Surf Photographer

Jim Russi

Jim Russi grew up at the beach in southern California and started surfing at the age of 6 years old, he finds himself some 44 years later still living on the beach but on the northshore of Oahu and still surfing mostly everyday.

Aside form surfing (and riding his chopper), swimming with a camera in the surf capturing others in the act has been his longest lasting passion. He started experimenting with little plastic cameras in 5th grade and by his freshman year in high school he was one of those 'Photo geeks' running around shooting everything in sight for 4 years as photo editor for Palos Verdes high school newspaper and year book. Never to be satisfied with just recording what was going on in real life, he began his career as a 'producer' right there in high school. He set up a multi camera shoot for the first ever 'streak' at his high school, having his staff photographers positioned at strategic locations, like senior park and outside the girls gym, just as everyone was getting out for lunch break. This gave him the opportunity to 'run with the bulls', so to speak, armed only with a small camera, running shoes and a ski mask to capture the wide angle action images.

The wide angle 'in your face' look is still his P.0.V. of choice, but now he wears boardshorts and a helmet.

So, after a short stint at continuation school, to 'adjust his attitude', it was off to Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara to hone his craft for the next 4 years. Well they did not really appreciate this wild 70s Californian surfer any more than the previous administration, so after being asked to leave quietly a couple of times, he did manage to talk his way back in and graduate with the B.A. he had come for. The day Jim graduated he left Santa Barbara for Hawaii's northshore and a week long surf vacation, once there however, he got mixed up with two other young surf photog's, namely Aaron Chang and Jeff Hornbaker and a slightly older mentor, Dan Merkel.

Jim says "because of these guys, that the one week vacation has stretched into 29 seasons here on the northshore." Russi's summers have been spent travelling around the world for the surf mags, the sponsors and quite a few free surf waves for himself.

He has been a senior staff photographer for all 3 of the American mag's plus Longboard magazine over the last 30 years. Jim has worked on the Quiksilver's Roxy ad campaign for nearly a decade now.

"Here is a glimpse into what I have seen over the years, I hope you enjoy viewing these images as much as I enjoyed making them!"

Aloha, Jim Russi.