Chris Burkard is a pho­tog­ra­pher who spent a year trav­el­ing up and down the coast of Cal­i­for­nia with his good friend Eric Soderquist. The Cal­i­for­nia Surf Project is the fully illus­trated travel diary of two surfers who took the trip of a life­time.
What was it like grow­ing up in the Cen­tral Coast?
Amaz­ing. It is pretty dis­con­nected with the South­ern Cal­i­for­nia surf scene so you have a lot of room to really grow and expe­ri­ence things on your own with­out any out­side influences.

When did you get your first surf­board?
I actu­ally body­boarded for the first 20 years of my life. I have started surf­ing in the last few, just for fun. But I per­son­ally would rather body­surf more than anything.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
It was more dif­fi­cult than I thought it would be. I was on a fam­ily camp­ing trip at Refu­gio State Park, just a small reel­ing point break. It was amaz­ing. I think I fell off pretty shortly after­words though.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young man?
My par­ents, A lot of land­scape pho­tog­ra­phers inspired my work: Michael Fatali, Henri-Cartier Bres­son, James Nauchtwey. I also really enjoyed the work of Ron Stoner.

What inspired the Cal­i­for­nia Surf Project?
Just grow­ing up doing sim­ple Cal­i­for­nia road trips. That was the main inspi­ra­tion. We just wanted to share our expe­ri­ences and inspire people.

What chal­lenges did you face in mak­ing the trip and the book?
Just try­ing to keep every­thing together and to make some­thing that would make sense in the end. That was hard. We wanted it to really have a beau­ti­ful sense of place amongst nature. IT was never sup­posed to be about us really. We wanted peo­ple to be able to relate to the trip.., no mat­ter who they were – so we had that on our minds.

What advice would you give to an aspir­ing pho­tog­ra­pher?
Develop a style. Noth­ing you can buy or down­load will give you an eye for good pho­tog­ra­phy. Be will­ing to exper­i­ment and fail if you need to, but try to develop a style that is unique.

What do you look for in a good pho­to­graph?
The basic things: com­po­si­tion, con­trast, depth, and color.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out?
Ice­land, because it is the most beau­ti­ful place I have ever been, The water­falls, the land­scapes, the moun­tains… it is absolutely incredible.

Who/what inspires you?
Nowa­days, I would say every­thing and every­one. I feel lucky to have been able to work beside some amaz­ing artists and they sim­ply inspire me. There is so many it is hard to list, but I love the work of Patrick Trefz, Joe Cur­ren, Pete Taras, Thomas Camp­bell, Ron Stoner, and so many more.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
That fam­ily is the most impor­tant thing. And to do unto oth­ers as you would have oth­ers do unto you.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
There is always a cou­ple… but I think for the most part I have no regrets.

What are you most proud of?
I would say the Flame Grant and The Cal­i­for­nia Surf Project. Both have been two of my great­est accom­plish­ments. With­out them I don’t think I would have solid­i­fied my career as much.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
For me it’s not so much about surf­ing, but about the ocean and the beauty of the nat­ural world. Surf­ing can be a cruel, self­ish sport in which peo­ple feel they have own­er­ship over waves and stuff like that. For me it’s always just been about expe­ri­enc­ing the things I love and doc­u­ment­ing them. I have got­ten a lot of joy out of what I do, and I feel lucky to be able to spread that joy.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Prob­a­bly early morn­ing dri­ves up the coast when the sun is just ris­ing over the hori­zon and the waves are firing.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
That is a great ques­tion, I think there is a lot of peo­ple who are doing their part, but I really look towards the older gen­er­a­tions, because I hate to say it, but it seems like the younger gen­er­a­tion is more caught up in con­tracts and stuff and doesnt really care about any future except there own. I think a lot of incred­i­ble film mak­ers out there are really cre­at­ing stuff that opens our eyes… also pho­tog­ra­phers… there are so many. They are the ones that bring us the vision and a lot of them are really help­ing us see what surf­ing really should be about.

What is in your cur­rent quiver? What is your favorite board?
Your favorite surfspot?
Favorite surf spot is any­where that is off­shore and bar­rel­ing. Prob­a­bly Pismo Pier. My quiver con­sists of 3 body boards– an 8.0 Marty Allen long­board, and a Danny Hess hand plane

What’s your favorite meal?
Any­thing Mex­i­can, Salsa verde on top!

What are you lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
That is a long, long list. Right now it’s Neil Young, Ani­mal Col­lec­tive, Deer Tick, Lykki Li and what­ever else tick­les my fancy.

What’s next for Chris Burkhard?
I actu­ally have a few projects I’m work­ing on now. But for the most part I am look­ing for­ward to fall in Cal­i­for­nia and spend­ing some time camp­ing with my wife.

Find out more about Chris Burkard is at his web­site, www.burkardphoto.com. More infor­ma­tion about The Cal­i­for­nia Surf Project is here: www.thebookprojectca.com