The Surfers Journal
Light / Dark
I wish I could curate an interesting, smart list of obscure inspirations, but I feel it’s impossible. My beautiful wife, my beautiful children, my beautiful friends, and my family continue to inspire me daily. Specific things come and go, but the ones that endure are more general.
It’s funny how people go out of their way to hate Los Angeles. It’s an easy target. If you take it for surface value, that’s what you get back from it. But I think it’s the most diverse, inspirational place in the world. Where else can you get the city’s grit, the nature, the light hitting everything in the canyon, and the mustard flowers blooming from the San Fernando Valley to First Point Malibu? There’s no other place like it, the 28th wonder of the world. It’s a young city. Our history is nature and the Chumash. It’s the Wild West. It’s like 20 different little cities in one.
All mediums: music, film, paint, clay, computer. The experience of sitting in a movie theater, being transported to another world, or sitting on a toilet watching @foosgonewild on IG. A dick joke scribed on a bathroom stall to a Rembrandt painting at the Getty. Art is life. It has the power to uplift and depress. Make you laugh and cry. Stand-up comedy, prank phone calls, Mitch Hedberg, Howard Stern, Shawn Stussy, Margaret Kilgallen. All of it.
Surfing raised me. It taught me how to treat people. I wouldn’t be doing this interview right now if it wasn’t for surfing. No one would see my photographs if it wasn’t for surfing. The amazing people I’ve met through surfing. The inspiration I draw from surfing is boogie-boarding, bodysurfing, stand-up paddling, or riding a longboard. Simply gliding across a chest-high wave at Malibu, watching the light bounce off the face, just locked in position, not moving, and riding it all the way to the beach—there’s nothing more inspiring than that. A barrel! I mean, have you been barreled? Have you seen dolphins have sex? I have. It’s inspiring.
Internet, information, communication—it’s impressive to see how technology has influenced the world. I’m dyslexic, and I have horrible ADD, but through technology, I have every piece of information at my fingertips. The answers are there, whether it’s technical questions about shooting a photograph, designing or editing, or whatever. When you think you’ve heard every song or seen every movie, a whole new world opens up. Good or bad, I’m always in awe. It’s killing us, but it’s empowering us as well.
When I’m down and need inspiration, I take the bus. I discovered this about 20 years ago. I’ll hop on and cruise around Los Angeles. I put on my headphones, sit with a notepad, and take it all in. I check out fashion. It allows you to forecast what will happen in five to 10 years. And the incredible people! I build these scenarios in my head and try to imagine their life and where they’re coming from. Did they get into an argument that day? We are animals, but we have superpowers. I’m just endlessly fascinated by humans.
Something in the universe ties all this stuff together, and it’s out there. It’s hard to describe. I know the feeling. I know what it looks like. It’s like a color, an energy, and it’s out there and floating around. I’ve just learned to trust that feeling, and it’s how I’ve been able to function and accomplish things. I think we all have it. It’s just that you have to be open to it. And that’s where the inspiration comes from, honestly. You have to be with it and live within it. It’s kind of everything. I don’t know what else to call it, but magic.
[To read In the “Malibu Parking Lot: A photo essay by Trace Marshall,” words by Jamie Brisick, pick up a copy of TSJ 34.3]
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