Photo Gallery: My First Surf Contest in Bali

Paul Gallegos of Imperial Beach is an absurdly talented photographer.

In the past five years he has taken pictures abroad in Africa and Asia and photographed professional tennis players, MMA fighters, boxers, skateboarders, Chivas soccer, Padres baseball and NCAA football. He even shot the U2 concert when they came to San Diego in 2005.

With a passion to serve his community, Gallegos also takes pictures for news publications like Imperial Beach Patch.

When he isn't surfing or shooting, Gallegos teaches English at Chula Vista High School. A week after the school year ended, he headed for his vacation home in Indonesia.

Below is an excerpt of an email he sent to friends about his first time in a surfing competition.

Well things couldn't have gotten any weirder than they did today.

The contest is in town and I am not a big fan of the contest animal. So my friend Diki decides to put me in the Master's Division because they need to fill a couple of slots and also he wanted me to surf with just a couple of other guys from Bali -- who just happened to be world class surfers.

So the chances of me actually dawning the winning jersey were getting slimmer and slimmer. First of all, I didn't care, and second of all, I didn't care.

So I am out there and for some reason I am actually leading the heat half way through.

With three minutes left, one of the heavy Bali guys ripped a wave and dropped me into second place.

The man in third took off on the set and hit the lip three times. I ended up on the next wave and hit it twice with a small floater. In the end, I lost on my last wave, but I did have fun out there.

I got a shirt out of the deal.

Come back next Saturday to see pictures by Gallegos around the boxing ring. Over the years, he has been ringside to photograph champions like Manny Pacquiao, Oscar de la Hoya, Sugar Shane Mosley and other boxing legends.