RIP to a titan of the surf picture game…
The beautiful Larry Haynes, Hollywood’s number one go-to when it came to shooting anything in giant surf, has died of a suspected heart attack while crossing the road after a surf at Laniakea on Oahu’s North Shore.
Details are pretty brief, but Larry, a Californian transplant who moved to the North Shore thirty years ago and who was in his late-fifties by my estimation, was without peer, seriously.
“Some horrible news tonight,” wrote Kelly Slater. “The man is a staple in our lives…It’s hard to imagine a surfing world without Larry in it always screaming us into waves and throwing good vibes.”
A decade ago, Surfer magazine’s Rob Gilley wrote movingly of his pal, the one-man stud behind the company Fluid Visions.
Originally from Central California, Larry moved to Hawaii decades ago and never looked back. On every major swell for over 20 years, he has been swimming with a heavy water-housed movie camera in the heaviest conditions. And he does so with a refreshingly positive attitude and a huge smile on his face.
Larry has every reason to be bitter and condescending, but he’s not. He’s constantly stoked. He has been sand-bagged, double-crossed, and taken advantage of in the business world, but he keeps on spreading the aloha, and for that he should be highly praised.
To me, Larry is a precious character in the surf world and a living legend.
I have seen him shooting wide-angle in-water film at giant closed-out Off The Wall, Backdoor, Maverick’s, Teahupoo, and Waimea. I once was in Australia with him when he shot wide-angle water movies at the sharky Easter Reef when the faces of sets were 25-foot. Before GoPro existed, Larry used to surf with a 10-pound camera attached to his head—a camera that would break your neck if the lip hit you unexpectedly.
The guy is a human bulldog.
Larry has used his athletic talent, considerable courage, and oceanic instinct to hold firm in the pit and then dodge potential catastrophes with the thinnest of margins for what seems like forever.
No one is paying Larry Haynes a salary or providing him with health insurance. He is a freelancer who shoots for the pure love of it, and has routinely put his life at risk hundreds of times.
Larry Haynes swims in the pit to get the ultimate shot, to provide the viewer with an intimate view of the sport we all love so much.
Together with an elite crew of still photographers, he consistently puts his life on the line—not for piles of money, but for love of his craft, and for love of the ocean.
Tributes have poured in for Larry, who caught some of the best vision of the Backdoor Shootout and the Eddie Aikau Invitational over the course of the past month.
“Love ya Larry,” wrote Kai Lenny. “We are sure gonna miss you down here. God speed my friend.”
