For 36 years, photographer and videographer Jeff Gerardi of Freeze Frame Video has been chronicling offshore races and other high-performance boating events. Gerardi, 53, has compiled 1,650 go-fast boat videos, including the popular “And they Swam Away” series. A straight-talking and sometimes (OK, often) profane New Yorker with a great sense of humor, Gerardi flat-out loves what he does.

In rough water, Gerardi lets the action take center stage in his photos.



“I shoot it all,” he says. “If it’s good, I shoot it. My preference is a an offshore race in rough water with big, fast boats. When it gets rough, poker run boats don’t run like race boats. In Miami (at the Super Boat International season-opener earlier this year), watching Wicked and Lightning Jack’s run down the coast together at 100 mph—it was bad-ass. They make it look effortless. And it’s not effortless.

“It’s just impressive, period,” he adds.

Jeff Girardi



Much as he still enjoys his work, Gerardi says he no longer finds it particularly challenging.  That’s a function, he says, of experience and working with the right pilots, gear and crew.

“I’ve done it so long, I have the right pilot, I have the right camera—I’m basically sitting in my office and doing my job,” he explains. “But I still love it. It doesn’t get any better. So many people I know hate their jobs every day. I love going to work. I shoot it, I edit it. I watch everything four or five times. And I still love it.”

When the water is rough, Gerardi says, the shoot location doesn’t matter because the action carries the photos. But when it’s smooth, he prefers the swimming-pool waters of Florida and particularly the Florida Keys.

When the conditions are relatively calm, Gerardi prefers to shoot in water that is consistently blue, such as Florida.



“When you go to Lake Cumberland or Biloxi, you know the boats’ drives are never going to leave the water, and the water is muddy so the photos aren’t very pretty,” he says. “You can get away with that in Florida because the water is so clear and blue.”

Editor's Note: This is the final story in our "Straight Shooter" series. Read the others here:

Written by: Matt Trulio
Matt Trulio is the co-publisher and editor in chief of speedonthewater.com, a daily news site with a weekly newsletter and a new bi-monthly digital magazine that covers the high-performance powerboating world. The former editor-in-chief of Sportboat magazine and editor at large of Powerboat magazine, Trulio has covered the go-fast powerboat world since 1995. Since joining boats.com in 2000, he has written more than 200 features and blogs.