Born in Kailua, Hawaii, Jones started surfing at about seven or eight years old and began competing in the 12-and-under “menehune” age group a few years later. He won two national championships as an amateur.
Later, he took on sponsors and traveled to surf spots in Tahiti, Fiji, South Africa and the Galapagos Islands. Photographers would shoot images of him and other surfers on the waves which would appear in photo spreads in surf magazines. Manufacturers of surf clothing and gear featured them in their advertisements.
In the 1990s, Jones began to experiment with taking first-person images of himself on the the water. Jones attached a camera to fabric fastener on his board and then held the camera under his chin while paddling out to waves lying on his stomach. He’d grab the camera upon standing and hold it behind himself to take pictures.
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