The Shot:
Every January since the early 1980s, a group of kayakers has gathered near the mouth of Quillayute River for the annual “La Push Frolic,” a non-competitive day of surfing mammoth storm waves off Washington’s Olympic coast. One by one, they battle the inner break—getting tossed and toppled over and over again—all for the chance to ride one of the outer break’s six- to 12-foot waves.

The Method:
It took Seattle-based photographer Joel W. Rogers an hour to climb out on the seaweed-covered boulders of the nearby Quillayute jetty for this shot. He used a tripod and a Nikon FM2, with a 400-mm lens and Kodak E100S film. His shutter speed was 1/250 of a second at f11. With the jetty now eroded to nearly half its former length, Rogers’ shot may be one of kind. “I don’t know if anyone could get this particular angle from any other existing point,” he says. To see more of Rogers’ images, go to www.joelrogers.com.