A panel of 10 high-profile judges from within the surfing industry including seven-time world surfing champion Stephanie Gilmore were tasked with selecting the best of the best surfing photos for the 2020 Nikon surf photography awards. The judges were looking for innovation and creativity, uniqueness, dramatic affect and sensory impact. Here: “Free Fall”. (Photo by Ren Mcgann/2020 Nikon Surf Photography Awards)

Ed Freeman was born and raised in Boston and majored in French and Russian at Oberlin College in Ohio. After college, he worked as a performing musician, arranger and record producer, creating dozens of pop and jazz vinyls, including Carly Simon’s debut album and Don McLean’s American Pie. Ed Freeman in 1990 and have watched him grow as an artist and a teacher. For the past eight years, Ed has been teaching a Photoshop class at Santa Monica City College and currently has large pieces of his work, Desert Realty, featured in a traveling museum.

Waldo, a 6-year-old Tibetan Terrier belonging to Susan and Mike Leverette of Sebastian, competes in the third heat of the medium dogs division at the Hang 20 Surf Dog Classic at Carlin Park in Jupiter Saturday, August 29, 2015. “The waves are a little bigger than we are used to”, said Susan. (Photo by Bruce R. Bennett/The Palm Beach Post)

A body surfer rides a high wave at the Wedge on September 1, 2011 in Newport Beach, California. Waves measuring up to 20 feet pounded the beach. A winter storm off the coast of Australia and New Zealand brought unusally hgh serve to the Southern California beaches. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Surfers surf at Surf Snowdonia in Conwy, North Wales, September 3, 2015. The surf park, which cost $22.8 million, opened on August 1 and is the world's first commercial artificial surfing lake, according to the company.The pool is 300 metres (980 ft) long and 110 metres (360 ft) wide, containing a total of six million gallons of water. A bi-directional snowplough-shaped wave-generation mechanism, towed on a cable between the two central towers, moves up and down the pool on a three-rail track, generating the waves. (Photo by Andrew Yates/Reuters)

“In spring of 2010 I wanted to try something new and stopped being an architect. That 'something new' turned out to be photography. Wedding photography – to be exact. Today I travel around the world with my personal projects and commissions knowing that there is a lot more exiting stuff to be tried out. Don't be afraid to change something in your life, because for me that was one of the best decisions”. – Tadao Cern (Photo by Tadao Cern)

“Derby”, Kentucky Gallahue's goldendoodle, of Point Loma, sporting a mohawk haircut and sunglasses, leaps off the surfboard during the 2018 Imperial Beach Surf Dog Competition next to the Imperial Beach Pier in San Diego, California on July 28, 2018. (Photo by Howard Lipin/San Diego Union-Tribune via ZUMA Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)