By Mike Latronic – Christa Joy Funk was just a toddler, barely walking when she marched straight into the shallow side of a swimming pool until she was underwater. Fortunately her mom was there to pull her out quickly- but this marks the starting point for a long and watery journey for the world’s preeminent female surf photographer. Funk has earned a spot as one of the best water photographers on the planet, male or female, and has become a regular at the Banzai Pipeline.
Raised on the mainland in Colorado and Delaware, Funk had always been drawn to the water and excelled both on the school swim team and photography class. Go figure. Christa embraced a strong work ethic and Funk’s journey to becoming a renowned water photographer is a testament to her unwavering dedication and solid efforts. Whether it’s the beauty of the ocean and waves or the human connection of the athletes and personalities, Funk’s trigger finger and composition never fails to deliver.
Funk’s background as a competitive swimmer and her rigorous fitness routine enable her to endure long hours in the water, capturing the perfect shot. Stories abound of her “standard” 6-8 hour shooting sessions, as she often ventures into the heavy and unpredictable waves of Pipeline, literally all day long.
Getting in the mix as one of the world’s best- in any industry- is no easy feat. This is especially true as photography gets increasingly more competitive in the digital age. Yet, Funk has proven herself technically and physically, in heavy conditions, earning her spot in the lineup along with great respect amongst her peers and the surf community. Here at Freesurf, we’re big fans if you can’t already tell.
FSM What is your inspiration for picking up a camera and taking pictures?
CF Gosh, I guess I’m trying to bring light to people in some way or just even just giving them an escape when they see a photograph because that’s how I always felt like looking at them.
FSM Tell me about your evolution. Do you remember your first wave or your first experience in the ocean?
CF I actually do. So I’m originally from Colorado, but for a four year period, I lived in Delaware from 1997 to 2001 and from age 7 to 11 and that’s where I started the swim team. I think my first time really encountering the ocean was taking sailing lessons and then I’d hang out with my family on the beach. Those were my first memories of being around the water and in the ocean. I’d take a boogie board and I loved kicking and having the wave throw over me. I thought it was just the coolest thing ’cause you were inside it and going straight as it’s throwing over me and [I] just was in love with that. That’s really a visual that I still have in my mind.
FSM Swim team? No wonder. Did you enjoy swimming or were you forced into it?
CF Oh no, I loved swimming. I think my first interaction with that, I was four years old, maybe younger than that. I just learned to walk and my mom had my sisters at their swim lessons. I was with my mom. She took her eyes off me for one second and I walked straight down the stairs into the kiddie end of the pool and I just walked until the water covered my head. She saw me straight away and just grabbed me and scooped me up and pulled me out of the water. So I’m sure I gave my mom a lot of heart attacks as a kid.
FSM What came first, riding waves or photography?
CF Photography came first. I started shooting in eighth grade. It was actually through my computer teacher. She noticed I had gotten ahead of the class, and she asked “Do I want to learn about photography and Photoshop?” I said yes. She loaned me her Canon EOS and I had a roll of film and I started taking pictures with that as I was learning. My eighth grade teacher wrote a recommendation and I got to go in the photography class with juniors and seniors when I was a freshman. We learned, start to finish: getting your film, shooting it, and then the whole developing process. We had to deal with everything concerning film. I did that for two years- freshman and sophomore year. And then my junior and senior year I shifted into shooting digital for our high school newspaper. We had an awesome newspaper. It was a full-on news magazine. It was printed in color and it was a photojournalist forum. I was a photo editor my senior year. Those were great years.
FSM Where did ocean photography come into play?
CF So it was photography first and then I was doing competitive swimming on the side, but I hadn’t quite put together how to get a camera in the water. And I wanted to do that eventually because I loved shooting sports and I was a swimmer and I wanted to shoot but I didn’t have the money to get a water housing and it just wasn’t there yet. Actually, Sean Davey was part of that. I got a book, I think it was my junior year for my birthday, it was called Extreme Sports Photography. And Sean Davey had a section in there and I remember seeing his surfing photos and they pulled me in. I wanted to like, be ”in” the water seeing that. I just had that in my head, but I just didn’t know how to get there.
FSM Okay. So you intersected with the ocean, you saw some surf photos. What did you do next?
CF I either wanted to be a marine scientist or a photojournalist and my dad kept saying, you know, you should really go to a military academy. And I’m like, really I don’t think that’s gonna be my speed. I felt like I was more creative and artistic and I just didn’t think it’d be the best fit. Long story short, I asked my mom, and she said, do the science first. Do marine biology, then keep shooting and do that later. And so it ended up working out where I figured out that I could do marine biology at one of the service academies. So I applied to the Naval Academy and the Coast Guard Academy and Coast Guard accepted me early. I ended up going there and studying marine environmental science and I kept shooting while I was there.
FSM Should we re-title your story Top Gun now?
CF I dunno about that! Okay, after four years of military academy, you come out with a bachelors degree. So I had a bachelor’s in Marine environmental science and came out with a commission. I was commissioned as a Coast Guard officer. I ended up on Oahu at Sand Island. I was stationed on Coast Guard cutter Rush. It was a 378 foot cutter and it went out for three months and it was in port for three months. During all of that, my free time was spent getting in the water after work and learning how to surf and body surf.
FSM So being assigned to Hawai’i was a lucky strike?
CF I came somewhere where I could get in the water every single day and I was so excited. I had a friend that he saw me shooting during a port call and he said, you know, you should get out an hour early before the sunset and shoot surfing and see if you like to shoot surfing. I took his advice. I think it was April one year and I saw little heads out in the water with water housings and I went up to a guy that was about to go out and I said, I’m thinking about getting a water housing, do you have any advice for me? That was Kenji Corman. I got a water housing and then all the things that I’d learned throughout my whole life started kind of clicking into gear with shooting in the water. I went out for the first time at Sandy Beach with him. And then I kept building my way up like, in town and then I shifted to small North Shore and built my way up with North Shore waves until I said, okay, let’s go out at the Pipe for the first time.
He took me out on a 3-4’ day and swam me out for the first time, showed me the basic stuff. Once I saw a barrel there, it was the same thing as when I caught my first wave surfing. I went, “oh, oh, this is… I’m, I’m hooked! I’m in! This is gonna change things in my life.”
FSM So you got the surf photog bug?
CF One of the things that I loved so much about sports when I first started shooting was you could go down on the field and I could get really close. So I was down on the field and football players were falling on me sometimes and it was sweaty and the smells and I felt like I was in it. I just really liked that feeling, engaged with the environment that I was shooting and doing surf photography, you’re fully in it when you’re in the water. You are focused on what the waves are doing. You’re trying to pay attention to so many different environmental factors. And then when they all come together to create a barreling wave it’s incredibly addictive.
When they all come together, it’s just, it’s amazing and fantastic and every single one is different in its own way. And I swear there’s like times when I’m just like, you know, the only difference with that one between this one and that one is that the spit pressure on this one was like just so much more. Different aspects of it are just so interesting, depending on the break and the reef and how shallow or how deep it is. There’s so much variety and you’re so in the environment. I think I really got addicted to that feeling.
FSM Can you pick a favorite shot?
CF One that always just really stays in my mind is actually my husband Jake. It’s [from] before we were married, I don’t think we were dating when I shot it even. It was an early season swell and it was flipping beautiful and it was coming in perfectly and it was maybe like 10’. I don’t think anybody wanted this wave and so Jake just dug for it. He does this late free fall airdrop thing, barely gets under the lip, like it brushes over his head. He gets in and then it spits once while he is in the barrel and he just disappears. The spit just starts coming and you can’t see him and then it spits again and he comes flying out with the wave. In the background and all of the spray in the air and it’s afternoon and he is leaning back, soul arching. He just had this expression of so much joy and exuberance. It looks like how he describes it. He was like,” I’ve wanted that wave for 30 years. I’ve wanted that wave since I was a little kid. That was like the dream wave that I wanted…” And just all of that is in his body language and like his facial expression and the light, all the compositional elements are just there in that shot. And it’s, yeah, it’s my favorite.
FSM It must be your favorite. You married him!
CF I know, right? Gosh, no even if I didn’t know him that well, that would still be my favorite shot. Like he was so genuinely happy to get that wave.
FSM Sharing that happiness, I can understand! That’s why we do Freesurf. Is that what keeps you motivated?
CF Photos were always like a way to transport myself into different environments. Even if I wasn’t even going there, I could pick up a National Geographic and I could go to the Amazon. That’s what I try to give to people with my photos is that kind of feeling of like, they’re with me there and they’re seeing what I saw and how I saw it and that’s, that’s what I try to give. And even if they just take three seconds and look at the picture and it just gives them a break from whatever’s going on. That’s awesome. I love being able to do that with a photograph and that’s generally what I try to go for. And I think I try not to be too picky with surf conditions because I’ve gotten some of my best photos on days that are mediocre at best.
FSM What is in store for the future?
CF I want to keep shooting full-time and staying with photography. It’s really what I am so passionate about and I am just over the moon that I get to pursue what I love.
FSM Any last words?
CF I just, I’m really grateful for all of the opportunities and just being able to shoot and do that for a living. There’s so many people and events that happened in my life that I feel like really led me towards this path and I’m just thankful that I had people kind of helping me along the way and now, it’s amazing to be able to do this as a full-time job.