By Mike Latronic Photos Dean Wilmot – For decades, Dean Wilmot has had a front-row seat to the raw beauty and unforgiving power of surfing’s most iconic waves. A fixture in the surf photography scene since the 1980s, Wilmot’s lens has captured legends in motion, moments of stillness, and the visceral pulse of Pipeline. But beyond the frame lies a story of deep connection—to place, to purpose, and recently, to survival.
In this candid conversation, Wilmot reflects on a life shaped by both the ocean and the people who ride it. He speaks of Hawai’i as more than just a surf destination: recounting a childhood spent flying in for weekends thanks to his mother’s airline job, and the smells, sights, and feelings that still make the islands feel like a second home. From lugging twin camera housings into the surf during the film era to his recent leap into digital with a Canon R3, his evolution as a photographer is inseparable from the evolution of the surf scene itself.
Now a full-time paramedic and a survivor of open-heart surgery, Wilmot’s return to Pipeline this season is more than a comeback—it’s a celebration of resilience, passion, and a lifelong love for capturing fleeting, perfect moments in salt and light.
ML: How many years have you been coming to Hawai’i?
DW: Well, not including surfing, I’ve been coming since I was about 10 and I’m 56 now. So that’s why I consider Hawai’i my second home really. My mom worked for Pan Am and United Airlines, so we used to come over for long weekends and holidays. Pretty much three times a year. I just absolutely fell in love with Hawai’i. People ask me, “Why do you love Hawai’i so much?” And it’s like, well, yeah, Pipe is epic. It’s so beautiful. The landscape’s just mind blowing, the warm water, but it’s also the people as well. Hawai’i is not just surfing. It’s the smell of the soil, the smell of the landscape, the smell of the ocean. As soon as I get off the plane, it’s just like, “oh my God.” It’s like, it’s so hard to explain. For me, it’s pretty much heaven.
FSM How did you become a surf photographer?
DW: I sort of fell into it as probably most of us have. I changed schools and my mum and dad sent me to a nice private school in the middle of Sydney. So it was a bit of a drive from the northern beaches, but uh, they had photography and woodwork and I just chose photography ’cause it appealed to me. And living in North Arab I had access to, you know, Simon Anderson, Damien Hardman, Greg Anderson, like some of the hottest surfers in the world at the time. And Tom Carroll up the road and Martin Potter and all those guys. And I guess I just fell into it and had a bit of a natural aptitude for it. And so that’s how it really started for me.
ML: How has photography evolved over the years for you?
DW: The evolution? Yeah well say for instance when I started shooting in about 1984, it was all black and white film or color transparencies, Kodachrome and such. I remember my first year that I came here (Hawai’i) to shoot properly in 1987. Back then the really good guys had the big Canon 800mm lenses with the little manual focus dial, which I eventually got as well. And, then auto focus started coming into play sometime in the 1990’s. For me, ’cause I specialized in water shots so it didn’t really hit me as much. I didn’t go for the auto focus in the water for a really long time ’cause I like to be as light as I could and be as compact and not be held down with too much technology at that time.
ML: I mean, whether you had auto focus or not, you guys were swimming out with only 24 or 36 shots back then. You had to be real discerning with your trigger finger.
DW: Yeah, well I manipulated the way I worked in that I wore two water housings. So, I would strap two water housings to a scuba belt on my back and swim out to 12-foot-plus Pipe. It worked really, really well. ’cause I didn’t have to swim in and swim out so quickly, but it was very heavy to swim in and out and made things quite difficult. But it definitely paid off for me ’cause I wouldn’t lose 30 or 45 minutes.
ML: Now with the advent of digital photography you can literally send thousands of images to a card!
DW: Well this is it! The digital system! The camera has evolved greatly. The rig I’m using today is the top-of-the-range Canon R3, and it’s the best camera that has ever been made, by far. We don’t need to get more technology than what we have now.
I only made the big jump to digital last year actually. I was coming [to Hawai’i] every single season from 1987 to 2003, and then I had to start getting proper work in photography: I’d set up studios and had clients I had to look after—and then my daughter was born 12 years ago. So I actually had a 20 year break from coming here to shoot. It still blows me away that for a place that I adore and it’s my second home that I had such a massive break from coming here. I decided eight months ago I had just had to come back just because it’d been on my mind for a long time. I just had to come back.
ML: Tell me about your favorite place to shoot and favorite moments.
DW: Well, Pipe is undoubtedly the spot for me personally. That stretch of beach at Backdoor and Off The Wall is irreplaceable.
ML: What’s your goal now? Why do you still want to take these pictures?
DW: That’s a really good question because there’s no money in surfing photography anymore.
I’m actually a paramedic now and I have been for eight years. I started making the move out of photography professionally about 10 years ago actually, but I still love shooting surfing, especially at Pipe. You get to see the most beautiful watercolor and the most incredible shaped waves. There’s, there’s nowhere like it on the planet. It’s the jewel of the entire earth as far as I’m concerned. It’s just breathtaking.
ML: Any danger involved?
DW: Yeah, there’s heaps of danger. You risk getting bounced off the reef and hitting your head. I’m very strategic about everything I do. I’m actually very aware of where I am on the reef and try to look for and float above little cracks in the reef. I’ve got my little spots that I like to be at. I sort of pay attention to what other lenses people are using. Everyone’s shooting similar focal lengths sometimes and sitting close to each other, so I want to use a different focal length. This means I need to sit in a slightly different part of the reef and try to get different angles. There’s been a billion photos taken of Pipe so how do you get something different, especially in this day and age?
ML: Go ahead and give me a few of your favorite moments and why.
DW: Yeah. Favorite moments for me are like empty waves for me, especially at Pipe. They’re timeless but you know, for surfers: that snap of Tom Carroll’s at Pipe was just like, who does that? There’s also the incredible things Kelly Slater has done over the years and that generation. Betty Lou Johnson went out in a pink wetsuit last year and that was fantastic. Nice to see a bit of color again cause it’s like everyone goes black on black and white boards and it’s like, I dunno, being a visual person, it’s just nice to have a bit of color. There’s guys like Mason Ho. He’s got the most amazing looking boards.
Surfing Mag photo editor, Larry Moore back in the day, like he wouldn’t tolerate anyone not having a bit of color on them. Surfers just in general, they’re incredible athletes but I think a lot of them really need to be tutored and taught what filmmakers and photographers look for in imagery. Yeah, like the other day I got some shots of Maikai Burdine. Good surfer but he’s wearing these fantastic yellow board shorts and he’s got color on the bottom of his board. He does this sick air, like one of the best I’ve seen, but just having that color has made it so much better.
ML: Is there anything else you wanted to share?
DW: One of the reasons I came back this year was that I am very fortunate to actually be alive. Last year when I was swimming out at Pipe, I was getting really short of breath. Also when I was training, which I trained every day, I was getting really short of breath. I found I had an undiagnosed life-threatening heart condition in mid-August and then I had open heart surgery in the beginning of September. The recovery to be ready for Hawai’i, you know, for this January was a massive thing for me, physically and mentally. To be here this season or at all, is a gift.