Here is an interview with one such ‘stranger’. His name is Kevin and he is married to Bethany. They have two kids: Zoe and Gordon.What’s your job?
I work in the biotech industry in the regulatory department. That’s probably as far as I should go with that. I could say more but I’d put you to sleep.
That’s alright.
I do a lot of reading of federal regulations as it pertains to bio-tech pharmaceutical products.
Is that your background?
No, actually, I have an IT background but I actually went to school for interior design. It’s kinda like a progression. It started in art doing interior design, then I started doing graphics, from graphics it went to web design, to technical support, to technical support for a biotech company, to regulatory.
How long have you been surfing?
I’ve been surfing for about 5 years but I’ve owned a surfboard for at least twice as long. So, I bought my first surfboard when I was a senior in high school, but I didn’t start surfing until about 5 or 6 years ago.
Why the big gap?
I grew up on the east coast in Maryland and I used to spend the summers vacationing as a kid down in the outer banks of North Carolina. As a kid at 12 or 13 years old I used to go bodysurfing in the ocean on the east coast and then I got a boogie board and started boogie boarding. By the time I was a senior in high school I had a friend who had a surfboard. I’d always had an interest in surfing but never did. I had a friend who had a surfboard and he offered to sell it to me for a $100 bucks and I was like ‘sure, why not?”. I knew it was something I knew I wanted to get into….so I bought it!
One of the tough things about living where I lived was that I was 5 hours from any major body of water so in the summers I would take my surfboard to Cape Hatteras, the outer banks of North Carolina. I would only be there for a week so I never really had the consistency to develop and learn. It was kinda like…”let me just take the board”…it’s a 6’2” WRV…”let me just take it in the water and see what happens!”. That would be 1 or 2 weeks out of the summer and then it wouldn’t happen again for another year.
About 10 years ago I moved to san Francisco and lived literally within a 2 minute drive to the ocean. I was like “alright it’s either now or never!” so I just bought a used longboard off craigslist and started going out 3 or 4 times a week. That was about 5 to 6 years ago.
So, what size board are you riding now?
Right now I ride an 8’0”. I have 3 boards. I still have the 6’2” that I bought when I was a senior in high school. I have a 9’0” that I bought off craiglist. That’s really the board I consider my first board because that’s the board I caught my first wave on. And I just recently graduated to an 8’0”. I bought a Linden… a Catalina funboard. That one is my first brand new board.
So where is your local spot?
My local spot is by default Linda Mar…Taco Bell Beach. But this past year a lot of opportunities have opened up for me to surf up and down the coast of northern California. I went down to Wydell(beach), Steamer’s Lane in Santa Cruz….this is all within the past few months. Ocean Beach, because next to Taco Bell Beach OB would be my 2nd to home spot because of proximity. And Half Moon Bay. I think next on my list is Maverick’s…..not in February or March though! (laughter) Normal surf at Maverick’s you can go out there and catch 3 to 5 footers…maybe even a 6 footer here or there. But not the Maverick’s that pulls in people from all over the globe!
What keeps you surfing?
Although I’ve really only considered myself surfing for 5, 6 years I feel like surfing has really been in my blood since I was in high school. It all started with getting into skate culture…riding skateboards and going to the beach, the outer banks of North Carolina. Something about being there and always wanting to get into the water and just totally experience the wave whether it be bodysurfing or on a boogie board. I really feel deep in my soul that surfing has been in my blood since high school.
Everything has come to fruition just since I’ve lived in California for the past 12 years…..having access to the water right there.
Today the main thing that pulls me in the water is that at the end of my day when I’m done working and I suit up & I paddle out the second I’m in the water everything else just goes away….it’s just complete disconnect. Regardless of how great your day was or how bad your day was, as soon as I hit the water everything disconnects.
It’s one of those things that are hard to articulate. You really have to go out into the water to feel that….to know what that’s like. For some people it might be other things but for me surfing is just my way of just disconnecting…and just releasing.
You said you skateboarded a lot, too. Do you still skate? How much were you into skating?
I did skateboard when I was younger, a lot. We used to have in our neighborhood this ramp that they built…about 20 kids. That was back before they secured constructions sites. A bunch of kids at nighttime would go and snag all this plywood and 2x4’s. And there was a creek that they would soak the plywood in. They would let it soak for days. And they just started building this ramp. They would take the wet plywood and start bending it and nailing it down and they built this half-pipe.
We would go down there and skate during the summers. I would do the ramp but I would never do these in-the-air acrobats and stuff. It’s just part of the board culture; if you can’t surf it’s the next best thing.
I hadn’t skateboarded in a while….in a long time; I’d say over 15 years. And recently I turned 35; my birthday was last week.
Heyyy, Happy Birthday!!
Right on, now forget it…no. (laughter). For my birthday I told my wife “you know I think I’m gonna go buy a skateboard”.
I have a son who is gonna be 3 in a few weeks. And part of the reason I bought a skateboard is because whenever we drive by the skate park he totally lights up! We go in the skate park; he likes to sit on the outside and watch all the other skaters do aerials and stuff. And the other part is that I think that once that gets into you…that desire…I don’t think it ever goes away.
For me it was symbolic. 35 was a big leap for me. I know a lot of people I talk to are like, “Dude, you’re still young. You’re still a kid!” But for me it’s like “nahh!”, because I walk around and kids younger than me are looking at me like “look at that old guy!” So part of buying a skateboard was a way of me clinging on to that youth.
Can you talk about your best session? Do you have a favorite session that stands out in your mind?
That’s a hard one. Some of my better sessions have definitely been within the last year. Like I mentioned before I just recently bought my first brand new surfboard which was an 8’0” funboard. And some of the better sessions I’ve had have been since I’ve had this board. It’s a lot easier to maneuver and turn with the wave. There are a couple specific times I remember catching what seemed to me like 100 ft. waves, which I’m sure in reality were like 3’ waves. Overall I’d say seasonally the past year has been a time where I’ve had better sessions.
Oh wait…forgot one….Kauai, last summer. That was by far the best surfing experience I’ve ever had in my entire life. We went to Kauai for family vacation, the 4 of us. We stayed at Poipu Beach. We have a friend whose sister lives in Kauai and she’s a surfer and so I hooked up with her and she let me borrow one of her husband’s boards which was a 9’0”. Keep in mind that my entire experience surfing had been in northern California where a wetsuit is not an option; it’s required. And then I go down to Poipu Beach in Kauai…..now I know where the term “surf naked” came from! You get in the water and it’s bath warm. You look 8 feet below you and you can see all the rocks and stuff, which is a little disconcerting, but the waves and the breaks were so clean and so consistent that I definitely, by far, have had my best surf experience. And that will always, until I catch the ‘killer wave’, be my best surf experience. Because of where I was, the consistency of the wave, it wasn’t really that crowded…it was just awesome!
Has surfing taught you anything?
Surfing has taught me a lot. One of the things growing up that I think every kid deals with is the pressure of conforming to what other people think you should be and conforming to what other people think you should do. The second you do something that’s outside what they’re used to seeing I don’t think they know how to process that.
When I think of what has surfing taught me I think of don’t ever let anybody tell you that you can’t do something whether it be because of your age, whether it be because of your color, whether it be because of your disability, whatever it is. Surfing to me, I have such an intimate joy with it that I will not allow anybody to tell me that I can’t, regardless of how old I am or what I look like or what people expect me to be or think that I should be.
Have you had any drama surfing?
Yeah, of course. Surfing’s a funny culture. Certain spots, and I kinda understand it…the one thing that is pretty common in a lot of places is that certain spots can be very territorial. One of the things that I’ve learned from my earlier days of surfing is to respect that, because these are local people and these are their stomping grounds. You have to, one, understand and know what your skill level is. And, two, with that respect those areas.
Every once in a while you run into some drama but you have to learn to blow it off and not allow that experience to rob the joy of what you’re in the water for.
Any other thoughts we didn’t get to?
I’ll tell you my coming of age surfing story. Like I mentioned I got my first surfboard right around my senior year; I was just graduating. I had taken it in the water maybe once or twice. I grew up in a suburban area of mostly white families; there were some black families here or there and that was a lot of my school experience: elementary, junior high & high school. When it went to college I went to Howard(University) which is one of the oldest black institutions in the U.S.
I remember I took this speech communications class. The assignment we were given was to give a speech on something about ourselves that people don’t know or would never guess. I gave a speech on a friend of mine that was 6’2” whose name was Bonk, because that was the name of the surfboard.
I remember I commuted from Silver Springs into D.C. which was like an hour and forty-five minute commute everyday, one way. So the day came I had to give my speech. I wrapped up my surfboard; I had my (surfboard)sock on it. I took this surfboard with me on the bus, on the subway, walked the 5 blocks from the subway to campus and to class. I got a wide range of reactions from the time I left the house to the time I got to school. You can only imagine people were like “we’re like 5 hours from the nearest body of water; what is this guy doing on the bus with a surfboard?”
I was very self conscious about it….especially once I got to campus. And this goes back to what I was saying one of the things it taught me is never let anybody tell you that you can’t do something regardless of whatever the condition is. I had people say things to the effect of ‘you’re a fool!” to “That’s really cool!” And that comment, when they looked at me and said, “That’s really cool!” I knew exactly what they were saying. Part of it was ‘hey, that’s really cool that you surf.” But for who I was and where I was that comment showed me that there’s such a wide range of personalities out there…a wide range of interests. Sometimes we’re bound by what people expect of us and we don’t allow ourselves to pursue those things that are close to us. Whether it be “I’m black and I surf” but that’s not necessarily what you always think of as being synonymous.
Even after class I had some people ask all sorts of questions: where do you surf? How long have you surfed?….just this interest level. And then other people seeing that realizing “maybe if this is something I might be interested in, maybe it is cool that I go and try this out and see if it’s something I can totally dig on”.
That experience for me was liberating. Not to make the focal point of me being black and me being a surfer, but like you eloquently put it on the blog, this is just the circumstances of the world that we live in. So for me that experience was a liberation to be able to go to school and be like ‘yeah, this is what I do!” For me to publicly say that this is something that I’m very passionate about required some vulnerability. So that story is definitely a defining point in terms of my pursuit or passion of growing as a surfer.
Wow, thank you.
1 comment:
nice work...its great to be able to read you from germany. I hope all is blessed with you and the family.
light,
erwin
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