Scott Dickerson

Author: Scott Dickerson

Photo in Surfer’s Journal magazine

This month has broght more than just the beginning of our real surf season in Alaska it appears – Alaskan waves are hitting the magazine racks as well. Within days of Alaska Magazine releasing their issue with the cover photo of Mike McCune surfing on a particularly cold day last winter, I received a copy of volume seventeen, Number Five of The Surfer’s Journal magazine containing an article about cold weather surfing: Baby, It’s Cold – Surfing in the age of neoprene, written by Sam George and illustrated by a handful of photographers including yours truly. If you are interested in surfing and haven’t seen a copy of The Surfer’s Journal, I highly recommend getting your hands on one. It’s an incredibly beautiful magazine with an amazing print job and very very little advertising to filter through.

The photo above has been getting a lot of attention so I thought it would be fun to share a few other images from that same day, March 6th, 2007.Â A day to remember.Â One of 2007’s best surf sessions combined with a stunning winter day, beautiful green water, nice winter backlighting, ice covered beach foreground and a snow covered mountain backdrop. I can’t wait.

That wasn’t exactly what we had at the beach today, thought I did manage to catch a few nice waves in the four hours I was paddling around in the storm surf.

You can see more Alaskan surfing photos here. And if you want more, I have a couple hundred alaska surf photos online in my stock archive.

October 12, 2008
Surfing photos in Alaska Magazine

Hot off the press. This post will be quick since my bags are packed and I’m heading out the door for a week long photography and surfing trip to Yakutat, Alaska. But, I wanted to share this exciting news for Scott Dickerson Photography – The October issue of Alaska Magazine just hit the racks with a cover photo of Mike McCune surfing our local break and inside are two double page spreads, a full page, and a couple smaller photos of our surf scene. The story was written by freelance writer Jody Ellis-Knapp.

Most of the photos are from last year when the temps were unusually low and the surf was good. Lots of ice chunks and slush in the breaks. Yakutat will be warm by comparison this week so we are all planning on making the most of that before the winter surf season really gets started at home in Homer.

If you missed it, earlier this year the ‘Surfer’s Path’ ran AlaskaFolio -Alaska surf portfolio.

A big thank you to my Alaskan surfing buddies who not only endure the cold, but also put up with this photographer, all with a smile.

September 26, 2008
Alaska surf season has begun

Finally! After several months without a single surf session, I woke this morning to a strong west wind that put some messy, but precious, swells on the beach in my hometown. The weather patterns in the summer here prevent waves from building where we need them, so despite the allure of surfing when the air is above freezing we rarely get the chance in my hometown. Come fall, the weather patterns change and out come the surfboards.

The photo above is actually from a couple years ago. Move the snow line up the mountains a thousand feet and that’s what it was like at the surf break today.Â I can’t show you exactly because I left the camera in the car. The waves weren’t particularly photogenic and the potential images are not nearly as exciting as the mid-winter shots. Don’t get me wrong, the scenery is still stunning with 4,000ft mountains rising out of the ocean and fresh snow on their peaks. But, I have to work this balance between surfing and photographing. When the waves are poor and the weather not extreme I figure surfing has a bigger reward than taking some mediocre photos.

If you want the real winter surfing see this post and photos of winter surfing in Alaska. Or you can go straight to an online gallery of Alaska surf photos.

UPDATE 11/27/08: I’ve launched a little hobby blog for sharing more session reports, location info, photos and stories about surfing in Alaska. Check it out here – www.SurfAlaska.net

September 20, 2008
CoastWalk beach cleanup

One of my favorite things about Alaska is the endless miles of uninhabited and mostly undisturbed coastline. With nearly 34,000 miles (54,720 km) of tidal shoreline, Alaska has more beaches to collect trash than all the other states in the U.S. combined! This week I’ve been helping the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies inspire Alaskans to take care of our beaches by taking part in CoastWalk. Here is a snippet from the press release:

“The Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies celebrates the 24th year of the Kachemak Bay CoastWalk, an annual community event, that will run from September 11-30. The focus on this yearâ€™s event will be to encourage personal commitments to a coastal CODE developed by the Alaska Brewing Company to promote the health of the Pacific Ocean and its coastline. The CODE stands for â€œA Clean Ocean Depends on Everyone.â€”

And this explains what the CoastWalks are about:

“CoastWalk is a unique community science and stewardship project with a three part mission to: build community awareness of the importance of our local marine habitats, gather data to detect long-term trends in biodiversity, and to observe the effects of human impacts on our shore. CoastWalk volunteers select a stretch of the shoreline to walk, collect survey information about natural changes and human impacts, and clean up trash.”

The Kachemak CoastWalk program is possible with support from NOAA Community-based
Marine Debris Clean-up and Prevention Grant Program and the Ocean Foundation’s Coastal CODE Fund created in partnership with the Alaskan Brewing Company.

The Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies gave me the opportunity to present with them in local schools and at the CoastWalk kickoff event. The images I showed from Alaska’s coastlines highlighted the rugged beauty and diversity, as well as the wildlife and people that depend on them. I discussed the importance of the coastal environment to wildlife and our tourism and fishing economy. But that’s not all, a clean beach is also the place to go for some great recreation – surfing, kitesurfing, kayaking, sailing, fishing, horseback riding, running, yoga, etc..

The local newspapers printed articles prior to CoastWalk and my presentations if you’re interested in reading more.

Homer News: Surfer-photographer to speak at CoastWalk kick-of
Homer Tribune: CoastWalk 2008 – Mother ocean calls to all who care

Today the McNeil Canyon Elementary School was out in the rain picking up trash and taking notes on what they saw. Walking around in the rain doing schoolwork and picking up trash might not sound very fun, but judging from all the smiles I saw, everyone was having a great time and feeling proud of the work they were doing. It’s very encouraging to see kids learning to be stewards of our environment. I think this willingness to cleanup another person’s mess with a smile is very significant.

Here are a few photos from today’s CoastWalk:

Thanks to everyone who has, and will, do their part to clean up our beaches and keep them that way, I appreciate your efforts.

September 12, 2008
Paragliding maneuvers weekend

In my pursuit of the ideal aerial photography platform I’m selling my ultralight and moving to a paramotor. As a first step in this transition I was grateful for an opportunity to observe a maneuvers training workshop led by the amazing paraglider/paramotorer/instructor Chris Santacroce. Phil Smith of Midnight sun paragliding has been hosting Chris in Alaska for several years to teach workshops to eager Alaskan paraglider pilots.

From an outsiders view the weekend basically went like this: The student lays out his paraglider on the beach of a lake and hooks himself in between the wing and a boat that takes off across the lake away from shore. The student starts running as he’s drug towards the water, the paraglider wing inflates and flys up over his head and viola! the paraglider starts climbing and lifts the smiling pilot up over the lake. As the boat circles the lake letting out more and more line the paraglider keeps going higher and higher until roughly 2,000ft when the pilot releases the tow line and the real fun begins.

Chris is layed back in a lawn chair squinting up at two little spots in the sky representing a paraglider wing and a person. The student has a walkie-talkie taped to his helmet so Chris can give directions. It was admittedly a little disconcerting to watch at first. Chris would say something like “OK, now pull on your left brake hard and lean into the turn, hold it, hold it, hold it . . . ” meanwhile the two little spots of a wing and body start spiraling towards the ground at a rapidly increasing speed. I could see that everyone was enjoying testing the limits of their paragliders with an expert eye and calm voice of experience ready to coach them out of any flailing, falling, twisting messes they might get into.

Before this weekend I had no idea that a paraglider could recover from such dire looking situations. It similtaneously made me more confident in this form of flight and made me hope I never find myself in an uncontrollable weather situation where the paragliders recovering abilities are required.

I’d like to put out a thank you to Phil Smith, Chris Santacroce and the rest of the paragliders for letting me hang out and learn about paragliding from some real experts. That wasn’t the last time you’ll see me.

Below are a few photos from the weekend. If you were involved in this weekend and have been waiting to see the photos a healthy selection is now online here.

If this subject interests you there is a bunch more photos online here.

September 7, 2008