Pictured is Eli Andersen of Portland, Oregon, with a 15′ redwood paddleboard. Eli makes his own paddleboards and kayaks on which he does long, solo paddling adventures. This board was made from wood salvaged from his mom’s deck. It weighs about 50 pounds. Eli made it for a solo circumnavigation of Haida Gwaii in British Columbia that he will attempt this summer. He will paddle about ten miles a day. At this pace Eli will complete his trip in two and half months, his window being June 1st to August 15th.

Eli has already paddled the entire Oregon Coast—which also took him a full summer to complete—and solo kayaked the length of the inside passage from southeast Alaska to Washington. On his Oregon coast trip he paddled about fifteen miles a day, carrying four or five days of supplies and camping gear. Then he would hitch hike back to his truck, drive back to his board, camp for the night and re-supply and then do it all over again. There are very few roads in Haida Gwaii, so he will have to talk fishermen into dropping off supply packs at various locations on the islands.

Eli says he gets in rhythm when he is paddling about two miles from shore. There’s less current out there and it seems to be where he gets his best glide. He said that whales, dolphins and birds seem to prefer traveling along this watery thoroughfare as well. Eli does these paddling adventures for no other reasons than to see a place. No cause, no fanfare-he just really loves being out there.

One more shot of Gerry with his hand planer.

In early April I was lucky enough to be snowboarding Mt. Bachelor when the best snow of year arrived. While I was there I took these portraits of Bend resident and dedicated snowboarder Gerry Lopez at his shaping bay. He’s such a nice guy. He showed me his Clark Foam blanks, of which he probably has the largest stock pile left. Gerry’s surfing, positive attitude and dedication to healthy living has always been a big inspiration for me. I also find it very interesting that he moved from Hawaii to Central Oregon and started a new life. He’s seen so many changes in surfing, but instead of becoming jaded with crowded lineups he realized there are new places and experiences left to discover. I boarded a couple runs with him. He rips!

Fiber print in walnut frame, custom made for legendary body surfer Mark Cunningham. Dan Malloy and I met this man during a trip to Taiwan in September, 2005. He lost his arms in a car accident but was still an avid body surfer. After he put his swim fins on with his teeth, he and Dan rode a few waves together. I don’t know if he rode a surf board before the accident, but you could tell he loved to body surf because after every wave he would let out a really loud hoot.

Here are some of Patrick Trefz photographs from the making of his 16mm surf film “Thread” that I was fortunate enough to be a part of. Thread was filmed in 2006-07 in Santa Barbara (shots of my brother Tom and I in the studio and Sandspit sequence), Greece (trees) and Cabo Verde (surf frame grab). Here’s links to Trefz’s websites that have more of his photographs and info on the film and book. Trefz has a new film in the works called “Idiosyncrasies” set to release this year. It should be a good one…

www.patricktrefz.com
www.threadthefilm.com

A few days before Christmas my brother and I did a big road trip through seven states to see family and to do some snowboarding. We started in Santa Barbara and drove north to the Oregon border, then all the way across Oregon and Idaho, skimmed Wyoming, then drove south through the entire state of Utah in a blizzard, blew through Nevada, then skimmed Arizona before finally arriving back at home. We saw a lot of pretty countryside. There wasn’t a lot of time for taking photos, but this sign in Central Oregon caught our eye.

These are some portraits of Dan Malloy taken last weekend on the Central Coast with his 7’6″ single fin gun shaped by Gerry Lopez.

Hokkaido, 2007

I spent part of March and most of April in the Southern Hemisphere. Rode some waves and shared good times with good people. Covered a lot of ground.…drove 3000 kms in a week.

I will post a few photos here as they gradually become digitized. Will also add new galleries to my site soon…

Plein air painter Jeremy Harper and vista from Rincon Hill.

Recent portrait shoot with Donavon for Glide Magazine Japan…

Singer/songwriter (Little Wings), artist and surfer Kyle Field has been living down the street from me. I called him the other day and asked him what he was up to. He said “I’m just cutting out some little people”. I had to see exactly what he meant. Here’s a portrait I took of him and some shots of his little people which he had drawn then cut out and stuck on wine corks. They were headed to a solo exhibit at a gallery in Paris. Kyle’s art is great…and he gives each piece really funny names like “David Galiathon” and “Coo-Coo Birds (the ticket to get daddy out of crazy town)”. Check out his website here and a his book that was recently released in Germany here

Skip with his cake January, 2008 and in the Outer Hebrides, 2001