2016 BEST PHOTOS // DAMIAN DAVILA
I got asked by Salt Water to do a selection of my best photos of 2016 and I thought it was an awesome idea. Then I was like "Oh wait! I have tons of footage in just one year of all the places I’ve been and projects I did". I asked to myself “How am I going to choose 12 photos from thousands I have taken?” it’s going to be hard! So I just decided randomly one photo of each month of the past year 2016. And here they are I hope you like them. Thanks to all the people I met in this new places I went and of course everyone for their support! I hope I can do it all over again in 2017.
January.
This was taken cold Belgium in the City of Oostende. The break in north sea its not always pumping so when there are waves, you need to stop what you’re doing and head out to the surf! For me, its a 50 minute drive to the coast, quite a journey but I'm always happy when I get there and score awesome photos of the locals.
February.
I was hired by Red Bull to shoot in a competition they organize called “Gone with the wind” for kite surfers in Knokke-Heist. This day was cold and really windy. It was kind of hard to shoot in the water because the athletes were focused in getting air to get more point and it wasn’t like an ordinary shoot where they surf by me to take the shot.
March.
Local shredder from Oostende, Belgium, Mathias Vanoverbeke on a nice day. This kid is always ripping from half foot waves to big waves on his longboard, short board or any kind of weird board he is using he can put up a show.
April.
This was my second time visiting this beautiful fishing village in Morocco. I didn’t went this time on a surf mission like mostly of my trips, this one was a little different, I went with my wife for fun and show her around what I have seen on my recent visit there. I still brought my equipment just in case because you never know! haha.
May.
This was my first time somewhere in the area of northern France. It was something new for me this kind of scenery. Backdrops were awesome with huge cliffs, bunkers, and some buildings on the edge of the cliff. The water was super clear it reminded me of the Caribbean but it was so cold brrr! Im looking forward to go back there someday.
June.
This Lys river in Ghent, Belgium the town where I live now. In this month I didn’t got to go anywhere, so I was going crazy with out shooting any water. I took my camera and went on the side of the river and snapped a few pictures fast before police would say something to me.
July.
This was out front my house back in Baja, Mexico. It was almost a year since I wasn’t there because I'm living in Europe now. It felt so nice just to go out and shoot what ever there was, unfortunately there wasn’t a big swell but there was some fun minis to shoot which I enjoy also a lot.
August.
I was still in my holiday back in my town of Rosarito Baja Mexico and hanging out with all my friends, just surfing everyday and eating tacos afterwards. These are the Volcom Little Buddies searching for surf riding horses on the beach.
September.
Wow I think this has been one of my more epic trips I have done. This is Roy van Eijk from Holland. He wrote me a message asking if I wanted to go on a trip with him to France and knowing that this guy is a shredder, I said YES! with not a doubt. This shot was taking on the first morning we arrived to Hossegor, we had barely slept but we were all stoked to get in the water. The most awesome part of this session was that there was no one out in the line up! it was unbelievable!
October.
It was my first time in Portugal, a friend from Holland named Olly asked me if I wanted to join him for his Family Surf Travel project and for sure I said of course! Every morning we had surf lessons with some of the guests and after the lessons ended we had some time to go on our own and explore. This was one day that it looked like it was going to rain but it was offshore and so good!.
November.
I was asked like a day before to join on this trip for the weekend to the UK. We went for some championships around the Cornwall area and then next day we had some time to explore before we head out back to Belgium. I was amazed with all the cliffs and scenery beautiful UK has!.
December.
And to close the year, I was for the 3rd time in epic Morocco! I was adopted by Surf Team Belgium to go as their photographer for the Euro Junior Championships held in Anza beach in Agadir. When the event was done everyday we went home to our hostel in Taghazout and we had this every evening. After being tired of being under the sun all day we got home and we forgot about how we were feeling after seeing this waves and we went out all the time and score!
Shot over consecutive mornings during the long, recent run of North Coast autumn swell, In the Family of Things is Dave Rastovich in his element, doing his thing.