PROOF THAT DESERT POINT MIGHT JUST BE THE BEST LEFTHANDER IN THE WORLD
PHOTOG RYAN CRAIG BREAKS DOWN THE BEST MOMENTS FROM A RECENT SWELL AT DESERTS
JULY 23, 2019 BY ZANDER MORTON
SURFER staff photographer Ryan “Chachi” Craig spends a good chunk of his year living in Thailand, just a quick flight away from Indo. Recently, when he saw a purple blob steamrolling the Indian Ocean, he gave charger Nic Von Rupp a call, to see if he was available for a trip to Desert Point, a wave they’d both been to before, but had never scored on an all-time swell.
“We went back and forth about it at first,” says Chachi. “Should we go, should we not go…we did that for a few days. Then, four days before we needed to leave, Nic told me he couldn’t make it. I told him that was all good, and stopped planning. Of course, the very next day, he called me back and had changed his mind [laughs]. So we went.”
“I have to say, Desert’s is a really, really good wave to be a surfer or a filmer. But it’s a hard place to get unique photos, because it’s a really long wave, and while it’s impressive to watch in a 45-second clip Opens a New Window. , it’s hard to find a defining moment within a ride for photos. Knowing that, on this trip, I tried to shoot it in a way so I could show a lot of different looks. I’m not gonna pretend like I’m the Desert Point guy [laughs]. But I’ve been enough to know there are only short windows when its good, and that I better shoot as much as I can during them, because it can and will shut down quick.”
The following are two dozen of Chachi’s favorites from one of the best Desert Point swells in recent memory, and a little insight into each of them.
