Bo Bridges doesn’t just shoot iconic images; he immerses himself in them. Whether he’s chest-deep in a Tahitian reef break, hovering above a snowboarder mid-flight or riding his beach cruiser along The Strand in Hermosa Beach, Bo brings an intensity and intimacy to visual storytelling that’s unmistakably his own.
It’s late morning in Manhattan Beach, and Bo is sitting in his freshly remodeled gallery—a place that feels more like an artful clubhouse than a commercial workspace. Just home from a shoot, he discusses Big Wave, his latest immersive film project for Cosm, a state-of-the-art domed theater experience. It’s a first-of-its-kind cinematic dive into the power and poetry of massive surf.
“I’ve always loved the challenge of trying something new,” Bo says, leaning back with the ease of someone who’s just returned from riding 40-foot walls of water. “But shooting for a dome theater? That was a whole new frontier.”
Long before he was a fixture of the South Bay creative scene, Bo was zigzagging the globe, photographing extreme snow sports for clients like ESPN and Sports Illustrated. Originally from Vail, Colorado, he moved to Hermosa Beach in 2001, drawn by the promise of waves, light and proximity to LAX.
“I kept coming through here on layovers between shoots in Japan, New Zealand, Australia,” he recalls. “I’d take these little surf detours in Malibu or Venice. Eventually I thought, ‘Why not just live here?’”
He and his wife, Susan, rented an apartment across the street from Martha’s 22nd Street Grill. “I remember riding my beach cruiser down The Strand thinking, ‘This is it!’” he recalls. “But I was hesitant at first. Back then it felt like no one worked. I’d ride past Sharkeez on a Tuesday at 2 p.m., and it was packed!”
Despite the laid-back coastal vibe, Bo stayed grounded, building a career that straddled sports, commercial and fine art photography. He opened a small studio near the Hermosa Beach Pier and hung a few big-wave shots in the window. Locals started walking in, asking to buy prints. The gallery side of his business was born.
Fast-forward to 2024, and Bo found himself invited to the NBA All-Star Game in Utah—an unexpected catalyst for his most ambitious project yet. After-party serendipity led him to Cosm’s immersive Dome, where 360º visuals wrapped above and around viewers like a digital planetarium.
“I walked in and thought, ‘We need to shoot big waves for this. Surfing, snowboarding—stuff with real movement and power,’” he says.
The Dome itself is no small venue. Part of the Cosm experience in Los Angeles, Dallas and soon Atlanta, the screen inside The Dome is a staggering 87 feet in diameter with 12K resolution.
Bo pitched a concept: a surf film that would harness The Dome’s massive scope, giving audiences the sensation of being inside the wave. Cosm was all in. What followed was a global scramble to chase the biggest swells on earth—from Nazaré in Portugal and Jaws in Hawaii to the remote reef breaks of Tahiti. But nothing went quite as planned.
“We’d get all our gear to Portugal, and then the wind would shift. Jaws didn’t break the way we hoped. Everything was a gamble. We had no playbook,” he says. “We spent about a year and a half chasing swells around the world—Fiji, Nazaré, Maui, Mavericks—and dialed in on Teahupo’o, Tahiti, as the heart of the story. That place just has this otherworldly beauty and power.”
To make matters trickier, The Dome required entirely new gear and shooting formats. “There’s no camera in the world made for that field of view,” Bo explains. “We had to build custom housings, stitch footage, figure out stabilization on jet skis. It was like R&D on the fly—no YouTube tutorial to lean on.”
What began as an abstract “eye candy” surf film took a human turn when Bo met Heimiti Fierro—a 20-year-old Tahitian surfer with fearless energy and raw grace. Though she had never attempted a tow-in wave, her poise impressed Bo. He began filming her journey, not realizing she would become the emotional center of the film.
“She gets hammered on her first wave, watches someone nearly drown right in front of her and still chooses to go back out,” he says. “That moment gave us our arc. She wasn’t just a surfer. She was a symbol of courage.”
Heimiti’s scenes—including a mesmerizing fire dance she choreographed and performed herself—give Big Wave its soul. “She told me later, ‘I grew up doing this.’ And I’m like, ‘You’re just telling me this now?’” Bo laughs. “She brought this elemental power—water and fire. It was magic.”
Though Bo has spent much of his life documenting other people’s heroics, Big Wave is also a family affair. His kids make a surprise cameo, and his parents walked the red carpet at the premiere.
He’s quick to credit his community too. “This place—Hermosa, Manhattan—it’s not just where I live. It’s where I get inspired. I’ll shoot in Tahiti, Hawaii or Portugal, but I come home and ride The Strand with my kids. That’s what fills me up.”
While the surf is Bo’s first love, snow is where he started. The next Dome film will be shot entirely on snow-covered peaks. “I’m already watching the weather patterns,” he says. “Snowboarding, skiing—it’ll be the same immersive experience but in a totally different element. There’s so much more we can do.”
As for Big Wave, it’s not just a film—it’s an invitation into something visceral, risky and beautiful. For Bo, it’s one more way of sharing the world he sees.
“I’ve seen it more times than I can count, and each time from a new spot—it feels like a totally new film,” he says. “There’s just that much to take in.”
