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The Mavericks Challenge: Ready, Aim, Stand

Modus An Operator’s perspective I am just in the door from Maverick’s. We had quite an adventure up there. This trip I was a part of the K38 Mavericks Water Rescue Team. I joined K38 long ago, on the heels of shooting the 2000 Tow Surfing Championships at Jaws. I realized in the course of my process, that I had a debt of responsibility to both my subjects, the sport, and myself, (being a sentient human being) to be prepared and accountable as a responsible participant in documenting and filming surfing. My motivation in seeking out K38 training, was

Project Cupcake

What started out as a Facebook discussion on my friend West Cooke’s mad cooking skills, and his hidden away restaurant, Cooke’s Smokehouse (A couple blocks away from the location of one of my old surf shops) got a little out of hand. Funny what can inspire us to create something special. It is remarkable what can arise in both cause and affect via inspiration. A few of us had been joking around online. Kat Merrick, Jim Scolari, Jim Rice, West, the usual multifaceted blend of community that is the town we all refer to fondly as Ventucky, our land of

Fifty Waves to Leave Your Lover For

I live in a place many consider to be California’s Gold Coast. The term conjures up images of glassy warm Winter days, and crisp blue green lines which swell and pitch into morning light, flashing golden with a brilliance that is breathtaking and addicting as it sets an emotional hook in one’s soul. Dolphins reflecting dawn on glistening lean muscular bodies are syncopating rhythmic reflections which dart into the pull of northwest groundswells and burst into amber flecked projectiles as energy and joy erupt in the life pulse of a distant storm, that ebbs on the shores of this place.

What is Surfing: Fifty Views

Each day lately, begins with me wading though the e mail file. Today I opened a newsletter from an organization which I support, by lending them usage of some of my images. The subject header was “International Surfing Day”. A “Cool, we have our own day” impulse when I pressed the “read” icon, rapidly transitioned to less than kind post read thoughts. The newsletter yielded the cyber floor to a new surf magazine editor from Orange County who I had never heard of, and who communicated his chronologically and geologically biased adolescent view of what Surfing is. But it occurred

Connectedness

Connectedness |kəˈnɛktədnəs| noun ORIGIN late Middle English (in the sense [be united physically] ; rare before the 18th cent.): from Latin connectere, from con- ‘together’ + nectere ‘bind.’ Drew Kampion, co editor of The Surfers Path, to which I am a long time contributor, had dropped a simple note via the inet clothesline: “Hey I cannot believe you have not met Mark Gray, you two have so much in common. Mark meet Dave, Dave, Mark. He is coming down to Sacred Craft.” Scott Bass, my friend and colleague from Surfer Magazine has formulated a unique cultural event based around the

Blur

Remember what it was like as a child, where in your grassy yard on a Summer’s day, you held arms outstretched, tilted head back and whirled around in circles? The scenery would whiz by in an increasing blur. A fun thing to do, as you examined play options. The whirling activity sort of is my life this beautiful spring day, with birds singing outside as the morning expands. I am looking at a lot of things right now. One interesting piece was just sent to us by Elmar Von Hoesslin (Donna’s ex husband) and is a creative look at his

Skinny Bitch: A Day in the Life

I have a rewarding job. I get to hang out with people I really like and create images that reflect a vibrant, healthy and exciting lifestyle. In fact, such is the appeal of that lifestyle that the world of fashion uses it’s cachet to create branding for the many products it markets. The way my shoots come together has always been sort of weird. Sometimes I feel as if some grand conductor has launched a symphony and I simply stumbled into the performance unawares. Then it all connects and I do my portion. It truly is a small part that

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