The California Surf Project
“Random Observation No. 3463: It’s illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon!”
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to quit your job, pack your boards, and surf your way down the California coast? Though it may sound like a daydream, The California Surf Project is a fully photographed travel diary of two surfers who decided to take the 50 day journey of a lifetime.
Santa Barbara
Dan Malloy – timeless
“These guys gave us a bushel of apples and a sandwich — I think they thought we were homeless.”
The adventure unfolds through the eyes of two passionate individuals: Eric Soderquist, a professional surfer, artist and world traveler whom resides and surfs in Shell Beach, CA, and Chris Burkard, also an accomplished central California native whose photography has appeared in over 35 international publications.
“A grown man crawled up the beach vomiting: a sign we shouldn’t have gone out.”
Feel like you are along for the ride as you follow Soderquist and Burkard as they trek along Highway 1 from the Oregon border to the Tijuana Sloughs in their increasingly broken-down Volkswagen bus. While discovering everything that our Golden State’s legendary coastline has to offer, they treat the reader to their observations of world around them, and their musings of the road behind and in front of them.
“This wave will give you all the speed in the world to launch as high as you want — the only problem is finding the road to get there.”
Santa Monica, circus music, and the flying fish
The California Surf Project paints a vivid experience of their incredible adventures catching perfect (and not-so-perfect) surf, sharing campfires with complete strangers, and rigging the bus with makeshift Duct tape repairs. The book spans over 200 gorgeous photographs, chronicled with soulful text and a professionally produced DVD.
“Dry sand blowing like a desert. Heat waves on the horizon. Must be winter in California.”
If you’ve ever been curious about the liberating experience of west coast surf culture, grab yourself a copy of this book!
Big Sur postcard or just another average turnout along Hwy 1?
Check out the Project’s website, read about these talented and accomplished guys, and take a look at their gallery of stunning photos!
In 1999, on a surf trip to the Mentawai Islands (a chain of about seventy islands and islets off the western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia) Dr. Dave Jenkins, physician and surfer, fell in love with more than the epic waves - the Mentawai people. These people, mostly women and children, were dying from preventable and treatable diseases like malaria, measles, cholera and tetanus.