The Saltburn Open 2021 was one of the first surf competitions I had photographed, and it was a completely different experience from photographing an ordinary surf session.
The competition took place at Saltburn and brought together surfers from the local area and the wider North East surfing community. It was a great opportunity to see a mixture of experience and ages competing in the water, with surfers battling it out during their heats while friends, family and other surfers watched from the beach.
For me, this was still early in my journey with surf photography. I’d photographed surfers before, but photographing a competition meant having to follow individual surfers, anticipate where they were going to catch a wave and be ready for the important moment when they made a turn or manoeuvre.
I was also learning how to position myself on the beach and how to deal with changing light and conditions while still trying to get sharp action shots.
The surfers
The event attracted a mixture of local surfers and competitors from the wider area. Saltburn has a strong surfing community, and competitions like this are a great way of bringing everyone together.
There were different categories and age groups, giving younger surfers and less experienced competitors the chance to compete as well as the more established surfers.
One of the things I particularly enjoyed was seeing how competitive the heats could become. A surfer could be waiting for the right wave for several minutes before suddenly getting the opportunity to put together a good ride.
The results
I’ve kept the results section deliberately separate from my photographs because I want to make sure that the names and placings are correct.
Unfortunately, the complete 2021 results don’t appear to be readily available through the normal online sources today. Rather than guess at who won each category, I’d rather preserve the information accurately.
If I can find the original results or event photographs showing the presentations, I’ll add the winners, runners-up and other placings here.
My photographs
For me, the Saltburn Open was as much about learning as it was about taking photographs.
Looking back at these images now, I can see things I would do differently with the experience I’ve gained since then. But that’s exactly why I like having these photographs.
They are a record of one of my first attempts at photographing a surf competition and an early part of my journey as a surf photographer.
Some of the photographs worked, some didn’t, but every competition I photographed helped me learn more about following the action, choosing my position and anticipating what a surfer was going to do next.
These are some of the photographs I took at the Saltburn Open 2021.
