Meet The Surf Photographer Making Waves Through Her Father’s Legacy

“Hard things always teach you something”

by Hafeezah Nazim

On February 9th, 2005, celebrated surf photographer Jon Mozo died while shooting the waves at the world-renowned Banzai Pipeline on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.

Photographer Amber Mozo—and Jon's daughter—is one of the photographers for Red Bull TV who shot this year's Volcom Pipe Pro. It was her first time swimming out into the dangerous waves at Pipeline, and it's an experience, she says, she wouldn't have been pushed to do if her father hadn't died there over a decade ago. We were lucky enough to join Mozo on her emotional journey.

"Hard things always teach you something," she said. "I learned really young that family is so important, and how you don't have all the time in the world. I don't think that I would have been super pushed to swim out to Pipeline, and shoot there if my dad didn't die there. I always thought to myself that if it's worth dying for, then it must be amazing."

Follow our video diary with Mozo, below.

Credits:

Camera: Charlotte Prager

Editor: Charlotte Prager

Producer: Bee Hill

Additional photography provided by Amber Mozo, and shot by Amber Mozo, Juan Oliphant, and Stu Johnson.