Start surfing in Lacanau
The best surf spots in Madeira?
Let me introduce myself, I’m Laurent Masurel, I’ve been a professional photographer for a little over twenty years, mainly in the field of surfing and board sports. I’m based in Boucau and for my job I travel all over the world, so my main clients are world surfing and the various surf brands such as Patagonia, Rip Curl, Quicksilver and Billabong Tribord. So I’ve been doing surf trips for about twenty years now and I’ve done a number of them, I’d say I’ve had fun counting, I think there were over a hundred and fifty, and before that I’d travelled to bodysurfing competitions around the world, whether in Hawaii or California and of course in France or Spain.
What has surfing brought you?
For me, surfing is synonymous with adventure, a surf trip, meaning you go out to meet waves but not just waves, you go out to meet landscapes and above all you go out to meet people, other enthusiasts but also locals, natives of regions where you would never have gone if it hadn’t been for surfing, this motivation to go out and look for waves at the start you go out to look for waves and then afterwards you realise that what was even more exciting but it’s meeting other enthusiasts, meeting local people, sharing great moments in the middle of nature, whether in the water on the beach or in the middle of the forest – that’s what surfing brings me, obviously professionally it’s at the heart of my profession, which is to say that it’s true that photography is multi-faceted, but one of the aspects I prefer is photo reportage when I’m on a surf trip, that’s what I prefer.
Has being a bodysurfer helped you in your photography? Have you taken any major risks?
The fact that I was a bodysurfer gave me confidence and also allowed me to be recognised for my speciality in watershots, i.e. photographing the waves and the ocean, whether it’s action or nature, etc. So at that point, it gave me confidence.So at that point it gave me confidence and the others knew that they knew who I was because of my bodysurfing competition and the fact that I’ve had this passion for waves and photographing waves in situ for about thirty years now.
These technical shoot photos were something called Surf Porn and today they’re tending towards green reportage. You were telling me that you had a nice project for the next Surf Session?
I’m especially happy for the person who’s going to be highlighted, Joël Badina, who for me is one of the greatest body surfers in the world, who’s very discreet. He’s a Frenchman, a guy from Anglet who’s also become a mate, a very good mate.so I’ve already seen him catch 6 – 7 m waves and then catch 8 – 9 m waves on the nose at Nazaré, it’s absolutely mind-blowing. So there’s going to be this report in Surf Session on Joël Badina and his relationship with bodysurfing and especially big wave bodysurfing.
Your best travel memory
It’s hard to think of one in particular, I’ve got loads of them, so to highlight a few, there’s perhaps the trip to the Maldives with Anthony Colas, where we spent three weeks on a boat. Three weeks on a boat is a long time, but it seems so short when you’re in the Maldives with Malik Joyeux and Manoa Drollet, it was really an unforgettable trip in pure search in the central Maldives on atolls that had never been surfed before.So there we were looking for waves and God knows we found some and that was a very memorable trip because we saw some great conditions, the atmosphere was superb and we discovered new waves every day with waves between 1 m 50 and 3 m 3 m 50 We went seaplane riding as well as the boat trip I must admit we had a few beers at the end of the day and from time to time to celebrate our discoveries and God knows we made some discoveries on this trip.
Your worst travel memory
As an aquatic photographer, I think I felt very alone. It was one day in Hawaii, I was photographing underwater with a Hawaiian surfer and my housing took on water.AOS1 dx plus very nice lens plus very nice housing and it took on water in two seconds I made a mistake certainly the O-ring was pinched and it didn’t fail you don’t have the right to make a mistake I wasn’t I was too impatient I didn’t follow the usual protocol and then that day-there I felt a bit alone in the world I had just lost 5000-6000 euros and I’m within 5000 – 6000 euros so I had to manage for the rest of the stay so yes it was a day when I felt very bad
Are there any dangers in aquatic photography?
I’m here to testify to that, so in the end it becomes good memories, or at least very vivid memories.I have memories of pipeline watershots on pipelines that get bigger and bigger like the first reef, which is huge, the second reef and then it breaks at the third reef, which gets bigger and bigger, I was getting more and more tired, the current was taking me back to the heart of the chicken as they say, so I was on the peak at the second reef with Off The Wall, which was even scarier, and then I was at the end of the end of the end of the roll until I decided to stop paddling because I couldn’t fight the current, there was no one to help me, there were only 3-4 surfers in the water, including Scott Aichner in aquatics, and at that point – to top it all off – I took a series of punches in the face and lost my fins.there to crown it all I take a series on the face I lose my two palms fortunately miracle I recover one hop I am again had by the current and there I fight and I fight and I fought again I relutte again during 15 minutes 20 minutes and finally I decide I decide to let myself go, we’ll see what happens, the lifeguards will eventually see me, I don’t know, and that’s when, miraculously, a triangle wave hits me, even though we’re in neither the first nor the second reef, in a slightly unusual zone, and then this peak forms and I say to myself, come on! I try to go all the way, I take it almost straight on despite the hollow and then, miraculously, I manage to get caught by the foam, obviously twisted in all directions, but I’m safe and sound and I stay lying on the sand for at least half an hour or an hour, so happy to be alive and to have survived. I was very scared that day, I was a bit beyond my limits and it taught me a lesson, I’ll tell you what, I didn’t bring back a photo of the session, or any slides, but I was there and in the end it taught me a lesson, it helped me to be a bit more humble too and in the end it’s a very vivid and positive memory
There are dangers, but calm is certainly the best ally when you’re a beginner surfer?
You’re absolutely right, you mustn’t lose your composure because as soon as you panic you use up even more energy, which makes you have bad reflexes, you’re less lucid, etc. So you always have to bear in mind that the more you panic, the more oxygen you’re going to use up, the more you’re going to do anything and in the end you’re going to lose yourself, so the best thing is not to panic, even if you can’t take it any more. in the end and you’ve already taken five or six waves to the head and you’ve come back very tired indeed you’re absolutely right never to lose your cool it means not to lose your oxygen not to lose your energy and always to be focused on getting through but without overdoing it without getting caught up in your own stress and it’s true I had a leitmotiv from time to time in the end it was I said to myself: in any case, we always end up emerging and reappearing.
What are the latest projects you’ve worked on?
The line-up book, yes, I’m very, very proud of that. It was Pierre Nouqueret who got me involved and who, with his company Hondarra, acted as publisher for this very, very beautiful book, which is a book in every sense of the word, compiling the most beautiful line-ups in the world.So I got in touch with my international photographer pals from all over the world – Australians, Americans, Hawaiians, etc. – to get the most beautiful line-ups and compile them in this very beautiful large-format book, which really highlights these very beautiful line-up swells, with the principle that there should be at least two lines of waves in each photo, if possible breaking, if possible with surfers present, so there you have it, a bit of a round-the-world tour of the most beautiful line-ups.
The number of photographers you’ve called on is pretty impressive – you’ve got 50 photographer friends all over the world?
Well, they’re not all close friends, but they’re photographers I have a lot of respect for and who obviously trusted me to make some really high-level selections that were really specific to subjects that had never been tackled in a book before. You can have some really beautiful line-ups in surf books, but it’s a part of the book where it’s just a few line-ups. but with an enormous diversity because the landscapes are always different the line ups are different the waves are different the ways of approaching them in photographs can be super varied of at the level of water until photographs taken in the air like with photographs of Woody Woodworth in Mexico or at least in California here is thus and that enabled me to take again contact with guys whom I crossed that it is on the competitions or with Pipeline because it is a little the rendez- vousSo I was really pleased and they played the game to the hilt, they sent me photos of 57 photographers, and frankly there’s enough for volume 2, volume 3.
What’s the next project?
With Pierre I’m doing volume 2, and I’ve got other book projects of my own, I’m principal photographer for a technical book on surfing for Amphora, the title isn’t finished yet so I can’t give you a title, but you can expect a book like this from Amphora, and I’ve proposed 2-3 other projects and they’re enthusiastic. It’s great to see publishing houses still very enthusiastic about projects and I’m really motivated because with the text photos I’ve actually accumulated in the book, I don’t have that many compared to the potential, here are some great photos I’ve accumulated over the last ten or twenty years, so there are some really great publishing projects in the pipeline, so thank you very much Laurent, thank you Nico and it’s great to see you behind the camera.
