” I do practice Ashtanga yoga and Bikrams yoga. Yoga (stretching) is probably the healthiest things you can do for your body and mind. Yoga helps me with keeping my breath and mind calm when I’m in the water and the waves are really big. It helps me be more flexible when I hit my back or my shoulder on the reef. It’s important to have a flexible body and a flexible mind.
Tony Johansson / Nordic Sufers Mag
Publicerad i Nordic Surfers Mag #3