As the start of the new Australian pro-surfing season begins, works spanning 50 years from three of the country's most prolific surf photographers have been brought together for an exhibition that demonstrates their shared passion for capturing waves.

Peter 'Joli' Wilson has spent the past four decades documenting the surf.

His career began while living in Torquay during the 1970s surf revolution, and he's since gone on to capture some of the world's top surfers from Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson, to big wave riders Mark Healey, Shane Dorian and Ross Clarke-Jones.

This March on his home patch of coast at Kirra, he will be one of the many in the ASP World Tour photographer pack armed and ready to shoot the surfing world's cream of the crop.

Recently Joli has spent his time chasing huge swells in Fiji, Tahiti and Hawaii.

"In the last two years there were two episodes - one in Tahiti and one in Fiji - that were the biggest waves I've ever photographed."

Images by the globe's best surf photographers not only capture amazing moments of nature.

They also illustrate the talent of those who have learnt to master the waves.

A close-call during a Code Red swell at Teahupoo is a reminder that people in Joli's line of business often take incredible risks to get these remarkable shots.

"We'd gone out in a four metre-long runabout, there was only four photographers and a driver in it, the waves were probably in the 20-25 foot range, we were sitting off in a small channel and the boats need to move out of the way all the time," he says.

"All of a sudden the driver went to put it into forward, and the gearing broke. Luckily another boat dragged us out, but it was a scary proposition."

Advancements in surf forecasting is one of the biggest changes Joli has witnessed in his career.

Online reports can warn avid storm chasers of big swells in exact locations almost down to the hour, weeks in advance.

"You'll have the big wave surfers that are sitting wherever they are all around the world going 'OK, I need to be in Fiji by Thursday evening so I can surf these waves on Friday', so that's really changed things," he says.

Witzig Gallery in Maclean on the New South Wales north coast has brought together a diverse range of works by Joli, John Witzig and Russell Ord that encapsulate a connection between man and the ocean.

Gallery director Paul Witzig, the brother of John, says he is treating the 3 Masters of Surf Photography display as fine art, not sports photography.

It was awe-inspiring images by Western Australian photographer Russell Ord that he says sparked the idea.

"It's a wild ocean, there are massive sharks down there and he goes way offshore and jet-skis with his water camera and swims into unbelievable positions to get pictures of the ocean, waves and surfing that I don't think anybody has ever captured before."

The first-rank men's world tour will head to Margaret River this year for the first time.

It is little more than a stone-throw away from the home town of Ord, but he'll be steering clear of the crowds.

Instead he will be venturing out into secret spots on the rugged WA coast or locations more than 15km offshore in the Southern Ocean, where he is at peace swimming into some of the heaviest waves imaginable.

His shots provide a unique view into the depth of the impact zone.

"The last few years I've kind of gone away from capturing every single moment, and now I'm just trying to get that one moment that's challenging to myself.

"So that means swimming right into the thick of things and seeing what we can do.

"Your whole life revolves around that; what you eat, how you breathe and how you train."

While Ord is the youngest of the three photographers exhibited, he is far better suited to the 1960s when John Witzig made a name for himself capturing surf culture and unknown surf breaks along the Australian coast.

"I would love to have been in his era. Now you've got to travel out miles from anywhere and even miles off the coast to have some sort of chance of being on your own.

"I don't name the photos or locations, because it takes away the adventure for someone else to find the spots."

3 Masters of Surf Photography is on display at Witzig Gallery until November 2014.