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 Wade Pajares: Wade is a ridiculously good surfer, but the thing about this image that tells the most about him is what made it special to him. It wasn’t the hideous gaper he’s pulling into, but rather it’s the pelican whose symbolic flight suggests that surfing means more to him than just riding waves.”