The 25th annual Santa Cruz Kayak Surf Festival was held March 20-22, 2009, at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz. The surf and light were poor on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, the night's rain cleared before dawn and the sun rose blissfully in the east; threatening off-shore clouds stayed away for the morning. The surf grew from an anemic 3 feet on Friday to maybe 5 feet, still small. All images were shot from a kayak on the water. It wasn't difficult to get fairly close with a 300mm f/4, and the water-level perspective made the waves look bigger than they actually were.
 

I tried to get as many kayak surfers as I could on these pages. If your picture isn't here, I either didn't get anything good of you, or, more likely, didn't get anything at all. I only shot from the kayak before 9:45am each morning, and Fri and Sat were pretty much busts due to the flat light.
 

Gary Luhm is an outdoor photographer specializing in sea kayaking. He has shot the Santa Cruz Kayak Surf Festival six of the last nine years. Four of those years he shot from the water. Some of the past Festivals can also be viewed on his website at http://www.garyluhm.net/bio/trips.htm.

Gary