Beloved surf photographer Jimmy Wilson captures day of days at secret San Diego heavy wave

Caity Simmers, Ollie Kurtz and more!

To know James “Jimmicane” Wilson is to love him. The steely-eyed surf photographer/videographer transplanted in greater North County San Diego from his home in Jacksonville, Florida some decade-plus ago, becoming a staple on the left coast and in our surfing world. Professional and professional-adjacent surfers, heading out into the wilds and needing documentation, call him first. Brands or properties needing true surf grit humbly bend knees and beg his opinion.

Wilson is not afraid to tell it like it is while also holding to an old-school surf omerta. Don’t blow out the secret spots, don’t stupidly and wrongly describe airs, know your swell charts, where to be, when to go etc. and, thus, knew exactly where to be and when to go when California’s mega-swell hit some days before Christmas morning.

The secret big wave spot, somewhere north of the California-Mexico border and south of Ventura, lit up like a boat parade and was greeted by a who’s who of surf stars including, but not limited to, Caity Simmers.

Training his lens upon the action, whilst providing commentary, Wilson deftly captures the day of days, sharing, “I originally wanted to combine everything from this swell into a single video, but ultimately ended up cutting out stuff from the other spots. Might post some stuff from ______ another time because there was one pretty good session I filmed. These two days (filmed 12/22/2024 and 12/24/2024) came close to rivaling last year’s conditions, but we were left with some long lulls, and less than ideal weather/lighting. For a solid period of time on the second day, I couldn’t see if waves were being ridden at all – it was that foggy.”

And now it is time for you, dear reader, to engage in some self-reflection. If you were on the beach with board, would you have paddled, made excuses for why not paddling or simply admitted defeat?

Heavy.