-
So if I told you that
this was the face of pure joy,
-
would you call me crazy?
-
I wouldn't blame you,
-
because every time I look at this
Arctic selfie, I shiver just a little bit.
-
I want to tell you
a little bit about this photograph.
-
I was swimming around
in the Lofoten Islands in Norway,
-
just inside the Arctic Circle,
-
and the water was hovering
right at freezing.
-
The air? A brisk -10 with windchill,
-
and I could literally feel the blood
trying to leave my hands,
-
feet and face, and rush
to protect my vital organs.
-
It was the coldest I've ever been.
-
But even with swollen lips, sunken eyes,
and cheeks flushed red,
-
I have found that this place right here
is somewhere I can find great joy.
-
Now, when it comes to pain,
psychologist Brock Bastian
-
probably said it best when he wrote,
-
"Pain is a kind of shortcut
to mindfulness.
-
It makes us suddenly aware
of everything in the environment.
-
It brutally draws us in
-
to a virtual sensory awareness
of the world much like meditation."
-
If shivering is a form of meditation,
then I would consider myself a monk.
-
(Laughter)
-
Now, before we get into the why
-
would anyone ever want to surf
in freezing cold water?
-
I would love to give you
a little perspective
-
on what a day in my life can look like.
-
(Music)
-
(Video) Man: I mean, I know
we were hoping for good waves,
-
but I don't think anybody thought
that was going to happen.
-
I can't stop shaking.
-
I am so cold.
-
(Music)
-
(Applause)
-
Chris Burkard: So,
surf photographer, right?
-
I don't even know
if it's a real job title, to be honest.
-
My parents definitely didn't think so
-
when I told them at 19 I was quitting
my job to pursue this dream career:
-
blue skies, warm tropical beaches,
and a tan that lasts all year long.
-
I mean, to me, this was it.
Life could not get any better.
-
Sweating it out, shooting surfers
in these exotic tourist destinations.
-
But there was just this one problem.
-
You see, the more time I spent traveling
to these exotic locations,
-
the less gratifying it seemed to be.
-
I set out seeking adventure,
and what I was finding was only routine.
-
It was things like wi-fi, TV, fine dining,
and a constant cellular connection
-
that to me were all the trappings
of places heavily touristed
-
in and out of the water,
-
and it didn't take long
for me to start feeling suffocated.
-
I began craving wild, open spaces,
-
and so I set out to find the places
others had written off
-
as too cold, too remote,
and too dangerous to surf,
-
and that challenge intrigued me.
-
I began this sort of personal crusade
against the mundane,
-
because if there's
one thing I've realized,
-
it's that any career,
-
even one as seemingly glamorous
as surf photography,
-
has the danger of becoming monotonous.
-
So in my search to break up
this monotony, I realized something:
-
There's only about a third
of the Earth's oceans that are warm,
-
and it's really just that thin band
around the equator.
-
So if I was going to find perfect waves,
-
it was probably going
to happen somewhere cold,
-
where the seas are notoriously rough,
-
and that's exactly where I began to look.
-
And it was my first trip to Iceland
-
that I felt like I found
exactly what I was looking for.
-
I was blown away
by the natural beauty of the landscape,
-
but most importantly, I couldn't believe
we were finding perfect waves
-
in such a remote and rugged
part of the world.
-
At one point, we got to the beach
-
only to find massive chunks of ice
had piled on the shoreline.
-
They created this barrier
between us and the surf,
-
and we had to weave
through this thing like a maze
-
just to get out into the lineup.
-
and once we got there,
-
we were pushing aside these ice chunks
trying to get into waves.
-
It was an incredible experience,
one I'll never forget,
-
because amidst those harsh conditions,
-
I felt like I stumbled onto
one of the last quiet places,
-
somewhere that I found a clarity
and a connection with the world
-
I knew I would never find
on a crowded beach.
-
I was hooked. I was hooked. (Laughter)
-
Cold water was constantly on my mind,
-
and from that point on,
-
my career focused on these types of harsh
and unforgiving environments,
-
and it took me to places like Russia,
Norway, Alaska, Iceland, Chile,
-
the Faroe Islands,
and a lot of places in between.
-
And one of my favorite things
about these places
-
was simply the challenge and
the creativity it took just to get there:
-
hours, days, weeks spent on Google Earth
-
trying to pinpoint any remote stretch
of beach or reef we could actually get to.
-
And once we got there,
the vehicles were just as creative:
-
snowmobiles, six-wheel
Soviet troop carriers,
-
and a couple of super-sketchy
helicopter flights.
-
(Laughter)
-
Helicopters really scare me, by the way.
-
There was this one particularly
bumpy boat ride
-
up the coast of Vancouver Island
to this kind of remote surf spot,
-
where we ended up watching
helplessly from the water
-
as bears ravaged our camp site.
-
They walked off with our food
and bits of our tent,
-
clearly letting us know that we
were at the bottom of the food chain
-
and that this was their spot, not ours.
-
But to me, that trip
-
was a testament to the wildness
I traded for those touristy beaches.
-
Now, it wasn't until I traveled
to Norway -- (Laughter) --
-
that I really learned
to appreciate the cold.
-
So this is the place
-
where some of the largest,
the most violent storms in the world
-
send huge waves smashing
into the coastline.
-
We were in this tiny, remote fjord,
just inside the Arctic Circle.
-
It had a greater population
of sheep than people,
-
so help if we needed it
was nowhere to be found.
-
I was in the water
taking pictures of surfers,
-
and it started to snow.
-
And then the temperature began to drop.
-
And I told myself, there's not a chance
you're getting out of the water.
-
You traveled all this way, and this is
exactly what you've been waiting for:
-
freezing cold conditions
with perfect waves.
-
And although I couldn't even feel
my finger to push the trigger,
-
I knew I wasn't getting out.
-
So I just did whatever I could.
I shook it off, whatever.
-
But that was the point that I felt
-
this wind gush through
the valley and hit me,
-
and what started as this light snowfall
quickly became a full-on blizzard,
-
and I started to lose
perception of where I was.
-
I didn't know if I was drifting
out to sea or towards shore,
-
and all I could really make out
was the faint sound of seagulls
-
and crashing waves.
-
Now, I knew this place had a reputation
for sinking ships and grounding planes,
-
and while I was out there floating,
I started to get a little bit nervous.
-
Actually, I was totally freaking out --
-
(Laughter) -- and I was
borderline hypothermic,
-
and my friends eventually
had to help me out of the water.
-
And I don't know if it was
delirium setting in or what,
-
but they told me later
-
I had a smile on my face the entire time.
-
Now, it was this trip
-
and probably that exact experience
where I really began to feel
-
like every photograph was precious,
-
because all of a sudden in that moment,
it was something I was forced to earn.
-
And I realized, all this shivering
had actually taught me something:
-
In life, there are no shortcuts to joy.
-
Anything that is worth pursuing
is going to require us to suffer
-
just a little bit,
-
and that tiny bit of suffering
that I did for my photography,
-
it added a value to my work
that was so much more meaningful to me
-
than just trying to fill
the pages of magazines.
-
See, I gave a piece of myself
in these places,
-
and what I walked away with
-
was a sense of fulfillment
I had always been searching for.
-
So I look back at this photograph.
-
It's easy to see frozen fingers
and cold wetsuits
-
and even the struggle
that it took just to get there,
-
but most of all,
what I see is just joy.
-
Thank you so much.
-
(Applause)