Oahu Photographer Brent Bielmann Explores Pipeline Above—and Below—the Surface

Brent Bielmann’s career in photography started when he was 13, after he bought a used camera body and housing from his uncle Brian Bielmann, who just so happens to be one of the most influential surf photographers of all time. Bielmann quickly fell in love.

Being from Oahu’s North Shore, and a damn good surfer himself, Bielmann has been comfortable in heavy water for as long as he can remember, which explains his affinity for nailing crazy fisheye water shots at the world’s heaviest waves. He puts himself in positions very few photographers can match.

But for Bielmann, everything revolves around his home break of Pipeline. It’s where he packed his first crazy tube as a teenager, and also where his photography career took off. These days he’s near the top of the pecking order swimming out at Pipe. In the short profile above, Bielmann talks us through his relationship with Pipeline--both under the reef, and inside the tube. “When it all comes together, it’s pure magic,” Bielmann says, “I grew up watching this wave. I’ve seen it beautiful; I’ve seen it ugly. Big, small, it doesn’t matter—it’s always hard to look away.”