Nobody ever said getting a cover was easy; for the rider or the photographer. As soon as we tasked Guenther Oka and Jason Lee to come up with the moneymaker for this issue, Guenther knew what he wanted to do: hit a double up. In turn, Jason immediately knew what he wanted to do: shoot from the water.
Getting a good double up photo is hard enough from a chase boat, just in terms of making sure both drivers know where to be and when, but doing it from the water is a whole different animal.
For this particular shot, the driver had to time the rollers perfectly so that Jason would be in position to get this photo of Guenther jumping toward him from the opposite wake. That means lining up the angle of the light, timing the rollers exactly, and crossing them so the rider can hit the double up properly. Too far away from Jason and Guenther wouldn’t be visible enough; too close and Jason would be in a washing machine of rollers.
The first two days of shooting were unsuccessful, but on the third all those factors converged perfectly, and this cover was the result.
