Beaten at own game! Team USA captain Kelly Slater places Brazil's Silvana Lima in a jiujitsu choke hold after the impish Silvana's imitation of the champ. (See her funny imitation of Kelly in story! | Photo: @wsl/Sherm
Gallery: Steve Sherman Goes to Surf Ranch!
By Derek Rielly
Behind the scenes at The Founders' Cup with the best in the biz…
There is very little that separates the work of most sporting photographers. A slightly different angle here, a different lens there. Any sorta lifestyle shot is perfunctory, at best.
Surfing is very lucky, then, to have Steve Sherman, a skater and surfer from southern California. In less competent hands, lifestyle shots around a surfing contest can appear contrived and stilted. Sherman’s thoughtful photography preserves the authenticity of the moment.
Recently, Sherm was hired to document the machinations of the American team at the WSL Founders’ Cup.
“I wanted to overachieve,” he told me earlier today. “I worked my ass off. But I’ve been to Surf Ranch twice and haven’t ridden a wave. Oh god it’s…torturous. Oh fuck! Just gimme one drainer!”
I think you’ll agree he snatches the electricity out of the air.
Shall we examine his work?
Silvana Lima imitates Kelly Slater.
&Ldquo;Kelly Was Sitting There On The Boat Ramp Striking This Weird Thoughtful Pose When Silvana Snuck Up On His And Imitated The Pose,&Rdquo; Says Sherm. &Ldquo;She&Rsquo;S Hysterical And She Has A Great Sense Of Humour. Kelly Had No Idea. Thirty Seconds Into It, He Turned Around And Saw It And Started To Wrestle With Her And Put Her In A Headlock. I&Rsquo;M The Only One Who Shot It. I Looked Around And Didn&Rsquo;T See Any Other Photographers. And There&Rsquo;S&Hellip;So&Hellip; Many Photographers! Everything&Rsquo;S Overshot. But Here I Was, Solo, And Whenever I Get Those Sorta Exclusives I Get An Adrenalin Rush Fuck Em! Fuck Em All! I Just Killed The Elephant, Brother!&Rdquo;
Kelly Slater sees naughty Silvana!
Kelly Turns Around And Sees The Gently Mocking Silvana Lima. Kelly, Then, Culturally Appropriates The Brazilian Art Of Jiujitsu (Which Was Culturally Appropriated From The Koreans, I Think) In Retaliation.
Michel Bourez prepares his Team World captain for battle
&Ldquo;Michel Was The Cheerleader For The World Team,&Rdquo; Says Sherm. &Ldquo;He Was The Most Animated, Screaming, Yelling And Here, Working Jordy Up. I Love Jordy&Rsquo;S Face. He Always Lets His Guard Down When He&Rsquo;S With Me, Gives Me A Little Something.&Rdquo;
Wilko and Parko as Rancheros
&Ldquo;Wilko And Parko Wore Their Cowboy Hats, Which They Had Bought At A Truck Spot, Everywhere. They&Rsquo;D Wear &Rsquo;Em Down To The Water, Take &Rsquo;Em Off, Surf, Come Back And Put &Rsquo;Em Back On. The Thing About The Hats Is That It&Rsquo;S Not Actually Cowboy Style But&Hellip;Ranchero Style&Hellip; Mexican Style And It Was Really Cool Of Those Guys To Embrace It. A Woman Came Up To Wilko, An Upper-Class White Woman From Lemoore, And She Asked, Why Are You Dressed Like Cowboys? This Isn&Rsquo;T The Way People Dress Here. But That&Rsquo;S Not Her World. She Doesn&Rsquo;T Hang Out With Mexicans, With Guys Killing Pigs On Farms, With Rancheros. Wilko And Parko Made It&Hellip;Fun.&Rdquo;
Team Australia, cheeky Stephanie Gilmore
&Ldquo;Mick Fanning Pulled Me Aside And Asked If I Minded Shooting A Photo Of The Australian Team. I Asked &Rsquo;Em To Turn Around. Mick Said, Well, Isn&Rsquo;T That A Little Weird? And Then Steph Turns Around And Gives Me That&Hellip;Smile. I Gave It To Mick To Upload Wherever He Wanted And, Man, He Was Stoked. It Ran Across The World.&Rdquo;
Team Captains waiting for their turn on stage
&Ldquo;Shooting At Events Is Like Being At A Fucking Drag Race. It&Rsquo;S All About Getting In First, Getting The Shot, And Getting It Uploaded And Getting It To The World. This Is On The First Day And The Captains Are Waiting To Be Announced. I&Rsquo;M Surrounded By Three Other Wsl Photographers And I Was&Hellip;Constantly&Hellip;Trying To Outdo &Rsquo;Em. It Was A Competitive Two Days. This Photo Works Because Of The Variety Of Looks On Their Faces, Those Kooky, Funny Looks.&Rdquo;
Filipe, happy, scores ten
&Ldquo;Right After Filipe Got His Ten. He Came In Screaming, &Lsquo;Give Me That Fucking Jeep! Gimme The Jeep Now!&Rsquo; I Really Like Filipe As A Surfer. He Moves Me.&Rdquo;
Filipe, sad, Brazil loses
&Ldquo;Filipe&Rsquo;S Feeling It. This Was When Brazil Was Eliminated. That&Rsquo;S Sport Right There. The Good, The Bad, The Ugly. Defeat Ain&Rsquo;T Pretty For Anyone.&Rdquo;
Team World Wins Founders’ Cup
&Ldquo;Look At John John&Rsquo;S Face As Kelly Just Falls Short Of Getting The Score In The Final. The Thing About John Was He Looked A Little Off The Whole Event, Apart From That Air. He Seemed Distant. He&Rsquo;S Not One To Get Animated Or Cheer But He Didn&Rsquo;T Seem Like He Was That Into It.&Rdquo;
The Modern Surf Fan
&Ldquo;That&Rsquo;S Pro Surfing Meets Nascar. The Guy Is From Santa Cruz And He Was Wearing A Trump Hat. He Was The Only Guy Waving A Flag. I Thought This Was So American. If You Go To A Nascar Race In Florida There&Rsquo;Ll Be 400 Guys Like This Waving Flags And Getting Drunk. Dude, That&Rsquo;S The Future Of Surfing.&Rdquo;
Replace Kierkegaard with “insufferable thinker” and you know EXACTLY who he is.
longtom
8 years ago
Question to anyone in America: So CBS broadcast an hour of Saturday live. Did they broadcast any or all of Sunday live? I didn’t see the spunky CBS gal doing pressers.
yeah, they ran for an hour on Saturday. not sure if it was even live, mostly showed the US team. nothing on Sunday.
Professor Ski Lodge
8 years ago
#onewaveforstrider
shootsthen
8 years ago
FYI: Japanese immigrants brought Jiu Jitsu to Brazil (Koreans have taekwando). The Brazilians then applied it on the streets, creating BJJ, which they then brought to Hawaii, and the rest of the world. Fun fact: Hawaii has more BJJ black belts than any place outside of Brazil.
astro
8 years ago
What can I say, he rides for O’Neil.
jimbome
8 years ago
Tbh, the saddest part of this whole thing has been watching the self serving, devolving Stab reporting.
Only today, Editor In Chief Ashton Goggans ended his glowing KSWR editorial with a lackadaisically lobbed, highly irrelevant Soren Kierkegaard quote – a few days after Longtom definitively laid the law on Kissed By God conjuring not only Kierkegaard but also Sartre.
Plagiarism is bad but this sort of free form attempt at riding a refraction wedge into Longtom’s brilliance is cause for a chunkem, or as my homeboys say, On Sight. BG ya bish. No one commits idea theft on Longtom we grabbin’ the strap.
I dropped an ASiP video in comment section on a heavily read article here and they used one in one of their stories the next day, prob just coinkydink. Much more highbrow than those comedians you’re referring https://youtu.be/AFDU_R6ShmI
Tom
8 years ago
Can we talk about Conner Coffin’s secret turn morphing into his music release and he has quit the tour!!!!! Or could someone get attacked by a shark please
nah, that’s trojan horse traffic Chuck and Dez are sending
Huckleberry
8 years ago
Yeah , Sherm rules.
Doody Waxcomb
8 years ago
I don’t want to be a stick in the mud here but… You (BG) are linking to a Stab advertorial with the Necros Background / Banner Ad… I thought you were Blood Feuding them sons of beaches to death?
The guy from Santa Cruz is not from Santa Cruz. He’s from inland in some redneck shithole and claims Santa Cruz to get some surf cred. Fuck him and fuck trump. Please God, don’t let this be the future of surfing.
It should be known I have nothing to back up my claim except an intense hatred of trump supporters and a sincere, if naive hope that nobody from my hometown would be caught dead waving their sunburnt beer gut at a wave pool contest.
Wiggolly's Paddling Style
8 years ago
Vote for Satan and receive a lifetime embargo on Surf Ranch news!
This doesn’t go here but I still can’t move past strider standing poolside with a board. Really struggling. Think I need counselling. I’ll be invoicing WSL for same.
love the nascar comment, that’s the WSL dream right? stadium tour of mainland america where people watch the same wave (/oval track) over and over and over again,
pubes
8 years ago
Jordy in rashie, trackies & fruitboots, what a fuckhead.
Prostitute point doesn’t have the same ring to it. SC has a wonderfully gritty history my friend.
hope nobody actually paid for those shit photos.
Yeah comment proving you have no eye.
Replace Kierkegaard with “insufferable thinker” and you know EXACTLY who he is.
Question to anyone in America: So CBS broadcast an hour of Saturday live. Did they broadcast any or all of Sunday live?
I didn’t see the spunky CBS gal doing pressers.
yeah, they ran for an hour on Saturday. not sure if it was even live, mostly showed the US team. nothing on Sunday.
#onewaveforstrider
FYI: Japanese immigrants brought Jiu Jitsu to Brazil (Koreans have taekwando). The Brazilians then applied it on the streets, creating BJJ, which they then brought to Hawaii, and the rest of the world. Fun fact: Hawaii has more BJJ black belts than any place outside of Brazil.
What can I say, he rides for O’Neil.
Tbh, the saddest part of this whole thing has been watching the self serving, devolving Stab reporting.
Only today, Editor In Chief Ashton Goggans ended his glowing KSWR editorial with a lackadaisically lobbed, highly irrelevant Soren Kierkegaard quote – a few days after Longtom definitively laid the law on Kissed By God conjuring not only Kierkegaard but also Sartre.
Plagiarism is bad but this sort of free form attempt at riding a refraction wedge into Longtom’s brilliance is cause for a chunkem, or as my homeboys say, On Sight. BG ya bish. No one commits idea theft on Longtom we grabbin’ the strap.
Regulate
I dropped an ASiP video in comment section on a heavily read article here and they used one in one of their stories the next day, prob just coinkydink. Much more highbrow than those comedians you’re referring
https://youtu.be/AFDU_R6ShmI
Can we talk about Conner Coffin’s secret turn morphing into his music release and he has quit the tour!!!!!
Or could someone get attacked by a shark please
I’m really looking forward to the unveiling of that turn, any minute now I guess..,
any minute now for the last what 2-3 years no??
Fuck gonna neck myself if there is another wave pool article….please stop
Group BG suicide?
Wait for the Waco write-up. Then it’s a go.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
I know how much you guys love STAB over here, but linking your advertising to their site is taking it a little too far don’t you think?
https://stabmag.com/hardwar…
nah, that’s trojan horse traffic Chuck and Dez are sending
Yeah , Sherm rules.
I don’t want to be a stick in the mud here but… You (BG) are linking to a Stab advertorial with the Necros Background / Banner Ad… I thought you were Blood Feuding them sons of beaches to death?
C.R.E.A.M.
The guy from Santa Cruz is not from Santa Cruz. He’s from inland in some redneck shithole and claims Santa Cruz to get some surf cred. Fuck him and fuck trump. Please God, don’t let this be the future of surfing.
Aptos probably. Fuckin’ rednecks all of them.
he was claiming santa cruz but you know, people exaggerate and stuff!
It should be known I have nothing to back up my claim except an intense hatred of trump supporters and a sincere, if naive hope that nobody from my hometown would be caught dead waving their sunburnt beer gut at a wave pool contest.
Vote for Satan and receive a lifetime embargo on Surf Ranch news!
#gayforsatan
This doesn’t go here but I still can’t move past strider standing poolside with a board. Really struggling. Think I need counselling. I’ll be invoicing WSL for same.
We could start a support group for old mate Rasberry
Oh wait, it’s you that needs the counseling. Just drop a couple of shots of vodka in your morning coffee. She’ll be right mate
#satanforeditor
love the nascar comment, that’s the WSL dream right? stadium tour of mainland america where people watch the same wave (/oval track) over and over and over again,
Jordy in rashie, trackies & fruitboots, what a fuckhead.
Yep, my hates really building recently for the cunt.
Why are those ‘fruitboots’?
Just curious because that was what we used to call rollerblades.
dunno mate, that was the first thing that came to mind.
I guess I still refer to rollerblades as fruitboots as well.
Somehow I wouldn’t put it past Jordy to rock some rollerfruits when he thinks no one is looking.
Fuck he looks like a pest
Dude, don’t be so disrespectful of the new WSL ambassador of Stoke and Leisure!!!
The Future is now.
I hope he got comped some free beer….hard work. Great shots Sherm.