Two events on two islands cover almost everything Hawaii offers a triathlon and open water photographer: a world championship with a 140.6-mile course through lava fields and headwinds, and a 55-year-old ocean swim that starts and ends on two of the most photographed beaches on Oahu.
The Ironman World Championship, Kona
The Ironman World Championship course starts with a 2.4-mile swim loop in Kailua Bay, off the pier, with athletes wading roughly 130 yards out to an in-water start before the clockwise loop begins. The 112-mile bike leg opens with four steep climbs in the first five miles of inner Kona, then settles onto the Queen K Highway for rolling miles out to the Kawaihae to Hawi turnaround, nearly 20 miles of what riders call the harshest weather on the course, before the return leg, often faster with a tailwind. The marathon starts on Ali'i Drive with two loops through town for the first 10 miles, then heads out to the Queen K and the Natural Energy Lab around mile 16, the race's most remote and exposed stretch. October temperatures sit in the high 80s with roughly 80 percent humidity, and conditions can shift dramatically between town and the Hawi turnaround. For a photographer, that means three completely different shoots in one race: the swim start chaos at the pier, the climbs in inner Kona early on the bike, and the Ali'i Drive run loops, which are the most walkable, most crowd-heavy, and easiest to shoot without a media credential.
The Waikiki Roughwater Swim
Now in its 55th year, the Waikiki Roughwater Swim runs a roughly 2-kilometer course starting at Sans Souci Beach, between the Natatorium and the Kaimana Beach Hotel, out through the Outrigger Canoe Club channel, across Waikiki, and into the Hilton Hawaiian Village channel, finishing at Duke Kahanamoku Beach. Swimmers have 2 hours and 40 minutes to complete the course, wearing the event's swim cap throughout. Two shooting positions cover almost the entire field: Sans Souci Beach at the start, where staggered waves go off every few minutes, and Duke Kahanamoku Beach at the finish, where swimmers come ashore in front of the Hilton Hawaiian Village, a backdrop instantly recognizable to anyone who has been to Waikiki.
Why open water swimmers buy photos differently than runners
A road race produces thousands of frames of runners at a pace where faces are visible and recognizable. An open water swim produces the opposite: swimmers are mostly submerged, wearing caps and goggles, hard to identify mid-race. The photos that actually sell are the ones at the start, before goggles fog and caps get pulled low, and at the finish, when a swimmer stands up out of the water and their face is clearly visible again. Plan the shoot around those two windows rather than trying to track individuals through two kilometers of open water.
Selling what you shoot
Both events produce the same problem: athletes who trained for months and have no way to find a specific photographer afterward. Upload the set to Surf Snaps and it becomes a watermarked, shoppable gallery that competitors can search for by sport, location and date, so someone who finished the Roughwater Swim or crossed the Kona finish line can find themselves without ever knowing your name. You keep 90 percent of every sale, paid out monthly by bank transfer, and you keep the copyright to every file. The mechanics are on the how it works page, and the fee details are on the FAQ. For more on turning a single big race into a repeatable income stream, see how to turn one race weekend into a month of photo sales, and for pricing action shots sold to visitors, see how to sell surf photos to tourists in Hawaii.
One small step
Pick whichever event lines up with your travel this year, Kona in October or the Roughwater Swim in August, get to the start early, and shoot both the start and the finish rather than the middle of the course. Create a free account and put the set up the same day.
