Season 1 Ep 10 gets lively when five surf photographers crash the episode. Topics include surf culture, community issues like beach littering, the therapeutic benefits of surfing, and the evolution of surf photography.
This episode includes:
- Weekly Local Happenings
- Surf Report/Forecast
- Jobs for Surfers
- Surfing as Healing
- Surf Photography: Crisis or the Golden Age
Transcript
Chris: [00:00:00] Bring us in. Getting
Brad: going. Uh, good evening everybody. Today is March 16th, 2018. This is episode 10 of Talk Story. I’m Brad Wells of Thank You Surfing.
Chris: I’m Christian Delecia of First Surf Shop as well as Division Windwood. And uh, who do we have? That’s Hanson Diamond to left. Ah, this
Lou: handsome gentleman to the left.
Ah, this handsome gentleman right here. Uh, would you like to introduce yourself? Sure. I’m l Losada, probably better known to everyone as Photograph loud. No, no one can hear you. This is photograph louder.
Chris: No one could hear you louder. I’m just kidding. Just a little hazing, you know,
Brad: first time hazing.
Absolutely. Yeah. We’re figuring out how to haze people too. Actually, we gotta start this, work this into our, our routine here, but, but like in a nice way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like no one gets hurt. Yeah. Some sort of like cultural maybe emotionally. Yeah. All right. Well, but we bring you back on the cast and talk about all your problems and then surfing is healing and surfing
Chris: is healing.
Yes.
Brad: Alright, so, um, let’s get into the weekly [00:01:00] happenings. Um, I got nothing. I got it’s spring break. It’s spring break in South Beach and that is a happening. It’s pretty nuts down here. Everyone’s. Uh, crowding the streets. crowding the beach.
Chris: Right.
Brad: Enjoying themselves, carrying on, and doing what spring breakers do.
Chris: And one of the challenges that we see out there is it’s every year is the litter. It’s the trash, it’s the stuff that gets left behind. And
Brad: that’s true.
Chris: You know, it’s kind of ridiculous. Like you’re kind of paddling around, you’re just seeing bags and stuff like that out there, and you’re just, yeah. You’re just so many different things and people are just bringing it to the shoreline.
They’re going in the water and they just have no care. And it’s so weird.
Brad: Yeah.
Chris: It’s so weird that we, we are surrounded by water and these people, most of ’em that are here, you know, whether they’re traveling somewhere else, know What’s right and wrong. Right.
Brad: It’s mob mentality
though.
Chris: Right.
Brad: You gotta get all these people packed in an area and like one person throws it down and it’s like, well,
Chris: right.
Brad: They’re doing it and I guess I’ll do it. And
Chris: Right. Because
there’s that mentality like, oh, this is what I pay taxes for. I’ve heard that so many times. And you’re just like,
Brad: yes.
Chris: So you pay taxes to be a slob. That’s epic. Good for you. You’re li you’re winning [00:02:00] at life. So,
Lou: or Dimitri Martin said, the moment you’re about to say, I pay your taxes, you’re about to be an asshole.
Chris: I, Dmitri. Dimitri. That was a good one. Yeah. Uh, but, uh, as far as us, um, we, uh, over at division in Wynwood. Mm-hmm. Uh, you, before you get into that, the one
Brad: thing on the, on the litter thing, if everybody that watches this, that surfs, whoever, Austin looking at you buddy. Yep. You brought this up. Just pick up a little trash.
Be a good example
Chris: while you’re in the water. You have, I mean, for guys we have board shorts, we have pockets. It doesn’t hurt you to go ahead and grab that bag, just wring it out. Throw it in your, in your pocket. Yeah. It’ll make you feel better. God, I’ve tied it off to my leash string, Uhhuh, uh, um, and my leash, you know, and kind of a little extra drag.
But you know what, if you’re trying to stall for that barrel
Brad: helps you out. Even better yet, if you’re like walking down the street to and from the beach or whatever, and you see something in the street, don’t walk past it. Just pick it up. Make a point of throwing it out and being a good example, because people will see that people have pride in the neighborhood.
Right. And it’s. Way harder to be a jerk when you see a lot of people doing the right [00:03:00] thing. Right. You’re absolutely right. All three of us here
Lou: have been involved in the, in the local certified foundation chapter and you know, we’ve seen that firsthand and we’ve, you know, tried to do stuff about that firsthand.
So. We know everybody’s out there having a good time when you come down for spring break, but you know, just be a little cognizant that you know, this is somebody else’s home and, you know, maybe take care of it a little better.
Chris: Yeah. That’s it. That’s true. Alright, as far as hops, uh, over at Division Wynwood, if you guys haven’t already, please follow us at Division Wynwood.
Um, nice look. Yeah, you like that? Yeah, that was good. Ami James. Um, he is, uh, my business partner as well as a amazing tattoo artist and he’s teamed up with all these other guys, Chris Nunez, Chris Garver, uh, guys that they had their, in their original TV show 10 years ago, and they’ve, uh, created another show with Facebook.
And, uh, their first Webi episode had released about 15 minutes worth. It’s released yesterday. Cool. On, uh, new platform on that. Facebook has, it’s called Facebook Watch. Oh. And you’re able to kind of watch these 15 minute things of different types of, of, of shows. And so it’s called The Tattoo Shop. If you have a chance, check, check it out.
Check it out. It’s pretty cool. You’ll get [00:04:00] to see what we filmed back in December. Um, and so every Thursday for the next eight weeks, we’ll be premiering a new episode, and then every Friday. For the next eight weeks, we’ll be having Facebook live out of the division shop where we’ll be having drinks and just random antics going on, random antics, and they’ll be, they’ll be showing their mystery tattoo, which if you guys haven’t seen that before, that’s crazy nce.
It’s, it’s pretty much, um, there’s a, a couple different tattoos that are, are chosen and you kind of sign yourself up to have any one of these tattoos put on you. You don’t know what it’s going to be and you literally stick your arm or your leg through a hole and you have no idea what you mean, what’s about to happen.
And so Omni James will be hosting it and it starts tonight at about nine o’clock. Uh, if you’re in the neighborhood swing by, we start about eight o’clock, we’ll have some drinks and some good times. So, uh, that’s pretty much what we got going on.
Lou: Fun fact, I actually shot Chris for a client, uh, a few years back.
Did you? Yep. Super nice guy. I mean, just super nice guy. Very chill, super cooperative. [00:05:00]
Chris: And past that. I mean, hopefully we have some other weekly hops like waves happen. Yeah.
Brad: Uh, yeah. So right into our next segment here, uh, the report in the forecast. So reporting the last week weird. Really a weird week. Like we’ve talked about this whole Bermuda Triangle thing,
Chris: right.
And it, well, and it seemed like with this big swell that was coming through that, you know, maybe it shouldn’t be that weird or hard to kind of forecast. What did you find? Oh, you mean the last No, I’m talking about
Brad: just this week.
Chris: Oh, coming up this week. Got it. No, no, no, no. This little, this past week. Yeah.
Yeah. We had like, what day are we in?
Brad: I don’t even know. Friday. Sorry. Friday the sixth. There was that time warp that we went into for six or seven days when there was ground soil at South Beach. Right. That was kinda
Chris: like
Brad: when shark feed your
Chris: eyes, roll back. Yeah. You don’t know what’s going on. Yeah. Just like wake
Brad: up at the end of that and you’re like, what happened?
Sunburned. Right. Fatigued. My lip got busted. Yeah. Everybody’s, um, yeah. But last week we had, um, a couple of cold fronts come through and we also had that low push off the Mid-Atlantic and. Super weird that [00:06:00] the times that forecasters would’ve kind of expected the waves. Right. Completely didn’t show, at least not down here south.
Right. And then the times like, when was it? Uh, Tuesday or Wednesday. I was like, what? There shouldn’t be waves. And I have no idea where that came from. There was, so palm beaches
Lou: were breaking pretty good, right?
Brad: Yeah. Well Palm Beach got really good. Yeah. And then Tuesday and then, and then it was pretty much flat down here.
Right? And then the next day when there was no waves, pretty much like anywhere, all of a sudden like a wave popped up down here. It wasn’t on the buoys. There is nothing that I could find that would’ve indicated there should be waves. And I look out the window and lo and behold,
Chris: I know I got some of it early in the morning and there was just only a couple of us out there.
And it was just super surprising, so beautiful. And I was like punching myself in the face ’cause I had to leave after an hour. I’m like, really? God, this is what, but you know what, this is what I feel like South Beach dives, you know, you have that love affair with it where it’s just like, you’re like, ah, you know, you can never leave her.
Brad: I know what you mean. Yeah. I had meetings during those [00:07:00] days and I was like, oh no, the swells getting better, the tide’s getting better and now I’ve gotta leave. And like, I live on the beach. I work on the beach. My meetings are usually on the beach, and I still really just caught some little leftover. So it is fickle.
It is the unicorn, right? It is part the Bermuda Triangle. The Bermuda Triangle. So, uh, so
Chris: what is that? What is that? What is what is in store for us next week? Anything. Because uh, yeah,
Brad: look at like kind of a slow week for surf, uh, at least down this way. Um, maybe looking at another cold front, like we started to realize we’re kind of in a wintertime Right.
Pattern again. So that’s good generally for us as spring’s upon us. Yeah. As spring break is upon us. Um, but you know, as far as the atmosphere is concerned or still very much in winter, uh, up in the Northeast, you’re getting tons of snow still. Um, so anything
Chris: major change as far as patterns go? I mean, there, there was a major shift that allowed for us to have surf and these loads to come through.
Is that staying? Pretty much,
Brad: yeah. I mean there’s, there’s a load that just pushed off and it’s gonna be pushing [00:08:00] all West Wing. It’s a little bit out of our window and, and just not the exactly the right setup, but looking forward to, you know, end of next week or so we could see something else start to pop up.
And if you’re in
Chris: Africa,
Brad: yeah, you’ll be getting somewhere. Europe, Africa, or West Coast Africa, I should say is really good place to be. The Canaries, Morocco, Azos, Morocco, all that is gonna be real big, um, coming up. But here, uh, we got spring break, we’ve got summer kind of conditions. Probably gonna take over for the next few days and looking for another cold front, um, maybe towards the end of next week.
Chris: Killer,
Brad: sweet
Chris: killer. I mean that, that almost. Well, you had brought up in regards to work and that we couldn’t, you know, I’m like freaking out. I have to get to work. And you’re just like, oh, I got within these realms. But then like, I see what you’re doing here. Right? You like that? I see it. I see it happen.
And what’s great about it though is like when you’re out in the water and there’s swell and all of a sudden you look around and you’re next to 300, your closest friends, you’re like, wait a minute, I gotta go to work. What
Brad: are you doing? [00:09:00] What This my friends? It’s called a segue. This is bringing us into our next section.
Smooth transition. Yeah. Very smooth. I mean, gosh, this guy is like, I’m picking it up. I’m picking it up. He must be like taking master ve class notes at night or something. Watching this stuff velvety was
Lou: so smooth.
Chris: Wow. I mean, it’s a, it’s a’s OC past or Acast or I don’t even remember. Oh yeah,
Brad: he’s a natural guy.
Guy. Um, yeah. So this segment really is jobs for surfers. How is it, uh, possible that you could be out there on a Tuesday at 11:00 AM and there’s 400 guys and girls? All doing what you’re doing, which is probably not their profession.
Chris: Yeah. And, and it’s, it’s one of those things, ah, it’s not me this week.
Beautiful. I’m so thankful that that wasn’t my fault. Incredible. Uh, but yeah, it’s one of those things where I, growing up here and having random jobs here and there, it was, I know for me as a way far South Florida surfer, you know, it was like this fever pitch of like, oh, there’s waves, there’s this, you’re, I gotta have my shift covered [00:10:00] here.
I gotta do this and that. And I know plenty of people that just grew up as bartenders or waiters because it was like, all right, well I’m working at night, so it leaves my whole day for you to do whatever I can. Or, um, so it’s, it’s interesting. I wonder, you know, it’s like, what are people doing for dogs? Is that by
Brad: design you think they were doing, it was just like, is it true that Shard house was started by surfers Uhhuh.
Okay. I, I was wondering if that was just an urban legend. There you go. Okay. So it seems that, uh, like food and Bev, hospitality are,
Chris: are great industries to be in. If you’re a surfer that with what we have to deal with here ’cause Yeah, and, and this is also something I noticed when I lived in Hawaii for a little bit, was that all of a sudden that that fever pitch to have to surf for all this other stuff.
It gets relaxed when there’s waves all the time. You time, right? Because then all, all of a sudden you’re just living your life and you’re like, Hey, I’m gonna go ahead and plan to surf. I got a little time to go and do this. And you know what? Whether it was like one foot or you know, six foot, it was you were gonna surf and you were gonna have fun.
It’s can’t tell you, I can’t
Lou: tell you guys how relaxed that was in San Diego because of that condition, in [00:11:00] fact, so relaxed. That didn’t even work the entire time. I, and maybe I should be working. Sorry, I’m coming back.
Chris: I’m really relaxed. But Yeah. But like here, it’s what becomes one of those things where you’re like this and that and, and you know, those phone, you know, phone calls that you get from friends and whatnot, they’re like, what time?
This and that. They’re kind of pinpointing it because, I don’t know, it’s a little bit of a, of a mission to get to the beach. Yeah. At certain times of the day. And I have guys that. You know, store boards in their own car, throw boards at the shop and, and you this and that because they don’t don’t, right.
They don’t wanna have to go all the way back to their house to get a board Right. Then to have to come over here. There’s just like at that last minute whim, they need to be able to go and do what they have to do. And that’s kind of what we live by around, it’s got a
Brad: surgical strike nonstop. You have to be like on call and you have to be willing and ready to
Lou: drop everything.
I’ve done half an hour hits, we’re like half an hour in paddle out shoot or maybe catch a couple waves and gone like half an hour.
Brad: And the SW can be gone that half an hour too. Right. And that’s just, but but
Lou: you know, usually isn’t firefighters. Firefighters another, another job that a lot of [00:12:00] surfers Right.
I just talked to a couple yesterday.
Brad: Yeah. They have that kind of flexibility in their schedule and they work like allotted a few days on, a few days off, that sort of thing. So
Chris: I wonder if the challenges are the same for people up outside of The Bahamas, shadow of Palm Beach North, that if they, you know, they get a little more consistency and they get some stuff.
Is that enough?
Brad: Is, is that enough for them? No, I don’t think so. I really don’t. I mean, all those lineups you see them. Packed right. When it’s good and you don’t wanna miss your home beach Right. When it’s doing its best thing. Right. And it is, I think that’s a great way to put it.
Chris: It’s true. I mean that, that same year that I lived in Hawaii happened to be the worst summer in the South Shore in like 10, 15 years at the time.
And then all of a sudden we had the best, uh, we had the best hurricane season here. It was one that we had like five different hurricanes just kind of circulating in and out. I was like 99 or something like that. And it was one of those things where I was dreaming about surfing out here and I was living in Hawaii.
I’m calling friends, being like, yo, what’s up? Oh, this and that. And they’re like, dude, you’re in Hawaii. I’m, it’s been so it sucks. [00:13:00] Oh. And, but it more so it’s that like, I wanna surf my home break.
Brad: Right. That’s it. There’s a definite fear of missing out. So I think some of the jobs are, you know, the night jobs where you can work overnight shifts or, um, the jobs that offer flexibility of working like a bunch of days in a row and then having a bunch of, of time off.
So it’s like flight, flight attendants. Oh, flight attendants is a whole other thing. I was, I was thinking more like guys that work work on like realtors oil. Yeah. Real. I was thinking more like oil rig guys, right? It’s like, oh yeah, I work like uh, four weeks straight and then I have off like eight or 10 or 12 weeks straight and it’s like, wow.
That’s like you. How about surf
Chris: shop owners? Do they surf shop owners? No. Somehow I work, I surf less. Yeah, that’s actually
Brad: kind of a funny one. You’d think that you’d probably surf all the time because wave else is coming in. When the
Chris: waves are good, it’s like, who else is gonna serve you guys? It’s me.
Someone’s gonna, plus where else are we gonna get the door open?
Lou: Where else are we gonna keep our keys? Right. That’s what I’m really here for. Key Vale
Chris: for free, by the way. I’m just saying drop your
Brad: keys off here. Alright. But you [00:14:00] did mention real estate and that I think is another one of the professions that kinda lends itself to surfing due to the fact that you, you’re essentially an entrepreneur and so you get to kind of make your own schedule, kind of call your hours.
Sure, yeah. There’s a little bit of that. And so that’s a totally different beast when you can kind of call your own hours. You have responsibility to yourself, to your clients, to your business, to your employees, all these other things. But you can kind of finagle your schedule a little bit more.
Lou: You can, I’ve, I’ve always done that anyway, where any job I had gave me a little bit of flexibility and I just took off.
Like to the point where I, I’m actually gonna tell this story. Remember when the chalks plane went down, I was on the beach. Okay. I’m gonna return for the story. I’m gonna let a
Chris: couple fans in. Okay. Continue with that story. Okay? BRB. So
Lou: the Cox airplane went down, right? Yeah. But it went down between the time I left work.
And I’m not trying to make light of anybody passing, it’s just the side story. So I leave work to come out to the beach because there’s waves, right? Plane goes down while I’m in transit. [00:15:00] I get to the beach. There’s cops and ambulances everywhere, right? So like, now there’s cameras on the, on the beach too, right?
And a friend of mine from work calls me, she’s like, what are you doing? I’m like, what are you talking about? She’s like, you just came out on tv. Like, Ooh, don’t tell anybody. So yeah, with all the cameras and everything, I, I came out on tv, but that’s the sort of flexibility I’ve always looked with every single job I like, I gotta make it out for an hour, gotta make it out for a couple of hours.
I gotta shoot, I gotta surf, I gotta do something. But it’s always been important for me to get out here and have a job that will give me that flexibility even when it, when I wasn’t a real turn on, wasn’t shooting more of a nine
Brad: to five. Yeah. That’s kind of how it is. Gentlemen. Hey Rudy. Welcome. Welcome to the show.
Good to see you buddy.
Rudy (2): What’s up, duke? How Rudy, you wanna uh, introduce yourself here real quick? Uh, my name, name is Rudy Duo. Uh, local guy. Surfer friend. Enthusiast, photographer. Yeah. Just talking by to say hi. Alright. Hope you guys are good. Everything’s good. A little checklist you got there. Yeah. That’s a nice mayo.
You got the whole scenario sitting on. Everything’s [00:16:00] fine quality. It’s my dog terrorizing everything. Oh boy. Oh boy. We’re stuff coming. We got a bull in
Brad: the China shop. Or a dog in the boardroom. It’s pretty much the same thing. Alright.
Jonathan: It’s
Chris: inter, it’s interactive around here. It’s so big. Napoleon
Jonathan: say alright.
Chris: Oh, that was classic. Hey listen, just get times around. No mess. No, that’s cool.
Brad: Uh, so yeah, there’s another job for a surfer photographer. Yep. Seems to work out pretty well for you. Re no complaints. Any uh,
Rudy (2): topics you guys hitting on that are interesting? Yeah, we’re
Brad: about to get into the next one. You wanna join us?
Rudy (2): Come on. I’m good into standing. No, no, no. Let’s, let’s, I think better
Brad: standing.
Rudy (2): Alright, good. Let’s get you in here buddy.
Brad: Good, good. Um, so the next one we’re getting into here is surfing as a form of healing. And, um, a friend of mine, a friend of all of ours, actually, Darren, um, he does a lot of work in this realm and.
Oh boy. He actually kind of prescribes the ocean [00:17:00] as a, as a way for people to kind of, lemme get my learn and heal.
Rudy (2): Yeah. I have an interesting perspective on all that.
Brad: Um, you know, we also have, um, like the tradition of paddle outs, you know, when someone of in the tribe passes and that’s, that’s a huge, I mean, we’ve talked about it in previous episodes, but it’s, it’s a really big way that we all kind of come together and heal together.
And it, it’s all about the ocean.
Chris: Yeah. I mean, we’re, we’re kind of a big tribe, you know, for us as, as big as a sport is, and for us, as much as you have your, your, your big famous people like your Kelly’s and your, your Mick Fanning’s and stuff like that, as well as just your, you know. Average surfer that might be just kind of starting off, you know, we’re all kind of in it to, to share something with the ocean that kind of does something to you.
You know, whether it gives you a, a, a moment of release, uh, a a moment of, uh, of excitement or, or, or something. You know, you’re connecting in a sense, and, and, and in that connection, [00:18:00] when you share it with other people, whether it’s the, or the wave that you see someone take, or, um, or any of those, you kind of, you know, you’re part of it, you’re, you’re connected with each other.
And then at the same time on the, the grievance side. And unfortunately, we’ve, we lost a local friend of ours, um, last night. Uh, Alessandro Perez. I some knew him as Malaka. Uh, I, I’ve known him for quite some time and really close, uh, friend and brother. Uh, we worked together at Quicksilver as well as here at the shop.
And, um, we’re all still kind of processing a little bit of, um, of his passing. Uh, ’cause it’s pretty tough. Uh, you know, he is only in his, uh, mid to late forties. Um, you know, and, and hearing all the. Uh, the memories of him pouring in with people on, on social media, you know, for just such a sweet guy. Nice guy.
The guy was just fully charged with energy and, uh, my heart’s broken. Um, to, to know that he’s gone. And I know we’ll be doing a paddle out, and I know that we have a couple of our locals together, you know, gathering on Third Street right now and, and, [00:19:00] and, and sharing their, their, their memories of him, which is always great.
But it just, it just goes to show the, um, the depth that the ocean has in a sense, you know, for our emotions and where we all kind of flock to there. Yeah. Um, to, to send our energies and to send our feelings out there, uh, to connect with each other. And, um, and I’m gonna miss you, aka I’m gonna miss you.
Brad: Oh,
Chris: yeah.
Brad: Yeah. I mean, there’s a, you know, like you say like, I need to get a rinse. Right? Or like, there’s a reason that they do baptisms in water, right? I mean, all these things, it’s, I all rooted in that same sort of, I mean, I don’t know how it feels really elemental. And when you guys, you know, even have like a bad day or something and you’re like, oh, you know what, I’m just gonna go paddle out.
It’s like, it’s crap. Right? And then when you come back in, like right, there’s a famous quote about it, like, you’re definitely a better person coming out of the water than when you walked in.
Chris: Yeah.
Brad: And ah, it’s amazing.
Chris: I mean, just like the other day I went up and [00:20:00] with a buddy of mine and we don’t get to hang much, but we got to kind of talk on the way up and get to surf and it wasn’t that big.
And we took the mid lengths out and we just kind of had some fun. And, um, and I coming home, I, I like, and I, I sent him a text afterwards and I, I thanked him and I’m like, dude, that was like a little mini vacation that was like, you know, like it, something does something about recharging your soul. Mm-hmm.
You know, and, um, you know, that’s, I could see why Darren, you know, recommends that, or, or prescribes it to people because it really just kind of helps pull that away.
Rudy (2): It definitely, I feel that most of the time all the surf towns have the same vibe. Everybody’s just good. Everybody’s taking it easy.
Everybody’s like. There, there’s a certain level of connection we have based off that. And definitely it has to do with water. And I, and I also think something happens to you when on the surface is big, on the surface is like a little radical and you’re kind of like on the edge.
Brad: Okay, let’s
Rudy (2): hear that as healing.
Yeah, definitely. As see, I think as a human being, you [00:21:00] need to be slightly under duress. And surfing is a big part of surf. Like when we had the big swell recently, Uhhuh a big part of that day. You’re kind of like in survival mode. Oh yeah, you like, this is big. This is a little intense. You know, you’re constantly paddling.
Go like, I gotta duck dive this way. This way’s big. Oh I got to, there’s people, should I go for this? And it’s like way too, you know, you’re constantly in this weird like jumpy mode uhhuh. And that’s, to me it’s survival mode. And that sets off all these interesting chemicals in the brain that I think are fundamental
Rudy: for,
Rudy (2): for development, for mood.
I don’t know about you guys, but I got home after that day and I was like,
Jonathan: wiped.
Rudy (2): I’m good. We’re all as good in the world, like a lot. And I think that’s another aspect that a lot of people don’t take that in the congratulatory systems that we have for surviving shit.
Rudy: Oh yeah. Wow. Rudy. I like it. Don’t tell
Rudy (2): nobody it secret.
I think everybody intuitive. Moses, turn the
Chris: Instagram off now. Edit that lot of things. Because
Brad: [00:22:00] when you said it, it’s like it hits so close ’cause you’re like, of course. Yeah, that’s exactly it. You know,
Rudy (2): according to your beliefs and all that, but you think about the evolution of human, we’re usually hungry a lot and we’re constantly moving because we were hungry and the slight little off time we had, we were procreating.
But mostly we’re like, do we, I think some people
Lou: see other way around, like procreating, when they’re not procreating, they’re
Rudy (2): getting a
Lou: bite to eat and back
Rudy (2): to pro. Well we’ve been more the other one than this and that, that survival that, oh fuck, we made it through this uhhuh. And then obviously we’re tribal.
Chris: Right.
Rudy (2): Obviously that’s like 1 0 1. You see that everywhere from the spring breakers to musicians. It is just groups. Surfers have their own tribes in the way they surf. The people hang out the way they like. They just kind of cling to each other. I surf a certain way. I surf for classic, I surf blogs and they kind of naturally lend themselves to each other.
I think it’s animalistic. I don’t even think you’re making those decisions. I think they’re made. [00:23:00] Yeah,
Brad: we are. A
Rudy (2): lot of water.
Chris: We are made up of it. 75%. Am I throwing that out there? Is that a number? At least. Okay. But yeah, but definitely at least that much,
Rudy (2): even just getting in the water, like waking up in the morning and just going for a quick dip.
It sets a total,
Brad: yeah, like I was saying, like getting a rinse, like after even like off, if I take like a long flight or you’re driving for like 12 hours or something. Mm-hmm. And it’s not really like you’re trying to get the dirt off you, but there’s like a mental dirt, right? Yeah. And like definitely you, you come at back out and you’re like.
Rejuvenated. Oh, that was pretty good. Feel pretty good after that. It’s like sometimes there’s real dirt on you. That’s actually the hollow, you know, for the most part it’s a sort of a philosophical rinse.
Chris: And then there’s the, um, there’s that connection with someone else or the other, someone that is so experience in that as well.
Like there is that like, you know, that there’s a comfort in knowing that there’s other people that feel or think like you. Um, and you know, when they show some of that same [00:24:00] appreciation or when you talk and you’re both understanding that energy, you know, there is that, you know, whether it’s someone you’ve known for a long time or someone you’ve just kind of rest recently met, you know, all of a sudden it builds either a stronger bond or a new bond.
Mm-hmm. And that keeps the drive growing and um, keeps the love growing. And I’m, I’m a big believer on energy and the transfer of it. Um, and the, the ocean is transferring energy every day, you know, and, and. You know, I think we go to the ocean to receive some of that, you know, and go for the rinse and wash out.
We need a beer guys.
Rudy: Um, keep it
Brad: low. So one of the only, uh, one of the other ones that, uh, kind of happens is, uh, almost like a connection to animals. I don’t know if this is a weird thing to say, but as we have an animal here Yeah. As nap boy bumps leg, there’s a dog,
Chris: he’s cruising around, here’s looking, giving you peanut butter.
Brad: Lots of animals congregate around the shoreline, you know, for their own reasons. But then like when you go, like, there’ve been a ton [00:25:00] of sharks in the shore break lately. Um, yeah, around my beach the last couple months and, uh, last night I was getting a little surf. Like it was really a desperation session that turned out to be a really fun surf.
Oh, nice. And, uh, one of my last waves of the night, I remember I just kind of like saw this line knee high maybe. Which kinda like stretch out in front of me and then the sunlight went right through that Uhhuh and I was like, oh, pretty. And then there’s a shark like right on the same line that I’m on. And actually I was going faster than the shark, but uh, it’s like that shark, but you know, it was, it was like, holy cow, the shark, you’re here with other things.
Yeah. You know, it’s not just the tribe of surfers. There’s like a whole other system happening outside of you, whether it be the fish or the pelicans or the seagulls or you know, a random dog running down the beach or whatever it is. Like there’s a definite vibe going on there, or turtles. I
Lou: think that’s what connects you to everybody.
The fact that someone else knows the water and knows this, [00:26:00] right? Just all of this in that same way that you do that else look like, oh, you get it, right? Mm-hmm. Because there’s plenty of people that come to the beach and don’t even set foot in the water, which I personally don’t understand. I don’t understand it, but you know, you get in the water and someone else has that.
I guess, for lack of a better word, intimacy. Right. With the ocean. Right. That, that, that we have. And I think that’s a pretty amazing thing. But Lou, even people
Brad: that don’t get in the water, think about how many people like, uh, it’s especially popular up in the Northeast where it gets cold a lot. And so people just go for a walk along the beach mm-hmm.
On the boardwalk, and they just sit on a bench. And that’s, and watch, that’s great because they’re still taking it in for like, they’re still taking it in hours. And it’s like, what are you doing? What do you mean there? I’m
Rudy (2): sure what do, what do you mean what am I doing? Right. It’s like that even, you don’t even know what to ask.
Just sitting there and looking at the vastness of it, you’re in awe, just, you sit back, you’re like, you’re like, I am nothing.
Chris: I remember going on a. Sailboat trip from here to The Bahamas and oh my gosh, we did in the summer. Um, there was no wind and it was like a 36 foot canna meran on a 10 horsepower engine.
It took us like 22 [00:27:00] hours to go, to go somewhere. That was two and a half hours on a regular boat. Um, but, you know, we stopped for a little bit and just, you jump in the water and you swim down 20 feet and you realize that you’re still like a thousand feet underneath you and you just kinda sit there and I would just float there.
And you look around and you realize how small we are, right. In the whole grand scheme of things. Right. You know, and you’re just like, look at this vastness, look at this. You know? Um, and it’s such a humbling moment, you know? And at the same time it’s an appreciative moment where you’re just like, oh, I’m really just a speck in this world.
Yeah. And I, in the grand scheme of the circle of life, you know,
Brad: and it sort of makes you happy in a right, in a
Lou: weird way. You’re, ’cause you’re a speck that’s connecting with the environment with that, that facet of the environment in, in a, a spec of bajillions, of other
Brad: specs that are all pulled the whole thing together and it’s.
Yeah. It’s really a weird phenomenon and there’s people doing like studies on this. Have you seen any of this stuff? There’s been like research on like the pH and salinity and like chemical things that are actually maybe [00:28:00] making these things occur.
Chris: Right. I saw something on, I don’t, I don’t know where it was.
Maybe it was Facebook and whatnot where they had discussed the, where it was article that the, how the ocean can very well just help people, whether is the, the lapping of the, of the waves, the sand or the feeling of sand underneath your feet. Incredible. Uh, and what that does just, you know, subconsciously to the body and, and lowering your shoulders and kind of lowering
Lou: those BPMs.
You know, it’s funny you say that because one of my favorite things to tell people about like surfing in Pensacola is the sand crunching. Mm-hmm. Under your feet when you step on it. Silica. Yeah. We don’t have that here. I love that sound. And it’s, it’s like very powdery. It’s fun to convey it. Yeah.
Rudy (2): Yeah. I definitely feel like, especially nowadays, we have such a disconnect with nature and what, what’s really going on around this and I.
Okay. Try to connect it back to the whole evolutionary terms. We’ve been more of that than this with so much technology and so much shit going on. [00:29:00] We get caught up in our, in our day-to-day life, and we don’t chill the fuck out. We don’t, we curse here, right? Yeah. That’s cool. We keep air offs, we fill in Florence.
Just ’cause Rudy
Brad: says it kids doesn’t mean that you should say it. Yeah. I,
Rudy (2): I feel like mops, there’s a disconnect and you can see people, you usually, somebody hasn’t been to the ocean in a while and you bring them and they’re like, wow, why don’t I do this more often? Right. Like, it’s very primitive, man.
Like, you have to, you going next to a mountain, just looking at a mountain. Mm-hmm. You’re like, what the fuck is this? This is insane. Or a long drive or mm-hmm. Anything in nature, you’re right. You get caught into that day to day, fucking mundane. I gotta know, I got the bills and rent and work. I gotta restructure the port and you forget.
Don’t, one of my favorite things about surfing is you can’t take anything with you. You’re out there, just you, the board in the water. Outside of surfing outside? No, just the fact of you’re gonna go surfing. There’s nothing with you. Right, right. I, I don’t know. I think something, something’s happening there.
[00:30:00] Napo thinks so too. Let me go assess. Okay. Tag out. Tag out.Brad: So, Rudy’s gonna be surprised for about the next category, I think. ’cause he wasn’t really prepped for this one. But, uh, this is kind of a big one. Uh, I’ve noticed it as just a surf nerd. Uh, a guy that enjoys surf photography, that enjoys beautiful images, enjoys art, um, a craft, you know, and I started to notice there’s this weird sort of dichotomy happening in surf photography.
And, uh, for the purposes of this podcast, I’m calling it surf photography crisis or the Golden Age. And, um, is the whole thing going to hell in a hand basket or actually, are we really progressing to the point where it’s just gonna be a whole new paradigm of photography and it’s gonna be all these great things come out of it?
I am torn because I see, I see a little bit of both. Chris, what do you [00:31:00] think? Oh, that was a good one. I got a couple thoughts. That’s great. You know, I guess
Chris: in the title of crisis or Golden Age as a, you know, as someone that appreciates photography but isn’t, you know, other than just bringing my phone up and, you know, getting into that portrait and be like, whoa, look at this.
Like, you know, that, that’s photography, right. Photography, you know, and a lot of it is is, you know, I guess your, what you see and what you want to capture, right. To go ahead and show to other people. Um, so in a sense, uh, you know, some of the things that we have like phones allows, uh, just the average Joe to maybe kind of explore some of the creativity that, um, they wouldn’t be able to get into unless they spent a lot of money on equipment and whatnot.
And that is a testament to, uh, how far we’ve come along, I guess, with technology versus, um, you know, photographers or people that have been doing this for a long time and whether it was from film and then went into digital and everything else, and all the work that’s involved, that in the process of like, I could imagine that there’s gotta be a.
[00:32:00] You know, a little bit of a, of uneasiness for photographers who’ve been doing it for a long time, that might be adapting and changing as well. But you know, like any job right? Or anything else, there’s like the dues that you’re put into, right? Yeah. When you come into, you at the bottom of the totem pole, you work your way up and you kind of get those notches in the belts along the way.Um, and sometimes it’s might seem like that people are able to kind of just skip a lot of maybe basic steps. Like sometimes I kind of relay it to like standup surfing. You know, there’s a lot of guys that are on subs, they under understand how to paddleboard and they get out to lineup, like, I’d like to catch away, but they’ve kind of maybe never surfed and they’ve never, and they’ve skipped one of the most important parts, which is learning how to catch the wave and getting your feet, which is, which is one of the hardest parts of surfing,
Rudy: right?
Chris: And so these guys not understanding that put themselves as well as other people in a dangerous situation. But how that refers back to photography is that, you know, Lou, I mean, do you, what, what are your, uh, impressions on what, what it was like to where we’re at now and. Are we in a [00:33:00] crisis or are we, uh,
Lou: honestly, I haven’t given this too much thought when I saw the, you know, the title on the page.
That’s why I didn’t tell you. Now, now I started thinking about it, but you know what? Hard, look at that. I,
Rudy (2): I
Lou: know
Rudy (2): a guy.
Lou: We, several, right? Several. That’s weird to talk about. We may be, we may be in a crisis. You know what little thought I’ve given it. But I think that’s good because that, that sort of puts you under the, you know, like under the thumb, it puts some pressure on you.
And if you’re really creative, if, if you really have an eye, uh, actually I wanna bring Alex in here. Alex, where you at? Monte, Alex around. Alex,
Chris: and,
Lou: and,
Chris: and, and just to maybe the layman out there and understanding what you mean by crisis. Like what a crisis in a
Lou: sense. Like, well, there’s a gazillion photographers out there, right?
So like, you’re, you’re either reinventing yourself, you’re, you’re pushing here, buddy. Your craft, you’re pushing your art, you’re pushing this discipline that you’ve chosen to, to pursue great photographer here, or master, you know what, you’re, you’re just doing the same thing. And, and that’s fine. Listen, like I said, I.
I’ve never given much thought at this because I’m, I’m not [00:34:00] here competing with anybody. I’m not here to impress anybody. You know, I, I’m kinda like the joker. I just do, you know, like, I just do. I mean, right. I mean, like, yeah, you do, right? So like, I, I shoot on the subject, I shoot like the, the, the, the average guy I shoot like, you know, like the, the best guys out here.
Yeah. I’ll shoot everybody. It doesn’t make for a great photo sometimes, but, right. You know, that guy gets stoked when he sees that image of himself, you know, so, like I said, we may be in crisis, but I think that’s just gonna push onto the next, you know, the next pattern. And is there, lemme just
Brad: to do an intro to Alex here real quick,
Lou: right?
Which, by the way, Alex has not been shooting very long and my boy here has like an amazing eye. I want everybody to know that I want every, to follow Alex Montero on Instagram at many Beaches.
Rudy: You.
Chris: Uh, he’s a old school that in jail.
Rudy: Thank you brother. He’s an old school local
Chris: from here when, and not just saying local life, they’ve been here 15, 20 years.
Like this guy grew up here south of fifth when it was hood back in the day. And he’s seen so much along the way. And, um, and, [00:35:00] and to see him get into a craft like that and the excitement that it brings out of him and. That he just has such a good eye in general. Like some of the stuff that he’s been doing, like these portraits of certain people, just, it has nothing to do even with sport or surfing.
Right. Just captivating. Right. Yeah, because I like, and again, I, I speak from a relatively lame in terms of or point of view where I, you know, I just put my phone out for pictures. But some of the stuff he, he takes really kind of makes me sit there and I, and I, and I look at it and I kind of, and, and it stirs a mood.
And I feel like that’s what photography is supposed to do is supposed to either both capture a mood Yes. As well as stir
Lou: it. So I keep, that’s the golden, keep talking into like exhibiting, because he’s got a very clear voice. He doesn’t wanna admit it or maybe he doesn’t see it himself. He’s got a very clear voice.
And the, the, the work is amazing already, man. Right. And he is just starting off. Yes. He’s just starting off. That’s the amazing part. Rudy, I’m sorry, we
Chris: woo. Cut the phone. Good. Down. Catch up.
Rudy (2): Yeah. I’m super psyched to see anybody just, just producing and creating and I think Darwin said it best. [00:36:00] It’s not the strongest.
It’s not the fastest, it’s not even the smartest. It’s the one who could adapt the best in any field. Photography is just, it’s just a self-expression. If you can’t adapt, you’re off. If you can’t go from film to digital, you’re off. If you can’t make it film in a digital area, you’re off. If you can’t shoot digital, if you can’t, you’re off.
That I tie view any type of creative expression, there’s no excuses. They’re all Instagram photographer. There’s room for everybody. There’s room for, in any type of field, surfing, fashion, photography, any type of expression, you just have to put energy into yourself and cultivate your own personal momentum.
That’s it. People make mistakes and try to, I need to do this to get recognized or I need to mimic that. You don’t have to fucking anything. You just have to be yourself. And I think that’s the hardest part in my perspective. It’s ’cause
Lou: a lot of people are afraid of making mistakes, but when you’re making mistakes, that’s when you’re pushing.
Right?
Rudy (2): But if you don’t make mistakes, you’re not doing anything, you’re just cut. That’s it. And. And I believe through [00:37:00] my perspective, and I tell you this quite often, if you emphasize and figuring out what affects you, that translates, if you start doing what you think is expected, not, there’s no, there’s no essence in the image and there there’s no essence.
And forget about image, anything in anything, that’s it. If you’re gonna surf and you’re not present and you’re not trying to figure out how the ocean affects you, it’s gonna show if you are building cars and you don’t, uh, it’s gonna show if you’re trying to do what anybody else does. But you know, the best thing you’ll get out of is money if you just copy what other people do and at the end, like, what the fuck?
You know, like, I need to sign up for that. Yeah, that’s my, my money making my 2 cents on the whole creative process. So, I
Chris: mean, does it seem like then, uh. In, in regards to competition. So many photographers out there that the competition’s just what within yourself, he makes a face competition within yourself.
It’s, it’s, it’s a challenge. Is it? And, and again, granted, it’s like anything else, it’s [00:38:00] probably a bunch of different perspectives and, and, and, and ways that people approach this. But is there that, um, again, that side of like, oh my God, there’s so many photographers, I’ve gotta go ahead and get this thing.
I’ve gotta that you fabricate a scene or fabricate a look.
Lou: I dunno how Rudy feels about this, but I’ll, I’ll tell everybody out there this, you know what? Get a camera start shooting. I don’t mind the competition because if I’m just gonna stagnate and not do anything new, you deserve to take me, you know, to Sure.
I, I always thought, I’ve always
Chris: thought competition’s great. It keeps me on my toes. Yeah. Keeps me fresh. Keeps me hunting. Absolutely. You know,
Rudy (2): I, if I sat down and thought about how many new photographers are getting created every day, I wouldn’t shoot. I’d be overwhelmed. Right. That’s stability. I think those are, those are like super negative thoughts.
The best thing you could do is. Just, there’s only one Rudy. There’s only one brat. It’s just, just if you are honest in your approach, and you could dissect a business in many ways. Alright, you wanna shoot surfing, what type of surfing? Mm-hmm. If you just shoot surfing, like surfing, you’re never gonna develop a niche.[00:39:00]
If you say, well, I like very classic surfing because you’re you’re honest class, you know, I’m gonna follow brands that lend themselves to that side of surfing. How do they show their apparel? How do they show their boards? How do I build a portfolio that lends myself to the, and then it’s just, I look, I’m a very blue collar creative.
Like there’s no, you know, woo woo. I wake up every day and they go to town. I said this
Lou: just, just yesterday. Every
Rudy (2): day, every day, every day. In that process, you, it’s like a process of elimination in the creator. You’re like, I don’t want to ever do this no more uhhuh, but I need to pay my bills this month.
Hopefully next month. Next month I don’t have to go here. And with your work. At the beginning, you gotta shoot shit. And I told you, like when everybody asks me, like go out there, like you said, grab a camera and shoot photos, and then process of elimination. Little by little you’re like, yeah, this is cool, but I’m not this guy no more.
Rudy: Mm-hmm.
Rudy (2): And this is cool, but you wanna know what, we’re gonna do this now? Yeah. [00:40:00] And little by little you’re gonna start deleting the images. Mm-hmm. And honing. And honing and constantly working that shit. But it’s an everyday struggle. It’s not like, Hey, you’re in Miami. I could tell you the fashion industry is not here, but if you wanna shoot weddings, you’re gonna corner the market.
You’re gonna kill it or you’re not gonna kill it. Shooting surf photos here, there’s no surf. So forget about that. You’re not gonna be a famous surf photographer in Miami. If you wanna shoot fashion, you gotta go to London, you gotta go to Milan, you gotta go to Paris. And you’re, or you know, it is just, it’s just the, the reality of certain scenarios.
Mm-hmm. If you’re. Close-minded and you don’t see that well, you’re not gonna excel. That’s just a in, in any industry. You have to be super realistic and acknowledge the pros and cons of the city. You’re in the momentum, you’re career. Be realistic. You have to be very realistic, just super honest. You could be emotional and you can have, you can lend yourself to your work, but I think you have to pull yourself apart in any industry and look at it as an observer and say, Hey, this [00:41:00] is gonna translate here.
Or you might be an amazing photographer, but they’re just not gonna get it because the people, the culture in that city doesn’t resonate to what you’re producing.
Alex: I think you touched base on a really cool thing. I’m not good at public speaking or anything like that. Us, none of us
Rudy: are,
Alex: but that’s a really cool point that you made, Rudy.
Um, when I put stuff out there, I put it because it’s cool to me. And if people like it, that’s awesome. And if they don’t like it, that’s fine. And it’s a freeing thing to be able to put out something that you like, because I have a job. I don’t depend on photography, but it’s an outlet to be creative and just put what you like out there, you know?
And, um, I was finally able to get a camera and I remember when I first started out, I was like, Hey, you know, what camera do you use? And I was thinking about getting a Sony, he had a Sony and, uh, we talked some things and I did my research, you know, before I bought my camera. ’cause it’s, you know, [00:42:00] it’s a, it’s an investment, right?
For sure. It’s not, it’s like, do I buy a a camera? Do I buy a longboard or a surfboard? You know? And, um, I wanted to get a camera, something I been wanting to do for years. And, um, finally pulled the trigger. This guy, uh, in California, his name is George Salas. He’s an amazing photographer. Local surfer out here is kind of the guy that I talked to for, you know, suggestions.
And he’s really good because he doesn’t want another George Salas, you know, he’s just. He wants, he lets you be creative. Sure. You know, and he’s a good guy to talk to. And I like, you know, talking to Lou and I like to talk to Rudy because, you know, they’re real photographers and, um, like I said, it’s really freeing being able to put what you like.
And it’s cool to see that you, you know, what you like. Sometimes those people like, you know, and that’s fine.
Chris: Yeah. What are, what are some of the challenges coming into this relatively, you know, little green and new and stuff like that? You know what? That you’re coming into it, that you’re just saying Holy f that is,
Alex: you know, [00:43:00] at first it was overwhelming, like all the like learning the camera and, but you know, if you really like something, you’re gonna do the research, you’re gonna look into it and you’re gonna learn the camera.
That’s easy stuff. I think one of the best suggestions that I can give to anybody that’s going out there shooting is you just gotta shoot and take a bunch of photos, but just don’t snap. Look what’s in front of you. Look in the foreground, look in the background. Do you see store? Do you see something that’s interesting to you?
And that might create a good picture. You know, may, maybe, maybe not. You might get a good, you just gotta keep shooting. You gotta shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot. The more you shoot and then you start looking through the photos, you’re gonna start seeing things. You know, people ask always, what camera do you use?
What lens do you use? But they don’t ask the questions that are so simple. And fundamentals. What makes a good photo? What makes a good photo is composition story. You know, and people overlook everything. They think that they’re gonna take amazing photos by buying an expensive camera. Mm-hmm. And go ahead, buy an expensive camera, the buy a 20,000 [00:44:00] camera.
And if you don’t know those fundamentals of those basics, it’s not a good recipe for a good photo.
Rudy (2): Here. I want to be a little bit of the devil’s advocate. What you were saying, we’re all opinions. No, you’ve been shooting for a long time. We’re shooting for while. Yeah. I, I started shooting before I, I’m a late bloomer with technology and I started shooting.
Before I even had a computer, I got, I say I was lucky. My teens, I started playing around with cameras. I’m 33 now, and I created personal momentum before any instant gratification where I knew what affected me before anybody told me this was cool. And I think there’s a loss in, in all genres, not just photography, but since we’re talking about photography, I’m sure you knew what affected you before anybody liked a photo, if that makes any sense.
Absolutely. And there’s something to be said about that. Like that’s really, I, [00:45:00] that’s hard for me to understand. I know who I am and I know it affects me, and I’m very honest in that I give zero fucks what anybody likes or dislikes, though I navigate that because that’s the industry that I must be in. The only way people are gonna receive, that’s the meeting that people are receiving.
Mm-hmm. And getting affected by right now. Guys, one more time. This Renee. God, we’ve got
Alex: some photographers in the house today, like is here. Look at that. Oh my God.
Rudy: How’s it going? Good. And you? How’s it going
Rudy (2): there? It’s going full house. Full house. So speeding. You know what, Renee and Jonathan also are here.
Sorry for screaming.
Brad: Uh, so I
Rudy (2): was just, how many
Brad: are we coming up on an hour here yet, Caleb?
Jonathan: We got hour, 47 minutes.
Rudy (2): Alright, I, I was just touching on the subject on how important it is to have cultivated some personal momentum before any social media gratification. Does that make any sense? Yeah,
Rene: absolutely it does.
I,
Rudy (2): I think, uh, [00:46:00] something I see right now as a, as a reoccurring theme, people are looking for that validation that they’re doing something right. And you lose character there. Absolutely. The struggle is so important. The self struggle, you being like, is this right? Am I really affected by this? Is this, is this something that I, is this really a photo that I, I am genuinely stand behind?
Well, the, they don’t do that. The problem is that you’re not
Rene: having constructive, uh, criticism coming in from people who are actually looking at it and be like, well, I need, I think you need to focus on this. Not so much like the, like you said, the gratification. Wait, we
Brad: get an introduction first? You just, oh, sorry.
Hey, I’m,
Rene: I’m Renee Gomez. How you doing? Good dog. Uh, born and raised here in Miami. I live in la uh, photographer based out of Instagram. Yeah. What’s your name? Oh, my Instagram is, uh, at slash dog mta. Mta. So yeah, I grew up out here in Miami. Started off shooting, surfing, and then moved on to the commercial world.
And yeah, it’s, it’s an interesting [00:47:00] aspect of where, um, this, uh, forum has gone and where it’s taking place. You know? Uh, yeah. Everyone looks for instant gratification. They don’t think about, whoa. Is this good or not? And there’s a lot of stuff that’s not good out there unfortunately. And then there’s guys who are really busting their ass and they’re not getting the validation that they need.
Lemme give you a, uh,
Brad: some criticism on that from the entrepreneur world. It’s really important to figure out what works and what doesn’t work very much so, yeah, quickly as cheaply as possible. Yeah. It’s got a term called fail fast. I wanna screw up now, not in like a week or not in 10 days, or not in two weeks or a month or two years from now.
If my idea is bad or my work is bad, I want to know as quickly as possible. And so there, there kind of is that, but there’s a, but there’s a, like a popularity to it that I think hurts it from an artistic perspective.
Rudy (2): But again, to argue that in the creative [00:48:00] process you have to develop self, like we were talking about everything else.
This is the part that’s different. This is where you cannot put a, put a business plan. On the way you wanna translate what affects you into the real world, you have to figure that out, then monetize it. Yes. You can’t monetize something that you don’t have. I’m sorry. It’s just not gonna happen. So
Brad: do you want be consultant with me because I could bring you along, you could just drop that in one bit of knowledge.
I’m super expensive. Boom. And they will pay
Rudy (2): it. So we were talking about, and the way we we funneled into this was the ability to adapt. Like that’s something that I, I, I lend myself to. And I, and I argue consistently. It’s not the smartest, the strongest. It’s the one who could adapt the best. And, and we’re talking about surf photography crisis or golden age.
It’s never been a better time to be a creative person. The outreach is [00:49:00] immense. Well, you’re able to produce
Rene: your, your production level can be brought out so much quicker than what it was before. I mean, I started when it was film. So when we were shooting film, you had to wait a couple hours to get it processed and see if you actually got the shot or not.
Right now you’re like, oh, I got the shot. Alright, how soon can I upload this and how soon can I make money out of it? Or if it’s not gonna be made money. You know, you, you’re looking at both aspects. You’re looking at it as an artist, you’re looking at it as, as a business person and everything. So there’s just so much that goes on that you’re like, and being able to adapt every way from going from film to digital to now with the whole social media content.
And the thing is, there’s more things coming outta social media of how to compete, keep on competing. Like right now there was a whole thing of like, Vel had this quick little kick trying to like overtake Insta. Uh, the, the next thing to jump on top of Instagram. It was hot for a minute, but it realized that there was so much going on that their, uh, server couldn’t keep up.
And so people immediately jumped off and kept on with Instagram. It was like, there’s always someone trying to find who can be the next source to [00:50:00] like, how, how can I pump out social media? How can I get the upper hand? And. We’re still at that, they’re still going and seeing what happens. And
Rudy (2): I’m sorry to keep interrupting here.
No, go for it. And I really, really put my foot out on this because it’s something, I’m a, I’m an instinctual, instinctual shooter, but I intellectualize the process. I really appreciate and love the approach to acts. I, I don’t think people emphasize enough on that. Instagram is not forever, like the way we communicate, it’s not forever.
Like the way cameras work is not forever. If you don’t adapt, you’re done. You’re gonna fall behind and you’re going to, you just have to adapt whatever they do. So one of the
Brad: things that say standard because. Where’s Alex?
Rudy (2): A good image,
Brad: Alex. That’s what, stay there. That’s what he asked. That’s it. That’s what he asked for.
That’s, he’s like, well, that’s not, the question is what camera, the question isn’t what technology? How did you get out there? It’s not, it’s not the camera. It’s what story. Funny. What’s
Rene: composition? What, what fundamentals. There’s so many times people are like, oh, what camera? It’s like, it’s [00:51:00] not the camera, it’s the person.
It’s the eye. The eye you have, you can shoot with any camera and you’re gonna, if you’re, if you got the eye, you’re gonna find what you want. Right. You know what I mean? No matter how it, it’s captured.
Rudy: Mm-hmm. You’re the
Rene: one who’s creating the content. You’re the one who’s the artist and looking for what you want.
I’ve had so many times, so what camera you use? I’m like, doesn’t matter man. Yeah. You don’t ask a woodworker like what chisel they use. It’s a fucking chisel. That’s what I use. A
Brad: chisel
Rene: or a chef, depending on the using. That’s a classic one. Viking. Oh yeah. Like, oh, your dinner was, what’d you cook it on?
It’s like, nah, man, it’s not what I it on. No. Gangs are electric. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I made this with love. That’s how the chef looks at it. And it’s the same thing as an artist. You made it, you made it from what you’re seeing, your perspective on your, your outlook, you know? So that’s true. So really
Brad: it’s more of a golden age from your, from your perspective.
It, it’s always gonna be a golden age.
Rudy (2): It’s always gonna have set, I, I’m sure in the eighties people were complaining about certain things. In the nineties, people are complaining about certain things. There’s always, there’s always gonna be something bought. [00:52:00] Yes. There is a saturated market. Yes. You could say
Brad: adapted to different things.
Rudy (2): You just have to, you gotta create more of a niche. Again, this is a daily struggle for myself. I’m not in any way saying that. I’ve figured it out. I don’t think you ever figured it out. You know, I think just different levels to the video game. Yeah. There’s different levels to the video game and you gotta just keep playing.
And we’re not in a crisis. You, you can be in a crisis if you want to be in that level, if you
Brad: wanna frame it that way.
Rudy (2): Yeah. Or you say, whoa, let me restructure. Mm-hmm. Reevaluate. And fucking attack.
Brad: That’s what I, that’s what I think. Everyone here, and then I got this idea. Basically you do talking the lots.
We’re,
Rudy (2): dude, you do that. I hear you tell me like, you wanna know what this is not working. You look at it as an observer, you reevaluate. You don’t fucking, I don’t know, I don’t feel good. Look a fuck.
Rudy: Yeah.
Rudy (2): We’re gonna make this thing happen, right? Because there’s nothing else. Right. [00:53:00] The same thing with any type of situation.
Right. We’re gonna figure this out and we’re gonna, and you come in here, it’s unique to you guys, it’s unique to you, right? You have, you are involved. Right. And I, and I, I, that’s it. Right? And, and
Chris: I think again, if we can translate it to the store, I think that’s kind of what, um, what gives that feeling off to, so to people that come here, whether there’s people that we know or they’re people that we don’t know that come from different parts of the world, uh, whatever it is that Mark and I did to this place as far as giving it its love, um, translates and people feel that when they come here.
And that is just our craft and how we merchandise the product, how we, how we host people when they walk in here. Well,
Rene: it feels like you’re coming home. Like, look, I, I come home multiple times a year. Every time I come in it’s like, I haven’t missed a beat. I still see you guys say what’s up? And like, hey.
It’s like, oh, I’m still home. You know what I mean? You have that home feeling when you come here. It’s like, cheers. Exactly. Speaking about you, Hey, there,
Rudy: don’t,
Chris: yeah, but there’s that [00:54:00] familiarity, that picture. I mean, and it almost seems like that is what you’re trying to do is connect with someone not maybe trying, you’re doing whatever you feel.
And the, and when people, when people connect to it, the way that they do that is that pat on the back or that like, okay, well, and over time
Brad: you’re not gonna connect
Chris: the same way, so you gotta adapt and you’re not necessarily doing it because you, you know, you doing I haven’t ized it.
Rudy (2): Yeah. I think it’s adapt in everything.
Adapt. It’s not the smartest, it’s not the strong, it’s not what I tell myself regularly. I, I think there’s, people don’t emphasize enough on honesty. Gotta be honest with what you’re producing and stand by it in order to build off that. If you don’t have that type of, this is all right, you know, this is not me forever.
This is me right now. How do I make, and that’s where that
Brad: learning the struggle.
Rudy (2): Yeah. I think is really important. People don’t struggle nowadays. If you don’t go through that, it’s kind of hard to, that’s the crisis part of it, where [00:55:00] if you’re, this is a, I read this great article, and this is not verbatim, but what the new generation, a big scenario, what happens is they’re not, they’re not pouring themselves into their craft.
It’s, it’s very, on the outside, it’s like you can go to school, you get a degree and you get into a job and you’re there five months and you’re like, I don’t like my job. You’ve been there five fucking months, buddy. Who do you, do you know, or I don’t like photography in five months. Like it, it, it’s a fly by night.
They need to know now. Yeah. They want know who’s by night.
Rene: They’re like, they don’t, they don’t wanna put the time in to see where it’s gonna go. They’re like, if I don’t have instant, like immediately like success. If I don’t have success immediately, then why am I gonna continue doing this? It’s like I, you know, I’ve been Is that
Chris: a
Rene: testament to
Chris: the society that we’re living in nowadays?
When you having all these instant gratification? I’ve been shooting
Rene: since I was 16. I’m 41 now and [00:56:00] I’ve still been in the business, still grinding away. I’m like, I went from, you know, started stream surfing, was a photo assistant commercial advertising, and went on my own. And it’s just, I’ve kept on, you know, there’s guys like George Silas, like Alex was saying too, you know, we’ve all been through it and we still keep on pushing.
It’s a business that keeps on moving, like Rudy said too, you gotta evolve, you gotta keep going. ’cause if not, you run over it. Yeah. You get run over. That’s the good part. And there’s, and there’s, but that’s the
Brad: point. That’s a, that should be the good
Chris: part.
Jonathan: Yeah. Can I ask an off camera? Question off question, camera question.
Chris: We have an off camera question.
Jonathan: So what do you guys think about the fact that yes, in, in a certain way, you can look at this and say, people aren’t pouring their heart and soul into something, so they’re not doing it the way we did it. However, they’re able to make a living, whether they’re dwelling in a van or living out of Airbnb and travel the world and not have to go the same route that the majority of people do.
We didn’t do that necessarily. ’cause all of us seem to have gone a little bit of a different path. But now the fact that you can actually make a living [00:57:00] in a little bit more of a fun, independent, bohemian, relaxed way that’s not paying the dues bohemian, what you can do that, at least. What’s your question,
Brad: Jonathan?
So the, I wanna
Jonathan: hear your perspective because I heard a lot of like, oh, this isn’t good, this isn’t good, this isn’t good. But what about the good side of the fact that a lot of these people don’t have to be funneled into shitty jobs? No, I, I like Jonathan. Ask that question to the microphone please. Okay, now that you can hear me.
Hi Jonathan Vale, off camera. Off camera. So I just want to hear the perspective of the positive side of what this social media and all of the availability of this technology and the ability to not necessarily have to go to high school, go to a college and take a typical job that, you know, we were all kind of looking at those options and probably avoided.
So what do you guys think about that aspect of it? The positive part of all these people growing up, seeing possibilities that we didn’t have readily accessible.
Rudy (2): I can lay into that thick, we’re gonna just skim it. I said it was the golden age and I, [00:58:00] I elaborated how I feel that I’m involved with nowadays and the fact that I was able to build momentum prior.
I think I have an edge towards my personal avenue. I think we live in the best times ever. The fact that you could do whatever you want, however you want, that a photographer doesn’t have to be singular. There is no a b no, you could be in. A totally Instagram social media based photographer. You could be this.
Everything is is, is obtainable.
Jonathan: Yeah.
Rudy (2): That’s the big part. And I think it’s in everyone’s hands. The technology’s cheap enough and ubiquitous enough that, and that’s great that that gives more avenues to touch on. I could be Rudy in different places as much as I want. It’s just not like, oh, I can’t, if I like something, I’ll build personal momentum in what I like.
The same thing with anybody else. If somebody wants to live in a van and take photos of their life in their van and they [00:59:00] do it somewhat creatively, they gain a following, the following cultivates views and likes. They could reach out to brands and be like, Hey, listen, look at all the following. Whatever.
Whatever your plan is. What
Rene: if they live in the van down by the river?
Rudy (2): Well, if the river emits interesting lighting and things happen by the river, at least where I’ve been around it, you could do something. If you believe in what you’re doing, that’s a positive spin. You’re honest. No. No. But if you believe in what you’re doing and you’re honest about it, it’s gonna be unique.
There’s only one you. There’s only one you. And if you build that personal momentum within that, it’s just your golden age.
Brad: Yeah. So it’s you. Golden age. Cheaper, more available, easier to spread. That’s people to
Rene: deal with. Well, it’s more efficient now.
Brad: Super efficient. That’s a great way to put it. It’s more efficient.
It’s good to have
Jonathan: success and momentum. Even if you’re a photographer that never paid his dues, did it only for instant gratification. Got a bunch of brands sending you their stuff and you’re doing great with that, that’s cool. Right? More power to ’em. Right? [01:00:00] I agree. Absolutely. I agree. Yeah, because I was hearing a lot of like negativity towards it.
Oh, I, and I get it because we had to pay our dues differently, but I’m pretty stoked to see a 21-year-old couple driving around making money based on. Yeah, their Instagram, I think it’s amazing. It’s much better than those two people unhappy after school, take ’em a month off going into college and going into a shitty job.
In my opinion. I think it’s inspiring for them.
Brad: Yeah. So in that way I think it definitely is more the golden age than it is the crisis.
Rene: If you can, if you can do it right. Yeah. Yeah. I’m like, not be pissed off like, oh, I got this shitty job. I’m like, why am I doing this? Like, yeah. And if you do have,
Brad: if you have to do, take that shitty job.
Look, a lot of people’s situations don’t allow themselves to like go get a van and like try to become some sort of Instagram model, generate. No, it’s like, that’s not really in reach for some people. But if you do have to and you and just go work, um, whatever job, make some bucks like working at a gas station or a deli or supermarket or whatever, and then [01:01:00] you can shoot amazing photos with that same thing you have in your pocket.
Yeah. To like get your job, which is a phone which everybody has. I mean like, well it’s, it’s funny. Start that
Rene: way. It’s funny what I’ve had clients ask me for lately, ’cause I’ve jumped on jobs for like. Big companies and they’re like, Hey, we want you to do some social media stuff for us, like do boomerangs and stuff like that, social media.
And I’m like, alright, cool. I’m likes, it’s, it’s what it is now. And I’m like, I ain’t gotta say no. ’cause at the end of the day, they’re paying, they’re making money and I’m getting and you’re adapting. And I’m adapting. I’m getting to do what I like, which is, at the end of the day, photography, it’s just a different, uh, venue.
I mean different format that we’re doing of photography, you know, like it’s weird, but you’re like, okay, this is what, this is what we’re going to now these days. You know, there’s so many different outlets of it, so you gotta keep going. If not, then that’s it. You’re gonna be without work, you’re gonna be like, oh, great.
And it’s gonna be
Brad: that 22-year-old couple that’s traveling around a van that got the job instead of you. Yeah. Maybe we only to get jobs and 22-year-old spouses, maybe we need to get
Jonathan: vans.
Brad: I mean, from what it
Chris: sounds like it’s just about explore and explore as much as you can and, and, and [01:02:00] adapt and change.
And I mean, that is only the truly constant is change. I mean, and, and if you don’t do something, you already know what the result is. Right. Nothing. So, you know, be bold, be brave, be badass. Go out there and fucking just, sorry, I just drop a Rudy bomb. My bad. You can do it.
Brad: Let’s tie all these things back together.
So you want to be a job for a surfer. You can be a surf photographer, you can be a photographer. You can get really bummed out and pissed that you didn’t adapt fast enough, didn’t make enough money, and then you can rinse off in the ocean and then heal the whole thing. So, I mean, these whole, all these little topics today kind of oddly came and coalesced together.
Chris: It’s a strange thing. What’s stranger is that, that all just came up five minutes before we came online.
Rene: Yeah. Well actually, thank you for letting me drop in. Just flew in today and just like having to walk into this whole situation. Well, these are, but these are the organics that
Chris: we, that we appreciate and that we love and this is talking story, right?
And in a sense it’s kind of why, what people have kind of appreciated out there as well and told us about that. It’s just like, I’ve had people be like, dude, I’ve commented alongside with you guys. I know you guys [01:03:00] can’t hear me, but I’m talking to you guys at the same time. I’m like, that’s kind of cool.
You know, it’s, and people are learning things, right? Yeah. It just super, super cool. And, you know, hopefully each week we can kind of bring something a little different that, that ties into the local community, to things that we’re doing, the things that we’re passionate about, things we’re passionate about, other surfers as well.
And, uh, you know, please send us more stuff to kind of talk about ideas. Yeah. Stop by, say what’s up. Yeah. Because you know, crack one open and, or, or have some tea. Chris Bradley, episode 10 in the books. Awesome. You, we wanna thank everybody that was here. Yeah. All you guys for stopping in, cat for just making it all happen with the av.
Um, you’re man,
Brad: uh, we look super pretty today because Lou actually brought in some lighting, which was, uh, made this whole thing a little bit better. Free advertising. Yeah, free
Chris: advertising.
Brad: I have a smaller space across my nose if anybody would like that photograph. Nobody knows the, uh, thanks for joining.
We’ll catch you guys next time. Shoot. [01:04:00] Adios.