Venice Breakwaters is where I first fell in love with surf photography. From the Venice Pier you are positioned right out where the surfers catch waves. It's as close as you can get to being right in the water with them. At sunrise, there is often an effect where the ocean fog meets the land and starts to burn off, creating a diffused and etherial quality of light that I have never found elsewhere. Surfers almost always wear wetsuits here, which as a photographer, I love, because it creates the perfect anonymous black silhouette when backlit. Venice Breakwater is a beach break so paddling out during a large swell can be very tricky, so much so that experienced surfers will often jump off the pier into the water past where the waves break. Here, a few of the local surfers brave the heavy whitewash in search of their perfect wave.
