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 Chad Goddett: I met Chad up here a long time ago. He’s come and gone and come back again (that happens a lot around here). He’s been involved in the surf industry in the past and I suspect he still carries some scars from those years. I’ve surfed with him quite a bit and know for a fact he is capable of absolutely destroying a wave on par with what we see in the media, But in this image (and the others he gave me) all we see from the rider is a simple flow, evidence that he has found a purity in surfing here that helps to wash away some of the grime left behind by the machine.”