The Shoebox Series was inspired by a friend’s shoebox full of old surf photographs he and his friends had taken of each other over the years. Realizing that almost every lifelong surfer has a stash of photographic evidence of their surfing lives stowed away somewhere, I went to my local surf buddies and heroes alike, asking for a few of their snapshots that capture what surfing here in Humboldt means to them. These became the inspirations for the series, which went on to be published in the Surfer’s Journal in 2008 (Volume 17, #3).

Here’s the caption for this one, as it was printed in the Surfer’s Journal:

“From a photo submitted by [anonymous]: I’ve known this guy for almost 15 years, he’s a pretty classic character. From the incident with the leafblower and the backyard bonfire to the time the sparrow flew into his trailer and landed on his head, he’s just the kind of person people like to be around. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a hurry for anything, but he always seems to be in the right place at the right time… and he surfs that way too.”