SHABANG! Peter Hurley is back

Peter Hurley became the number one headshot photographer in the world by focusing on his career. But when the almost 45-year-old stepped on the scale in January of 2015, it wasn’t a pretty picture.

Hurley once won the O’Day Championships, the Laser Radial North Americans, and was a member of the 200 US Sailing team after finishing fourth overall at the trials. The man who was once 183 pounds of chiseled muscle had become 230 pounds of middle-aged spread.

He knew he needed motivation to return to fitness. In the past, there were only two things that motivated Hurley to hit the gym: racing Lasers and being a model, which was an attempt to fund his Olympic campaign. 

Back in 1995, the famous fashion photographer Bruce Weber photographed Hurley for Abercrombie & Fitch, Polo, and other campaigns. Hurley hit it off with Weber who suggested he should give the other side of the camera a try. 

By then, Hurley was friends with many other models, so he started shooting them in his spare time. In the Laser, tiny changes can make a huge difference in the outcome of the race. So too is the case in photography.

If the subject leans back instead of forward, their neck looks fat. If the photographer does not make the subject feel comfortable, the subject looks like a deer in the headlights instead of confident, approachable, and cool. 

The most important training Hurley received as a photographer was his preparation for the US Olympic team as a sailor. Simply put, he stuck with what worked, abandoned what did not, and through trial and error, willed himself into becoming the most accomplished headshot photographer in the world.

But in January of 2015, his work behind the camera was not going to help him behind the tiller. The man who once modeled for Haagen-Dazs now looked like he had been eating barrels of Haagen-Dazs.

Hurley said, “I missed sailing the Laser. I knew age 45 was coming up, I was 230 pounds and the Laser Masters’ World Championships are going to be seven hours away at Cork, where I’ve sailed 10 times. I’ve got to get in shape, this is a no brainer. My goal was to hit 190.”

As a business owner, husband and father, Hurley was time starved. He had no idea how he was going to get into shape until one of his celebrity actress clients who was training for a feature film suggested he reach out to trainer Joel Harper.

Hurley said, “I never had a trainer before, I didn’t like them. But I was at the stage where I don’t like gyms, I don’t like running. So I did one session with Joel and the thing about him is having the support of my wife. It would be the two of us and sometimes a friend would come.”

Harper, who has just published a book, Mind Your Body by Harper Collins, trains his clients to listen to their bodies. He said, “Everybody is different. When I take on a new client, I ask them to work on a scale of 1-10. 1 is easy, 10 is hard.”

Harper’s first goal is to get each client “in balance.” Hurley had some shoulder tension from working with cameras, so stretching opened that area up. Next, he focused on hydration. His formula is take your body weight in pounds and divide it by two. That’s how many ounces of water you should be drinking a day. During strenuous activity, add another ten ounces per hour.

The workouts, which focused on legs and core, pushed Hurley into the 8, 9, and 10 zone of difficulty. As a former Olympic campaigner, Hurley was physically out of shape, but he was still mentally tough. “Peter had the focus and the discipline already. Peter had a deadline and specific goals. I told him how he had to eat and how he had to drink,” said the trainer.

Hurley got the result he wanted, proving once again that the best coaches and trainers are beautifully polished mirrors, reflecting back the energy and dedication the athlete puts into them.

As Laser sailing is an equipment intensive sport, it was time for Hurley to update his boat and gear. As an aspiring Olympian he was sponsored by Colie Sails, so he returned to the store to see if things had changed. 

Clay Johnson, the owner of Colie Sails appreciated the Austin Powers time warp aspect of Hurley’s gear, but he figured it was time for an upgrade. Johnson said, “Peter was a fantastic sailor in the late 90s and early 2000s, but he was sailing a 20-year-old Laser with 20-year-old gear. He came in to get a new boat, and we upgraded all his gear and went over some of the new equipment options. We took out some purchase systems from his cunningham and vang. We streamlined his outhaul a little too, and I showed him a simpler, more effective way to rig up his hiking strap adjustment line.” 

Then they turned to the clothing rack. “I set him up with the Zhik Power Pads II, Zhik Hybrid pants, and Zhik 560 boots. The advantage to the Zhik gear is that you can dress for the exact condition you have. If it's hot, you have your light-weight hybrid suit. If it gets colder, you still wear the pads but with a warmer suit. Maneuverability is also tremendously increased with the Power Pads. The Zhik 560 boots, paired with the new Zhik Grip II hiking strap, really let you connect to the boat.”

Hurley loved his new Laser and his new gear, but there is no substitute for time in the boat. He focused on three events leading up to the Worlds; a Saturday around-the-buoys regatta, the Orange Coffee Pot regatta, and a PHRF event where he finished 18th out of 31. With a chuckle, he said, “Hey, you do two Olympic campaigns, stuff can come back to you really quickly if you are in shape.”

Then it was off to the Laser Masters’ Worlds. As an artist, Hurley claims he is 90% therapist and 10% photographer. He feels the same way about sailing. It’s 90% mental, 10% mechanical. He said, “Going into the Masters’ Worlds, I didn’t have an expectation. At the beginning, I would have hoped to be in the top 5. As the regatta went on, the confidence built. By the end I felt good.”

There are many technical terms in photography including f-stop, shutter speed, and ASA, but the term Hurley is known for is, “SHABANG!” He said, “For some reason, I yelled “SHABANG!” in a video once. Whenever I would get a good picture, I would say, “SHABANG, that picture is awesome!” On the race course, if I win a race, I scream, “SHABANG!” 

At the Laser Masters’ Worlds, Hurley won the 8th race of the series and a “SHABANG!!!” was heard all the way in the inner sanctums of the Kingston Penitentiary, which looks out on the lake. He also won two races at the Nationals in Brant Beach, New Jersey. 

At the Worlds, Hurley was pleased to escape the wrath of the on-the-water judges, who handed out yellow flags for rule 42 violations like irate prison guards doling out solitary confinement to impudent inmates. 

The return to sailing was also an opportunity to reconnect with old friends. Hurley said, “I’ve been sailing Lasers on the national level since I was 17. For me, it doesn’t matter how many years go by. If you’ve sailed against somebody for 28 years, they know you. I saw Peter Seidenberg and gave him a hug. He is a huge inspiration to me. The guy is 77 and he is still sailing a Laser. Being at the Worlds, seeing the guys I campaigned against was really cool.” In the future, Hurley would love to see his old friends on the water such as Stefan Warkalla, John Torgerson, Steve Bourdow, Nick Adamson and Andy Lovell.

Overall, Hurley is thrilled with the results from his effort. He said, “I was at 230 pounds. I have a website with over 7,000 photographers I coach, and I put it all out there so I had to lose the weight. I can’t believe I pulled it off. I look better, I feel better, my self-confidence is through the roof and that translates into my sailing. The feeling now is like a bug that’s caught me. I want to get as fast as I can with the limited time I have and do as many events as possible against the best. If you sail against the fastest guys you are going to up your game.”

There’s only one word for the feeling you get from coming back to the Laser and rediscovering the fitness, the fun, the competition on the water and the camaraderie on land. As Peter Hurley would say, “SHABANG!”

Joe Berkeley is a freelance writer who rigged up next to Peter Hurley at the Laser Masters’ Worlds and finished well behind him. His work is at joeberkeley.com