Spring-summer 2021 was supposed to be a rebirth campaign. After the quarantine, the travel restrictions and limitations to move about, we have been striving to go back to where it all began.
It was our strong desire to reconnect the Sundek community with Hawaii and its spots, with those blue waves so impossible to find anywhere else. That spontaneous and simple surfing only to be found in its place of origin.
The legendary waves on the North Shore of Oahu, the crystal clear ones of Kona on the coast of the Big Island, have the power to empty your soul, detoxify your spirit from any negativity and give you the energy of a new beginning. We wanted to fill our lungs and mind with that atmosphere. That of the air that people breathe with the ocean always in sight. We wanted them to be the protagonists of our campaign, starting with the author of the shots. Sarah Lee is not just a "water photographer" featured in the Surfer Journal or National Geographic; she was born and raised on the Big Island, she is an open water swimmer, water polo player and, of course, a surfer.
Sarah has given us a chance to talk about the lesser celebrated yet more intimate surfing experience of normal people who go to the beach every day.
That of Keao and Jessica, for instance, who shuttle between Big Island, where they were born and raised, and Fiji, where they work in a resort. They surf and feel "ocean-minded" because salt water is their karma, because they grew up like this and now they are revealing the incredible beauty of it all to their children.
Then there is Paloma, also a model, who is 18 now and has been surfing since she was 8. Any time she's in the water she feels as if she were reveling at a big party with her friends and family.
And then there is Elena, a model, freediver and surfer, for whom the ocean is the only refuge where to escape and leave the rest of the world behind.
Or Captain Chad, who is on the surfboard riding the waves of Kona every day when he is not sailing.
There is Freddy with his family: born and raised in Oahu, he met his wife while surfing and organizes the meeting agenda of his excavation company based on the forecast of the upcoming swells. His children are growing up playing and diving among the barrels along the shore in expectation of big waves.
Just as writer Jean-Claude Izzo said: “In front of the sea happiness is a simple idea”.