Slowtide Home with Tommy Pierucki

There are few places where the divide between city life and the pristine natural world feels quite as fluid as Honolulu. A few blocks back and a hundred feet above Waikiki, surf photographer Tommy Pierucki and his wife, Heather, have carved out a life that feels distinctly their own. The hum of the city rises from the streets below as Diamond Head peeks through the city skyline, their living room’s view a reminder of the beautiful juxtaposition that define coastal living in Honolulu: the density of the city, the vastness of the Pacific, and, for Tommy, the ever-present tug of the surf rolling across the dozens of world class reefs a stone’s throw from his adopted home.
We spent a morning in their home talking about surf photography, the rituals of home, and what it means to build a life here, in Hawaii’s beating cultural heart with a vantage point from which to appreciate both the chaos and the calm.

Tell us about living in Waikiki

We’ve been living here in Waikiki since 2019. We moved to Oʻahu in 2013, but 2019 was around the time when I really started shooting a lot at Queen’s. I was spending a lot of my time down here, and spending a lot of money parking at the zoo, so we thought, “Maybe we should just move down here?”

We’ve loved it ever since. It’s been really nice to just walk right out the door, and within a five-minute walk or less, I’m in the water with either my camera or my board.

How did you become a surf photographer?

I got a little GoPro and I was going to Sandy’s, trying to be like Clark Little and Zak Noyle, trying to get those barrel shots. Then a friend of mine lent me his water housing, and I was able to take photos in the water of my friends surfing. I just had so much fun with that.

In 2018, I got my first water housing and camera. Then I came to Queen’s and saw Arthur "Toots" Anchinges on a wave and was completely mesmerized by it, and all of the kids there are so talented.

I was able to start my surf photography career in the water at Queen’s and became completely obsessed with longboarding, nose riding, turns, all of it. That wave has just been my life.

What is your favorite shot?

When people ask me what my favorite shot is, I always tell them this one. It’s Kaimana Takayama at Queen’s.

He was out there with a couple other people, and I was just having some fun shooting and ended up scoring this shot. It ended up being the cover of the 100th issue of Pacific Longboarder. It was my very first cover, and I was being paid to take photos. I couldn’t have been happier.

It was one of the most validating things for me.

Follow along with Tommy Pierucki here

Watch the Slowtide Home x Tommy Pierucki video here

Photos by Giulia Avila