Eric Soderquist is a Cal­i­for­nia surfer, who along with pho­tog­ra­pher Chris Burkard, cre­ated The Cal­i­for­nia Surf Project book. In addi­tion to being a tal­ented surfer, he is also a writer and painter. We spend a moment to tap into his vivid imag­i­na­tion.

What was it like grow­ing up in Cal­i­for­nia?
Cal­i­for­nia as a kid was epic. I was born in my house atop the Vil­lage of Arroyo Grande. I had creeks to both sides of my house and my broth­ers and I were con­stantly exploring. It was a sim­ple, nat­ural life.

When did you get your first surf­board?
When I was maybe six, we were com­ing back from the lake when we found two body­boards on the side of the road. We began a game of rid­ing them down our grass hill. Our uncle saw us and gave us a 7’0″ Hout sin­gle fin. It had a black widow painted on it. I’ll never for­get it.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
The first time I stood up was awe­some. I was real young and my brother dragged me out. He pushed me into a wave and I remem­ber rid­ing up a shal­low creek and under a bridge. I think he would run behind me push­ing me and that’s how I would go so far. It was along time ago so it’s a lit­tle vague.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young man?
When I was young I looked up to my broth­ers, Hugh and Loch. They were the gnarli­est stunt kids in our neighborhood. We loved forts, bikes, skate­board­ing. We always had half pipes; it was a blast. Oh yeah, I was really amped on Lance Moun­tain. Oops! Just read the “young man” bit. At that point, the Momen­tum thing was amp­ing my brain.

Of all the inter­est­ing places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out? And why?
Trav­el­ing the world is a great experience. The raw and nat­ural places always stand out: Canada, West Suma­tra, Maine.

Where were you edu­cated?
I went to A.G. high and that was that.  I began trav­el­ing and devel­oped inter­ests in art.  I was a part of a work­ing art stu­dio in San Luis and through that I was men­tored by some amaz­ing artists and that’s a lot of that’s in a answer.

What was the inspi­ra­tion for “The Cal­i­for­nia Surf Project”?
The book we did stemmed from early morn­ing road trips. Chris and I would talk a lot about pho­tog­ra­phy and art (con­trast, color, light­ing, etc.). It was a sim­ple time for both of us and I feel we were a prod­uct of our envi­ron­ment.  Cal­i­for­nia is ever-inspiring and the book seemed to fall in place quite naturally.

What were the chal­lenges in pro­duc­ing the book?
For me, the chal­lenges were get­ting used to the com­puter thing.  I wrote the book on paper, so typ­ing, edit­ing, e-mailing … made me feel like a dinosaur.  Other chal­lenges were stay­ing on top of the edits and mak­ing sure every­thing flowed artis­ti­cally. Luck­ily, our pub­lisher had faith in us, so it made the expe­ri­ence a lot easier.

What has been the reac­tion?
The reac­tions have been great. The book made it into some ran­dom places world­wide.  I get some clas­sic over­seas e-mails where you can tell they hit the trans­late button. So the e-mails read, “I like car bus en Cal­i­for­nia big air surf I like you do.”

Tell us about your artwork/painting.
I paint large oil land­scapes and find myself feel­ing like an old man.  I study the early Cal­i­for­nia artist more than anything. I love William Wendt’s con­fi­dent color, Guy Rose’s warm, dis­tant land­scapes and Geor­gia O’Keefe’s skull studies. Actually, Geor­gia inspired me to do a series of surf­board sculp­tures named “Rest Upon the Prairie”. For main­stream stuff, I did the Nike 6.0 Tres­tles Pro poster. It was a fun water angle.

What is it that makes you such a nice per­son? What code do you live by?
I try to live sim­ple and that helps for how I approach things. There’s an under­ly­ing vibra­tion to life and I try to live accordingly.

Who/what inspires you?
I feel most inspired when I’m artis­tic. Which for me is when I’m able to slow down and drift deeper thru the lay­ers of what I’m doing, whether it be paint­ing, sculp­ture, surf­ing… Peo­ple that inspire me are the teach­ers that help me along the way. Even if its just there cap­tured actions, I appre­ci­ate the keen eye.

What is in your cur­rent quiver? What is your favorite board?
My quiver is pretty diverse. I have a 5’8” Clyde Beatty Rock­et­fish; I rode it a lot on my book project.  Just got a men­tal 6’0” sin­gle bump sin­gle fin from Dave Par­menter.  Actu­ally, I have few of Dave’s boards that are great for Cen­tral California—mostly unique shapes and some guns. Then I have my short­boards that PJ Wahl shapes. He’s a hum­ble, quiet guy who’s seen a lot.  He shaped me a 5’7”, 5’9”, 6’0”, 6’4”, 6’8”—all amaz­ing boards. I’m stoked to ride boards that are shaped by such fine-tuned crafts­man. It’s a lot of work for lit­tle money and I’m very appreciative.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
I like jazz, dub and lots of Neil Young.

What project are you cur­rently work­ing on?
I’m loosely work­ing on a short film, paint­ing and surf­ing a lot.

What’s next for Eric Soderquist?
For the future, I want to stay cre­atively in tune while not falling off the face of the planet.

Find out more about Eric Soderquist and his art here. The Cal­i­for­nia Surf Project book is avail­able here. Pho­tog­ra­phy by Chris Burkard.