Bryan Elkus

Author: Bryan Elkus

  • Pre Thanksgiving Surf Session

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    The day I headed back to Michigan for Thanksgiving, proved to be a great day of surf in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  It was so good we found out they held the Battle of the Banks only a mile from where we went for our session.

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    Jason Slezak, Sam Bell and Julien Fillion headed out for a session with myself and Chris Stephany shooting. It was great for about a half hour before the skies covered up and it became grayer than gray.

    The waves were big and powerful.  I got thrown over the falls 4-5 times that day, but got a couple cool shots!

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  • REAL Holiday TV Spot


    REAL Holiday 2009 TV Spot from Real Watersports on Vimeo.

    After a very busy week at work putting the REAL Holiday Catalog together. I had 1 day to shoot and edit a TV spot for REAL to run during the Holiday season. So with the very little time and prep I had to get this ready, I thought it came out decently well (minus the Audio, which i didn’t have control over).

  • Rob Kelly / Ocean Minded / Elkus Ad

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    Master shredder Rob Kelly and I lined up these shots, while he was in town a few weeks back. I was especially excited about Ocean Minded’s layout of the ad and use of the images. I thought it turned out amazing. This one was seen in ESM Magazine. Take a look…

  • Cape Hatteras Sunrise

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    All was well north of town this morning so I cruised over to the Rodanthe Pier to get a sunrise shot. It was a bit hazy and a little ere with the massive waves still rolling in, but it made for a great sunrise. Now that its winter the sunrises so much farther south than it did in the spring I had to take a bit of a hike to get this one.

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    I stopped once more as I noticed the reflection from all the water made for a cool shot of Jobob’s. So Good Morning Cape Hatteras… (its off to work)

  • Surfing Bombs and a Great Sunset

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    Now that things seem to be calming down a bit on the Island. Zack, Joel and I decided to paddle out. It looked doable from the beach. We made it out after drifting a fare distance down current.

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    Joel and I came up pretty empty handed and zack scored a couple for the team. To end up a couple days of destructions here is a great classic Cape Hatteras sunset (with power lines).

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  • Cape Hatteras HWY12 Road Closure : Round 7

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    Right off the bat, a probably very tired and stressed officer greeted us this afternoon in a rather unkind fashion. To him we said, good afternoon to you too and took a stroll beach side to avoid any unneed conflict.

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    Heading north we could see all the debris from the houses being ripped apart, and old pilings that were uncovered by all the sand loss along the tide line. We made it up to Serendipity to see what looked like a minefield of debris.

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    They continue to build up the sand dunes on the side of the road, and were allowing 4×4 vehicles along a path close to where the beat up Highway 12 laid. The highway looks like it was put in an oven and then went through a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. It was the first time I had been down there at low tide and it was a sight to see.

    HWY 12 Closure Photos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.

  • Cape Hatteras HWY12 Road Closure : Round 6

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    Headed back to Mirlo Beach at the North end of Rodanthe, NC. It just before high tide this evening. To my surprise the guys got a ton of work done since I was there earlier in the morning.

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    They cleared out hwy 12 from the south all the way up to the Serendipity house. But with the incoming tide they were battling against time. The bulldozers were working as fast as they could to dump sand to rebuild the dunes and stop the oncoming waves.

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    By the time we left just after high tide the waves were already breaking over the sand dunes. It will be interesting to see what is left in the morning.

    HWY 12 Closure Photos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.

  • Cape Hatteras HWY12 Road Closure : Round 5

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    This morning’s high tide was too early to get up to go shoot so, after we woke up Mel, Chris and I ventured back up to the North of Rodanthe, Cape Hatteras, NC (or what’s left of it). After walking the half-mile from where we could safely park, things weren’t looking any better than yesterday.

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    Nearly all the pools of the first dozen houses to the south of town were broken or gone. You can see the pavement that buckled from the seemingly endless waves breaking over what use to be 10-15 foot high sand dunes. The sun broke though for a little, while we were exploring the area. It made things seem very surreal as the double overhead waves were crashing just feet from the houses.

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    The clouds quickly covered up the sun, and with the strong North winds at our face we decided to head back for some breakfast, as things weren’t going to change any time soon.

    HWY 12 Closure Photos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.

  • Cape Hatteras HWY12 Road Closure : Round 4

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    It was going on high tide and the surroundings looked more like a war zone than the tranquil escape many people know as Cape Hatteras. With water rushing down the streets from all directions it was crazy hiking the half-mile to the end of town.

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    The Serendipity House in Rodanthe made it though another high tide as did the 4-5 houses just south of town. Things were looking much worse than I’ve ever seen it before. Just take a look at the images.

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    HWY 12 Closure Photos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.