0:00:01.461,0:00:07.177
So if I told you that[br]this was the face of pure joy,

0:00:07.177,0:00:09.968
would you call me crazy?

0:00:10.678,0:00:11.918
I wouldn't blame you,

0:00:11.918,0:00:16.172
because every time I look at this[br]Arctic selfie, I shiver just a little bit.

0:00:16.920,0:00:19.919
I want to tell you[br]a little bit about this photograph.

0:00:19.919,0:00:23.485
I was swimming around[br]in the Lofoten Islands in Norway,

0:00:23.485,0:00:25.190
just inside the Arctic Circle,

0:00:25.190,0:00:28.348
and the water was hovering[br]right at freezing.

0:00:28.348,0:00:32.179
The air? A brisk -10 with windchill,

0:00:32.179,0:00:35.615
and I could literally feel the blood[br]trying to leave my hands,

0:00:35.615,0:00:40.375
feet and face, and rush[br]to protect my vital organs.

0:00:40.375,0:00:42.149
It was the coldest I've ever been.

0:00:43.069,0:00:47.921
But even with swollen lips, sunken eyes,[br]and cheeks flushed red,

0:00:47.921,0:00:53.867
I have found that this place right here[br]is somewhere I can find great joy.

0:00:54.562,0:00:57.627
Now, when it comes to pain,[br]psychologist Brock Bastian

0:00:57.627,0:00:59.972
probably said it best when he wrote,

0:00:59.972,0:01:02.549
"Pain is a kind of shortcut[br]to mindfulness.

0:01:02.549,0:01:06.218
It makes us suddenly aware[br]of everything in the environment.

0:01:06.218,0:01:08.192
It brutally draws us in

0:01:08.192,0:01:12.718
to a virtual sensory awareness[br]of the world much like meditation."

0:01:13.047,0:01:16.537
If shivering is a form of meditation,[br]then I would consider myself a monk.

0:01:16.537,0:01:17.387
(Laughter)

0:01:17.387,0:01:20.266
Now, before we get into the why

0:01:20.266,0:01:23.981
would anyone ever want to surf[br]in freezing cold water?

0:01:23.981,0:01:26.558
I would love to give you[br]a little perspective

0:01:26.558,0:01:29.162
on what a day in my life can look like.

0:01:29.832,0:01:35.799
(Music)

0:02:16.017,0:02:19.544
(Video) Man: I mean, I know[br]we were hoping for good waves,

0:02:19.544,0:02:22.424
but I don't think anybody thought[br]that was going to happen.

0:02:22.424,0:02:24.095
I can't stop shaking.

0:02:24.095,0:02:25.919
I am so cold.

0:02:28.344,0:02:31.432
(Music)

0:02:31.432,0:02:34.185
(Applause)

0:02:36.135,0:02:39.804
Chris Burkard: So,[br]surf photographer, right?

0:02:39.804,0:02:42.708
I don't even know[br]if it's a real job title, to be honest.

0:02:42.708,0:02:44.844
My parents definitely didn't think so

0:02:44.844,0:02:49.718
when I told them at 19 I was quitting[br]my job to pursue this dream career:

0:02:49.718,0:02:54.294
blue skies, warm tropical beaches,[br]and a tan that lasts all year long.

0:02:54.294,0:02:58.125
I mean, to me, this was it.[br]Life could not get any better.

0:02:58.125,0:03:02.769
Sweating it out, shooting surfers[br]in these exotic tourist destinations.

0:03:02.769,0:03:04.510
But there was just this one problem.

0:03:04.510,0:03:08.109
You see, the more time I spent traveling[br]to these exotic locations,

0:03:08.109,0:03:10.534
the less gratifying it seemed to be.

0:03:11.104,0:03:14.909
I set out seeking adventure,[br]and what I was finding was only routine.

0:03:15.679,0:03:20.439
It was things like wi-fi, TV, fine dining,[br]and a constant cellular connection

0:03:20.439,0:03:23.411
that to me were all the trappings[br]of places heavily touristed

0:03:23.411,0:03:25.709
in and out of the water,

0:03:25.709,0:03:29.376
and it didn't take long[br]for me to start feeling suffocated.

0:03:31.106,0:03:35.223
I began craving wild, open spaces,

0:03:35.223,0:03:38.665
and so I set out to find the places[br]others had written off

0:03:38.665,0:03:42.543
as too cold, too remote,[br]and too dangerous to surf,

0:03:42.543,0:03:45.353
and that challenge intrigued me.

0:03:45.353,0:03:49.485
I began this sort of personal crusade[br]against the mundane,

0:03:49.485,0:03:52.109
because if there's[br]one thing I've realized,

0:03:52.109,0:03:53.961
it's that any career,

0:03:53.961,0:03:57.722
even one as seemingly glamorous[br]as surf photography,

0:03:57.722,0:04:00.148
has the danger of becoming monotonous.

0:04:00.648,0:04:03.702
So in my search to break up[br]this monotony, I realized something:

0:04:03.702,0:04:06.656
There's only about a third[br]of the Earth's oceans that are warm,

0:04:06.656,0:04:09.587
and it's really just that thin band[br]around the equator.

0:04:09.587,0:04:12.095
So if I was going to find perfect waves,

0:04:12.095,0:04:14.672
it was probably going[br]to happen somewhere cold,

0:04:14.672,0:04:16.553
where the seas are notoriously rough,

0:04:16.553,0:04:19.246
and that's exactly where I began to look.

0:04:19.246,0:04:21.777
And it was my first trip to Iceland

0:04:21.777,0:04:24.496
that I felt like I found[br]exactly what I was looking for.

0:04:24.846,0:04:28.023
I was blown away[br]by the natural beauty of the landscape,

0:04:28.023,0:04:32.219
but most importantly, I couldn't believe[br]we were finding perfect waves

0:04:32.219,0:04:35.229
in such a remote and rugged[br]part of the world.

0:04:35.639,0:04:37.915
At one point, we got to the beach

0:04:37.915,0:04:41.018
only to find massive chunks of ice[br]had piled on the shoreline.

0:04:41.018,0:04:43.371
They created this barrier[br]between us and the surf,

0:04:43.371,0:04:45.761
and we had to weave [br]through this thing like a maze

0:04:45.761,0:04:47.348
just to get out into the lineup.

0:04:47.348,0:04:48.473
and once we got there,

0:04:48.473,0:04:51.511
we were pushing aside these ice chunks[br]trying to get into waves.

0:04:51.511,0:04:55.468
It was an incredible experience,[br]one I'll never forget,

0:04:55.468,0:04:58.254
because amidst those harsh conditions,

0:04:58.254,0:05:02.976
I felt like I stumbled onto[br]one of the last quiet places,

0:05:02.976,0:05:05.991
somewhere that I found a clarity[br]and a connection with the world

0:05:05.991,0:05:08.913
I knew I would never find[br]on a crowded beach.

0:05:10.073,0:05:13.231
I was hooked. I was hooked. (Laughter)

0:05:13.231,0:05:16.087
Cold water was constantly on my mind,

0:05:16.087,0:05:17.399
and from that point on,

0:05:17.399,0:05:20.729
my career focused on these types of harsh[br]and unforgiving environments,

0:05:20.729,0:05:24.605
and it took me to places like Russia,[br]Norway, Alaska, Iceland, Chile,

0:05:24.605,0:05:27.534
the Faroe Islands,[br]and a lot of places in between.

0:05:27.534,0:05:30.552
And one of my favorite things[br]about these places

0:05:30.552,0:05:34.453
was simply the challenge and[br]the creativity it took just to get there:

0:05:34.453,0:05:36.659
hours, days, weeks spent on Google Earth

0:05:36.659,0:05:40.828
trying to pinpoint any remote stretch[br]of beach or reef we could actually get to.

0:05:41.418,0:05:44.848
And once we got there,[br]the vehicles were just as creative:

0:05:44.848,0:05:47.757
snowmobiles, six-wheel[br]Soviet troop carriers,

0:05:47.757,0:05:51.054
and a couple of super-sketchy[br]helicopter flights.

0:05:51.054,0:05:53.260
(Laughter)

0:05:53.260,0:05:55.920
Helicopters really scare me, by the way.

0:05:56.510,0:05:59.042
There was this one particularly[br]bumpy boat ride

0:05:59.042,0:06:02.158
up the coast of Vancouver Island[br]to this kind of remote surf spot,

0:06:02.158,0:06:04.777
where we ended up watching[br]helplessly from the water

0:06:04.777,0:06:07.168
as bears ravaged our camp site.

0:06:07.168,0:06:10.188
They walked off with our food[br]and bits of our tent,

0:06:10.188,0:06:13.400
clearly letting us know that we[br]were at the bottom of the food chain

0:06:13.400,0:06:15.527
and that this was their spot, not ours.

0:06:15.527,0:06:17.454
But to me, that trip

0:06:17.454,0:06:22.046
was a testament to the wildness[br]I traded for those touristy beaches.

0:06:24.066,0:06:28.120
Now, it wasn't until I traveled[br]to Norway -- (Laughter) --

0:06:28.123,0:06:31.204
that I really learned[br]to appreciate the cold.

0:06:32.294,0:06:34.206
So this is the place

0:06:34.206,0:06:37.573
where some of the largest,[br]the most violent storms in the world

0:06:37.573,0:06:40.627
send huge waves smashing[br]into the coastline.

0:06:40.627,0:06:44.605
We were in this tiny, remote fjord,[br]just inside the Arctic Circle.

0:06:44.605,0:06:47.151
It had a greater population[br]of sheep than people,

0:06:47.151,0:06:50.201
so help if we needed it[br]was nowhere to be found.

0:06:50.936,0:06:53.151
I was in the water [br]taking pictures of surfers,

0:06:53.151,0:06:55.281
and it started to snow.

0:06:56.241,0:06:59.867
And then the temperature began to drop.

0:07:00.458,0:07:03.843
And I told myself, there's not a chance[br]you're getting out of the water.

0:07:03.843,0:07:07.437
You traveled all this way, and this is[br]exactly what you've been waiting for:

0:07:07.437,0:07:09.519
freezing cold conditions[br]with perfect waves.

0:07:09.519,0:07:12.537
And although I couldn't even feel[br]my finger to push the trigger,

0:07:12.537,0:07:14.049
I knew I wasn't getting out.

0:07:14.049,0:07:16.842
So I just did whatever I could.[br]I shook it off, whatever.

0:07:16.842,0:07:18.525
But that was the point that I felt

0:07:18.525,0:07:20.644
this wind gush through[br]the valley and hit me,

0:07:20.644,0:07:26.056
and what started as this light snowfall[br]quickly became a full-on blizzard,

0:07:26.058,0:07:30.226
and I started to lose[br]perception of where I was.

0:07:30.932,0:07:34.092
I didn't know if I was drifting[br]out to sea or towards shore,

0:07:34.095,0:07:38.047
and all I could really make out[br]was the faint sound of seagulls

0:07:38.047,0:07:40.170
and crashing waves.

0:07:40.810,0:07:45.646
Now, I knew this place had a reputation[br]for sinking ships and grounding planes,

0:07:45.646,0:07:50.037
and while I was out there floating,[br]I started to get a little bit nervous.

0:07:50.609,0:07:52.977
Actually, I was totally freaking out --

0:07:52.977,0:07:56.414
(Laughter) -- and I was[br]borderline hypothermic,

0:07:56.414,0:07:59.595
and my friends eventually[br]had to help me out of the water.

0:07:59.595,0:08:02.752
And I don't know if it was[br]delirium setting in or what,

0:08:02.752,0:08:04.912
but they told me later

0:08:04.912,0:08:09.091
I had a smile on my face the entire time.

0:08:10.415,0:08:12.528
Now, it was this trip

0:08:12.528,0:08:16.312
and probably that exact experience[br]where I really began to feel

0:08:16.312,0:08:20.272
like every photograph was precious,

0:08:20.272,0:08:24.302
because all of a sudden in that moment,[br]it was something I was forced to earn.

0:08:25.352,0:08:30.257
And I realized, all this shivering[br]had actually taught me something:

0:08:30.257,0:08:34.270
In life, there are no shortcuts to joy.

0:08:35.120,0:08:38.893
Anything that is worth pursuing[br]is going to require us to suffer

0:08:38.893,0:08:40.855
just a little bit,

0:08:40.855,0:08:44.547
and that tiny bit of suffering[br]that I did for my photography,

0:08:44.547,0:08:47.844
it added a value to my work[br]that was so much more meaningful to me

0:08:47.844,0:08:50.180
than just trying to fill[br]the pages of magazines.

0:08:51.900,0:08:58.208
See, I gave a piece of myself[br]in these places,

0:08:58.208,0:09:00.755
and what I walked away with

0:09:00.755,0:09:05.046
was a sense of fulfillment[br]I had always been searching for.

0:09:06.326,0:09:09.298
So I look back at this photograph.

0:09:09.298,0:09:14.018
It's easy to see frozen fingers[br]and cold wetsuits

0:09:14.018,0:09:17.082
and even the struggle[br]that it took just to get there,

0:09:17.082,0:09:21.128
but most of all,[br]what I see is just joy.

0:09:21.935,0:09:23.996
Thank you so much.

0:09:23.996,0:09:29.383
(Applause)