Text, photos and video: Pablo Jiménez. Comments on the photos: Manuel Selman

We have been considering taking photos with Manuel somewhere in the world for a while now, however, our itineraries don't coincide very often. He is super focused on his career competing on the QS circuit and for me, once winter starts in Chile, it's hard for me to get going due to the amount of waves and events there are here.

I had been wanting to go to Puerto Escondido, I feel like I had been wanting to do it. Once I finished doing the championships in the north of Chile, I decided it would be a good time to get away to the tropical heat. So with little notice I found a ticket at a good price.

I told Manuel that I was going to be there for the whole month of July in case he was interested in stopping by. He had about six days off between championships, so he didn't think twice and we met up in Zicatela.

Working with Manuel

I have known Manuel for a few years and we have always had good results working together. He is very professional when taking photos, which allows us to have very good communication when we want to get “the photo”.

Filming and photographing Zicatela from the water

Zicatela is a beast in a league of its own. The truth is that I don't know of any other place like it. The power channelled by this beach is so great that it's almost unbelievable.

There are some very strong currents and they are the norm for each session. There are many bells and one has to be prepared to receive a few blows and get a few scares.

That being said, the wave is perfect. It must be the best beach break in the world.

And this is where the photographer-surfer communication comes in. With Manuel, we never lost sight of each other, we always knew where we were, if we had to move to another point we did it together. If one of us gets caught in the current, the other waits in position. I think we did pretty well!

Two in one: Photography and filming

I've been trying to film a bit more lately, but my photographer's soul sometimes has conflicts with that. It's always a tough decision to choose one or the other anyway.

When I was on land I tried to take turns every two waves or so. The problem is that it's a gamble. There are waves that look better on video and maneuvers that look better on photos or vice versa, the problem is getting it right. An incomplete maneuver can make a good photo, but it's of little use for the video, although we did put one in the clip anyway.

In the water this time I chose to carry a GoPro 6 on top of the camera, my first GoPro!

The truth is that this little camera is really cool and we were able to double record several waves, which helped a lot in the final clip.

About the final product

I was very pleased with the results. The truth is that we didn't have many days to work, between Manuel not getting his boards on the first day, and a trip to the southern tips that left a lot to be desired. We managed to have quite good conditions and motivation to take good images in a short time.

The video of the trip:

Edition: Bagual Films