We’re a collective of photographers focused on capturing the many moods of Ocean Beach, San Francisco.

When and how’d we form?

On April 11, 2025, “Heavy Water: Two Seasons at Ocean Beach” debuted with 22 photographers showcasing their work exclusively from the 2023-2025 fall and winter seasons at Ocean Beach, San Francisco. Mollusk Surf Shop’s art room displayed one print per contributor and hosted a more extensive slideshow with storytelling and presentations from each contributor.

If you happened to wander past Irving Street and 46th Avenue that Friday night, you would have seen crowds spilling into the street and a building packed wall-to-wall with eager neighbors, surfers, photographers, and even folks from way out of town.

The takeaway was unmistakable: demand was high, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. The night overflowed with community appreciation, with people finally putting faces and energy to familiar Instagram handles and long-admired work.

From that momentum, a subset of the original 22 created the Heavy Water Collective. You can read more about the event here.

What’s our purpose?

While what exactly the Heavy Water Collective will ultimately become is still taking shape, we do know the power of gathering, sharing, and building community to be true. We’ve got plenty of ideas in motion (including coffee table books, fundraisers for local nonprofits, and more annual shows), so stay tuned.

How can you support us?

You’ll see us churning around in the heavy water, swimming against the currents, and diving under double overhead waves with cameras in water housings weighing over 10 pounds, sometimes closer to 20. You’ll also see us in the dunes with our film cameras and long lenses or flying that drone over your head. Although most of us opt into this humbling, sometimes masochistic activity as a hobby, some of us do it to support our livelihoods. Either way, San Francisco isn’t exactly known for its affordability.

Follow us on social media, tag us, buy prints, offer to throw a few bills for that epic capture of you in the barrel (especially if you want to see it ASAP as we’ve got lives outside of photography, you know)… The list of possibilities goes on. Each one of us likely has different offerings like calendars, books, or private sessions, so talk to us and ask. More often than not, we might be your neighbor, and any one of us might tell you to just do a good deed for a stranger in exchange for the shot.

What’s our take on the impact of sharing surf photography?

Of course, sharing surf photography publicly is bound to inspire more people to partake in both the sport and the capturing of it, which brings up complicated dynamics around localism and crowds. Through building this type of formalized collective, we can navigate these shifts and conversations together.

That said, Ocean Beach, San Francisco isn’t exactly a secret spot. And the reality is that it only attracts a specific type of person who can hold their own through the cold, grit, and punishing paddle out… So whatever may come to be, we’ll just be out here having a good time and doing as we do: creating while getting a hell of a lot of exercise.

👋 See you out there.