The 2011 Surfer Poll Awards. photos by: my Heroes

The 2011 Surfer poll awards, the year the professional surfers all became photographers.

Surfers have inspired me so much. Just watching these guys in surf videos when I was a kid made me really wanna get out there and have fun surfing, and surfing has been a huge happy part of my life ever since.

I thought I could return the favor, by turning them on to photography. Instead of taking pictures of my heroes at the recent Surfer Poll Awards, I put the camera in their hand and asked them to take a picture of me. I simply asked them, "Can I get you to take a picture?....", they were quick to say 'Yes' and either hold up their award or strike a pose for me, then instead of taking their picture, I would add, "...could you take the picture, of me?" and then hand them my camera and smile and wait for them to take a picture of me, by myself. It was very fun to see the reactions of the surfers, some of them seemed confused, some of them laughed it off, and some of them really got into it and spent some time getting a quality shot. Some of my favorite "photographers" were: Jason Shibata, Freddy P, Sal Masekela, Joel Tudor, Rob Machado, and David Rastovich. Now I have 25 pictures of myself taken by heroes, that's the award that I brought home.
check the photo caption on the bottom of the picture to see who was behind the lens.