Catch a break: surf adventures in the California sun – in pictures

The Guardian

September 4, 2025 

by Mee-Lai Stone

Catch a break: surf adventures in the California sun – in pictures

Surfer Todd Weaver takes magical pictures of the Golden State – from ombre skies reflected in the sea to crashing waves and rising full moons

Cloud in Green Stripe, 2018

Todd Weaver: ‘This one was taken on my half-frame camera at my favourite place to surf, First Point in Malibu. The colour is a one of a kind. I don’t think I could repeat it in a thousand tries. The stripe is an artefact of my pre-exposing process.’

Fade to West: Paul Jasmin & Todd Weaver is at Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, until 13 September.

Leo Pink Stripe Fun Ticket, Malibu 2017

Weaver explores the edges of California – windswept dunes, sunlit surf and shifting horizons. And through analog processes and in-camera experimentation, his work transforms familiar vistas into one-of-a-kind impressions – each frame a meditation on movement, time and atmosphere.

Rincon View, Red Stripe, 2023

‘I shot this up in Santa Barbara County. It’s part of a roll of film that I turned into a zine called OneRollZine, with every photo from a single roll shot on a half-frame camera. I love how the sparkles on the water look like Los Angeles at night if you are looking at it from Mulholland Drive. I think this image checks all the boxes of what I love most about this project: unexpected colours, the stripe as a wink to my technique, and the tranquility of the ocean’. 

Malibu Bomb Pop, 2023

‘Made with my Nikonos film camera, taken at a peaceful moment in between sets. It’s ironic that it’s called Malibu Bomb Pop since surfers call big waves “a bomb” and here the ocean looks flat as can be. The name is for the colours because they remind me of my favourite popsicle as a child, the Bomb Pop’.

Century Above, Los Angeles, 2014

‘This is the oldest image in the show. I took it in Griffith Park in 2013 on a hike with my lady partner. I love how elegant the century plant looks, looming over the city with those beautiful clouds behind it’.

Full Moon over Tomales Bay, 2020

‘My lady and I were camping on a cow farm in Tomales Bay on a road trip to Oregon. We got there just in time to set up our tent and watch the sun set and the moon rise over the hillside’.

Indian Cove diptych, 2024

‘I love my half-frame camera for many reasons. One is that I love to take two nearly identical photos so they are adjacent, separated by the black frame line. I think of them as the world’s shortest movies. I usually take the second photo a moment after the first. The black line reminds me of Hollywood. I took this on a camping trip in Joshua Tree last year with my oldest brother."

Superbloom on Poppy Mountain, 2019

‘The largest superbloom that I have ever seen in Los Angeles. We drove southeast toward Lake Elsinore and when we saw this hillside I nearly crashed our car’.

Half Submerged but Fully in It, Malibu 2020

‘This photograph was also taken at First Point. I shot it with my Nikonos, an underwater film camera developed by Jacques Cousteau. Unlike a lot of dedicated surf photographers who swim out with fins, I like to paddle out on my surfboard with my camera. This photo was taken after the sun had set. I remember looking down at the water and the colour of the surface was reflecting that ombre sky. I slid off my board and submerged my lens half way to create this dramatic look’.

Summer Evening Crowd, 2020

‘My love for that ombre again in this photo. I love how underexposing this scene makes the colours richer and how it makes silhouettes out of all the surfers’.

Rivermouth at Sunset Santa Barbara, 2021

‘The lion’s share of the photos in this show are from my “colour experiments with film” project, with the ocean and surfing as the subject. I started surfing 10 years ago and have gone a couple of days a week now for seven or eight years. The project coincided with this obsession’