Grant Ellis has been photographing waves for SURFER for two decades. In that time, he’s been on countless strikes around the world, chasing swell to pretty much every country that has an ocean (and even some that don’t). An eternal grom, the fire to find and photograph new and perfect surf burns deep inside Ellis. A few years back, when Mick Fanning scored “The Snake” — a miles long barreling sand point that would land him a SURFER cover — Ellis inspected each image afterwards with surgical precision, searching for clues to the wave’s whereabouts. While he never shared where his research led him with anyone that would announce its location, you better believe Ellis figured it out.