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 Abe Morrison: The surfer in this photo is John Hill. He has since moved on to The Islands, but he was a dedicated and passionate local surfer who earned the respect of all. I still remember him ceremonially turning the music off as we drove through a particular grove of old trees on our way to go surf. I’m not sure what he was thinking, but to this day when I drive through those trees, I still always turn my radio off.”