seasachi

video work at sachicunningham.com

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More barrel hunting with Bianca Valenti.

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Sept. 9. 2015 | Bianca Valenti back to work after Labor Day. New gallery up on Surfline.

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Hard at work hardly working. Happy Labor Day!

Clockwise: Suzie Yang, Bianca Valenti x2

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Bianca Valenti dropping from the sky in Indo.

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Indo Still Life.

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Hey Sachi, my name is Don and I'm a photog here in the bay.. Loved your water angle shots on Surfline! Just started following your Tumblr and I'm stoked to see any new shots! Best, DD

Thanks so much for the kind words Don!

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Sachi!! Wondering if you're the same Sachi that was good friends with Tina Kao (now Mylon)? I lived in Taipei from '95-'01 and met the delightful Ms Kao and her family through mutual friends. I think I still have a photo of her first day at Burger King. She talked about her amazing, awesome friend Sachi. I just moved to SF this summer for work - was listening to KQED this morning - heard your interview (congrats!) so thought I'd reach out in the chance you're the same Sachi. :) -melissa foo

It is! How nice to hear from you! Welcome to SF! And thanks for listening to the show!

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Just got back from 10 magical days on a boat in the Mentawais with 10 seasisters from Northern California. Lots of editing to do, but here’s one of my favorite shots of a seaman named Matt Thompson that I met in the lineup at Rifles. He spent some time surfing Ocean Beach while in school at the Maritime Academy and said there was nothing like an Ocean Beach barrel, but I was pretty happy for the change of pace and warm waters of this Indo wave. I fell in love with water photography 20 years ago in Indo and have only been back once since so I felt like a kid again swimming into these caverns. Definitely won’t wait another 20 years to go back! 

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January 23, 2015 | Ocean Beach, CA | Lawton St. | Bianca Valenti gives my daughter Nami a mini surf lesson before we head out into the biggest surf I’ve swum in to date. Just reminds me that I couldn’t do any of this without the enthusiasm and experience of friends like Bianca and the support of poppa Zach holding down the fort and supporting my dreams. Looking forward to more walks with my family down to the shore at first light this fall.

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These are a few from the last significant swell of the 2014 season. Well, there was one other day in the spring that was pretty good, but not with this light! Thanks for taking a look at these galleries and considering getting a print or hiring me for a private photo session as a prize for donating to my Kickstarter for a documentary I’ve been making for over a decade called CRUTCH! I’m super excited to have some of my work featured in a short video from an exceptional new web series called Sea Level TV. Thanks for taking a look and enjoy!

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Gallery #2 of images from last season in San Francisco. Prints available for $100 if you donate to the Kickstarter Campaign for my documentary CRUTCH!

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This is a collection of images shot at Ocean Beach in San Francisco during the 2015 winter season. Some of these were featured in an article and gallery that I posted on The Inertia. Please inquire for prints of any of the images here or on other pages, especially if it’s because you are supporting my Kickstarter for a documentary I’ve been making for over a decade called CRUTCH! Thank you!

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January 16, 2015 | Ocean Beach, San Francisco with Joao De Macedo, Bianca Valenti, Jon Kitamura and Eddie Donnellan.

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January 15, 2015 | Ocean Beach, SF, CA.

I watched perfect waves roll through all day from my office window while editing for a deadline (torture!) I was able to snap a few while the project was rendering and then ran out for a quick swim before the sky lit up and said goodnight.

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I had the opportunity to witness a magical day at Mavericks last week. Here is a link to a loosely edited cut of the entire session. I may have seen the waves bigger at the contest in 2010, but there weren't safety vests back then, nor was there a young and hungry crew of big wave surfers sharing the lineup with the competitors. This was also the first time a sizable crew of women were charging shoulder to shoulder with the men. As far as I'm concerned, on Dec. 20th, 2014 the performance by these athletes was the greatest show on earth. This video is for them. While I would ordinarily edit the best of these waves into a more manageable and bite sized edit (I still will some day), there have been so many people asking for this footage that I thought it best to simply post the entire session for now. Please excuse my hoots and hollers and potty mouth throughout. I can't help myself ... I'm a huge fan as you can tell from this video story that I made for the Los Angeles Times about big wave surfing in 2010, Chasing the Swell, this story about Garrett McNamara back when all he had done was surf a calving glacier (joke!), this short video that I made about the 2014 women's big wave world champ Bianca Valenti, and this film about big wave surfing in the Azores (link to trailer only) that is screening in festivals worldwide now.

All footage was shot at 60fps 1920x1080 HD.

If you are interested in obtaining any footage or for booking, please note the time code and contact me at: [email protected]. If you are someone I know, I've probably already separated your waves. The holidays have simply put a cramp in turning it around and getting it to you. Thanks for your patience. You are all legends!

Extra special thanks to Hideshiro Minami for the use of his ski and the expert driving and safety by Hideshiro and Tom Murach. Thanks also to Steve and Colin Dwyer for letting me hang in their coolest of boats mid day.

Frame grab above of James Taylor of South Africa and Kohl Christensen of Hawaii blasting off.

© 2014 Sachi Cunningham

All rights reserved.

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One of my goals this season was to swim out in the lineup at Mavericks with my camera. What a thrill to do so on a day when nearly a dozen of the world’s best female big wave surfers were in town (and it was small, and there was water safety)! Thank you WickrX Super Sessions for making this historic gathering possible! Here’s a write up that I did about the session in Surfline.

Photo: Sachi Cunningham

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Celebrate human awesomeness. So much fun making this video about big wave world champ Bianca Valenti for the SF Chronicle.