FIRST IN, LAST OUT: PHOTOGRAPHER CHRISTA FUNK



“Christa is probably the person who shoots the most, especially on big days,” says Hawaiian big wave master Mark Healy in the new documentary, First In, Last Out. The documentary details Christa’s story from her beginnings as a competitive swimmer to joining the Coast Guard and her determined rise through the ranks of A-list surf photographers on surfing’s grandest stage, Oahu’s North Shore.

With her hair flipped over her helmet, and her head bobbing in the channel as she swims for hours, she makes for a unique site in male-dominated lineup. Nathan Florence says, “We’ll go out for a morning session and surf for a few hours and then go in. “When we come back out, hours later, Christa’s still out there; she’s out from dark till dark.” Here she is discussing the journey of her life and the making of the film.



On Beginnings:

Christa Funk: Well, I didn’t just hop into the water at Pipe right off the bat. I started with small days at Sandys, then small days in town, small days at Chuns. You know, just slowly working my way up as I was learning. I first went out to Pipe on a 3-4 foot day with my friend Kenji Croman, and I was happy to have someone with me because I was intimidated by the wave, for sure. I was like ‘Oh My God, This is Pipeline.’ I got full-body chills and just had this feeling that this was going to change things. I realized I had so much work to do and so many people to be cognizant of, everyone that came before me. So I was at the back of the line and had so much to learn. Everyone always asks if it was intimidating with all the men but that was never an issue for me, I was used to that from the Coast Guard. The wave was what was intimidating.



Was your time in the U.S. Coast Guard helpful?

Absolutely. Pipeline is way more relaxing than the Coast Guard. Out at Pipe, it’s just me. I’m not responsible for a whole crew or a big boat, and that makes it way less stressful. I feel like everything that has happened in my life is like one big tumbleweed that has rolled up to this moment. It started with competitive swimming and distance swims when I was young, then picking up photography at 13 years old, then joining the Coast Guard, and then my shooting career really evolved when I was able to put all the pieces together.



You have a film telling your story now, with some of the biggest names in the sport singing your praise. How has life been recently?

Well, with this kind of work, when it rains, it pours. I’ve had a full schedule lately and I can’t complain about that. Mostly, though, I just feel so very grateful to everybody who has been in my corner, everybody who has supported me, my family, my husband, my friends. It feels like I’ve been able to do a lot in a short amount of time, and that wouldn’t be possible without my community. That’s what being involved in surfing is all about. Community. That’s the best part of all of this.

A new documentary follows her journey to the most dangerous lineups in the world
By Chris Dodds

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MEDEWI: Life by the side of the skeleton road

Image
It is late afternoon. That time of day on any west coast where the color of the sea and the land contract into vivid hues and shadows begin to crawl east like living things and a golden path rises from the sea and leads to the sun. You are at the surf break of Medewi Point on the island of Bali, far from the tourist madness to the south and you can see alpha local Muklis Anwar and his covey of wet, shiny, local kids crabbing their way toward shore over the slippery boulders on the inside of the surf break. A misstep here and any one of them will receive a spray of urchin spines deep into the front pads of their feet and nothing more than a sewing machine needle to dig them out with. Muklis has been teaching the village kids how to surf and the kids hold under their arms all manner of relic surfboards. Chunked, split and repaired, cast away like dolls without heads by the western visitors of this place over the decades. Yet these boards are gold to the humble, to be smelted and re-...
Read more

SURFING GREATEST CONVERSATIONS: JON PYZEL IS SHAPING HISTORY

Image
Photography by Pyzel Archives Jon Pyzel’s pedigree runs much deeper than just being the shaper for the best surfer on the planet. You gotta go back a bit. As a teen surfer kid in Santa Barbara, Jon Pyzel was close witness to the birth of the 80’s Tommy Curren era and Al Merrick’s subsequent global design dominance. A powerful influence that caused Jon to pivot his dreams from a pro surfing career to an underground shaping career. At first mentored by shaper Matt Moore of the famed Rincon Designs surf shop (that was within sight of California’s best point break), Jon upped stakes when he moved to the North Shore in 1992. It was there, now mentored by maestro shaper Jeff Bushman and possessing a keen interest in modernizing the Hawaiian designs that came before his time, that Jon Pyzel developed a reputation as a shaper for the future. As it happened, John John Florence and his family lived right next door. A lifelong friendship with the Florence family grew and soon Jon Pyzel was ...
Read more

SEKEN BALI JAZZ & COCKTAILS SEKEN IS MORE THAN A BAR

Image
It’s a meeting point of music, craft, and community. The name reflects a double meaning: from the English “second” and from the Balinese “seken” (meaning wholehearted). True to its name, Seken is built on second chances, genuine effort, and real hospitality. Behind Seken is a collective of creatives, bartenders, and music lovers who saw the need for a jazz-driven venue in Seminyak. At the helm of the bar program is Charles Richard, Founding Bartender and winner of Diageo World Class Indonesia 2025, who brings 20 years of experience to cocktails that are bold, soulful, and full of story. At Seken, cocktails move with a jazz rhythm, layered, unexpected, and built on rare spirits, local botanicals, and minimalist precision. Among the Signature Cocktails, highlights include the Salak Serenade (white rum, fermented salak purée, calamansi, mace, egg white), a tropical sour that spotlights Bali’s unique snake fruit; and the Late Night Riff (dark rum, Kintamani cold brew, dark crème de c...
Read more