Erik Aeder has been photographing ocean sports from the early 1970’s. Arriving on Maui in 1975 gave him a front row seat for the development of all the wind and wave driven sports exploding on the island. His travels to Australia in 1977 and Indonesia and then the Indian Ocean the following year opened up a new ocean world for him to explore.
He moved from the Lahaina side of Maui to the north shore just as the sport of windsurfing took off. Hookipa became his office and studio of choice to capture the water athletes that took to the waves to showcase their skills. Towards the end of the 1980s Erik spent his winter months at Pipeline on Oahu testing his swimming ability to photograph the famous surfers locked deep in the famous tube at Pipe. A working relationship with Laird Hamilton grew and Erik began shooting Laird conquering the break of Pe’ahi, aka Jaws, back on Maui.
Erik’s photography skills grew along with the new sports of kitesurfing, stand up paddle and foil boarding. He developed an artistic series of images with some of the women wave riders by swimming beneath the waves and wherever he could find an unusual background for the athlete models. His series titled ‘Bodies of Water' can be seen on his website, erikaeder.com along with other work from over the many years of photographing our incredible ocean world.
