One night about six or seven weeks ago I was lying in bed, awake (I never sleep you know) and this idea came to me. I was thinking about my most beloved surfboard, and how I ride mostly vintage boards, and how surfers have connections to their boards no matter how old or new the board is. I wanted to capture the people, the boards, and the stories. The concept: one studio photo (you don't always expect studio portraits of people and their boards) of each willing participant and their board. Each person answers the same nine questions about themselves and their board. (I even made forms! For participants to fill out!) Surfboard Stories. This is what it would become.

I've been able to finally make this happen...I've finally started shoots for the project after some trials that made me want to cry (a few rolls of backdrop paper torn to shreds, figuring out just how to effectively light a person AND a large surfboard, not enough time in a day...you know.) I'm so happy to see this idea finally come to fruition. I love surfing, I love my board, I love my surfing friends, I love the stories surfers tell. This is truly a labor of love for me. I wish I could tell everyone in the world's surfboard story.

So, you know how I said that it was going to be one person and their board, and a form with nine questions? Well, I never do anything the right way, even my own projects. This first story is just a little bit of a deviation but it's because it was the one I was most excited to do. THIS story is two people: my wonderful friend Lea and me. And the boards that we took with us to Barbados this past January. The most magical vacation ever. Oh, and instead of filling out the forms...we made a video. Because that's what we do. It's like the travel videos we made in Barbados, only longer. Yes.

So we got our boards, donned our most fantastic Seea suits (we each have two, we love them, and we wore them EVERY DAY in Barbados and we can't wait til the water is warm here so we can wear them). In order to get behind the camera, I obviously had to hand it off to someone. In this case, it was Lea's other half, Chives (look for his Surfboard Story coming up soon!). I set up the camera settings then tried to give Chives a crash course in what he needed to do. He rocked his job as photographer. (I may have been a camera Nazi, also). After the first five or so shots, we realized that the nose of Lea's board wasn't in the photo. BUT. The photo that I love the most is one of those nose-cut-off because it is so US.

See?

Me with my baby Weber, Lea and her Bing.

And now for the interview portion of the evening...our video where we ask each other the nine questions (which can be found here...just in case anyone has trouble following along at home). DISCLAIMER: No, I am not a movie maker. Yes, I'm drinking a beer in the video. We were reliving Barbados. Yes, you can hear our significant others in the background crunching on tortilla chips and dropping beer bottle caps (and even make cameos in the mirror). And yes, you can see me wave my hands at my love to signal him to stop crunching...and yeah, then I realized I was on film. And yes, we talk a lot, but I think we're highly amusing.

So. That's Volume 1 of Surfboard Stories. I promise they won't all be novels with a video, but this one is my favorite so far and I'm just so excited about it, and this project. (I mean, did you see me almost jump out of my chair a few times in that video?) This is an ongoing project so look for lots more in the future.

See you in the water.