'Conditions were perfect': how the breathtaking image of Olympic surfer Gabriel Medina was taken

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On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true.

The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard.

The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI.
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But Brouillet had knowledge and experience on his side – he could see one of the best waves of the day was approaching and knew that Medina often does this kind of celebration at the end of the wave.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jul/30/paris-olympics-2024-surfer-gabriel-medina-floating-photo-jerome-brouillet-how-it-was-taken