Intro & Photos by Stephan Vanfleteren | Edit Project for The Surfer’s Journal

Working in a small team to produce 700-plus pages of editorial per year—for a publication that sits somewhere between a coffee table book and a traditional print journal—makes world class photography a necessary component. Stephan Vanfleteren’s portrait project of seminal and unknown surfers obviously fit this description. His submission also helped us add balance to an issue that was a little text heavy, allowing the back of the feature-well to breathe. The image of legendary water videographer Larry Hayes—with his face mask and kinetic motion—is easily my favorite.