Kyle Light­ner is a Cal­i­for­nia surfer / pho­tog­ra­pher who is the cre­ator of the pop­u­lar blog “Grass is Greener.” He cre­ates images that are filled with his energy and pas­sion for surf­ing. We spent a few moments with Kyle to get his thoughts.

What was your life like grow­ing up?
I grew up in north Orange County—Placentia, Cal­i­for­nia. I had a great fam­ily upbring­ing, and my mom and nana always encour­aged me to do what I loved. My mom would take me to 35th Street in New­port Beach every sin­gle day of the sum­mer, not includ­ing weekends—she hated the week­end crowds. In the win­ter, I would ride my local BMX trails and skate­board at the local schools to kill time and keep myself enter­tained and out of trouble.

What was it about pho­tog­ra­phy that called to you, that made you know you would be a pho­tog­ra­pher when you grew up?
I never really knew what I wanted to be when I grew up, to be hon­est. I’m still fig­ur­ing that one out. I started mess­ing around with cam­eras in ’01 when I was in a seri­ous car acci­dent and couldn’t skate, surf, or ride my bike for a long time. I decided to start doc­u­ment­ing my friends’ ses­sions so I was still a part of all the action. Theo (Het­her­ing­ton) really pushed me in early ’02 to keep doing it after I had healed, and told me I had a gift and I needed to pur­sue it.

When did you get your first surf­board?
I got my first board when I was 13. It was a used 6’0” Chas thruster with Astrodeck on it with three glassed-on fins. When I got the board, it had all these old Slayer, Pan­tera and Sepul­tura stick­ers all over it. Man, I wish I would have left those on. I would have shred­ded way harder.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
I remem­ber one of the first rights I had at 35th street back in, like, ’96. I was pump­ing down the line as best as I knew how and had to go around these touristy peo­ple and didn’t know what to do. I did my first bot­tom turn and then semi hit the lip. I felt like such a bad ass. I’ll never for­get that wave; I can still pic­ture it right now—one of my first suc­cess­ful rides.

What was it that com­pelled you to start the Grass is Greener Project?
To be totally hon­est… bore­dom. I’ve come up with some inter­est­ing things when I’ve been the most bored and this was one of them. I remem­ber mov­ing back up to Santa Bar­bara in Octo­ber of ’08 to start a busi­ness with a friend and ended up with all this spare time dur­ing the day. I’d been updat­ing my per­sonal blog since Jan­u­ary of the pre­vi­ous year every day once a day, and radballs.com on and off with Bran­don Wong. But I wanted to start an online art col­lec­tive of some of the best artists, pho­tog­ra­phers, surfers, shapers, filmers, etc. from all over the world—help push them and get their names out there to the rest of the world via a blog.

Who/what inspires you?
My per­sonal rela­tion­ship with Jesus Christ, my men­tor Ron Arko, My par­ents, The Stop­nik fam­ily, Mitch Abshere, Theo Het­her­ing­ton, Ron Stoner, Mark Gon­za­les, Robby Adams, JJ wes­sels, Alex Knost & Robby when they were work­ing together, the Grate­ful Dead pre ‘89, my type­writer, “6ft. to fit”, ‘the lid­dle league’, Klaus Jones, Gree­nough, Ed Tem­ple­ton, Jeff Grosso, Dave Allee & Almond, Simon Perini, Levi Prairie, Aaron Bedard, Scott Vogel, Mary Mills, Baja CA, Ryan Hey­wood, Brian Gaber­man, Lance Dawes, Philip Lynott, Chad Chev­er­ier, Slayer, John Henry Bon­ham, The Grouch, Thrasher Mag, Rudy Jaqcues, Jair Bor­to­leto & Ciro Bicudo, Nick Mag­gio, Jon Fish­man, Mike Gor­don, Page McConnell, Trey Anas­ta­sio, Anni­hi­la­tion time, Empty Pools, In-n-Out, Jim Mor­ri­son, Michael Serna Jr., Ozzie Aus­band, Black flag circa ’82-’86, Vans shoes, and all the other peo­ple out there that do what they do, stay­ing true to them­selves, with­out let­ting oth­ers infil­trate or influ­ence what­ever it is and how­ever they may decide to cre­ate it.

What do you think it is about surf­ing that inspires all of you artists (i.e., painters, pho­tog­ra­phers, writ­ers, shapers) to devote so much of your vision to that pur­suit?
I feel it is our source of energy, and where our per­spec­tive comes from. The life of rid­ing waves in such a pure way, and filled with pas­sion, rep­re­sents eter­nal free­dom to all of us.

If you were stuck on a desert island and could only have one board and one cam­era, what would that board and cam­era be?
The board I would choose would def­i­nitely be Klaus Jones’ “Dirt” tem­plate 7’0”—easily the best board I’ve ever seen in terms of dis­place­ment hulls. Camera-wise, any 35mm from 1966 to 1974. No ques­tions asked.

Point breaks or beach breaks? Why?
Point Breaks. 100%. I think they help per­fect your surf­ing and develop your style more. Plus it’s a more ver­sa­tile wave in terms of what equip­ment you can ride. I’m actu­ally lying; it’s just because I only want to ride dis­place­ment hulls.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out and why?
Baja, California—easy. Des­o­late, beau­ti­ful, uncrowded per­fec­tion. Baja will for­ever be my haven of escape and the place on earth that I can always run to and find myself.

What are you most proud of?
The friends I have that do what they do with­out out­side influ­ence, and the rela­tion­ships I’ve made thus far in life.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
It is life. It is my source of energy, and where my per­spec­tive comes from. The life of rid­ing waves in such a pure way, and filled with pas­sion, rep­re­sents eter­nal free­dom to me.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
The fact that I have looked death directly in the eyes twice now. And the fact I’m still here liv­ing and breath­ing. Know­ing that my life has a pur­pose and direc­tion. Know­ing I’m here for a rea­son, and seek­ing out that rea­son every day of my life.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
Joel Tudor, Alex Knost, Robby Kegal, Thomas Camp­bell (his art, pho­tog­ra­phy and films), Scotty & Turkey Stop­nik, RT, Kirk Put­nam & Brian Hilbers, CC & EC, Tyler War­ren, Dave Allee’s Almond, Mitch Abshere’s Cap­tain Fin Co., Alex Kopps’ dis­place­ment film that still isn’t out, Moon­light Glass­ing, Manny & Man­dala, etc.

What is your favorite board? Your favorite surf spot?
I really enjoy 6’6” to 7’0” dis­place­ment hulls. I always would rather be rid­ing a hull. I really like the wave at Rincon—not so much the crowd. Ale­jan­dros is a great wave. Mal­ibu is rad, but I can’t stand the scene there. Tres­tles and Churchs too. Basi­cally, any solid, consistently-breaking, right-handed point break.

What’s your favorite meal?
New York strip (medium), baked potato with every­thing on it, salad, bread, a glass of caber­net sauvi­gnon, and choco­late sin cake. Or any­thing at In-N-Out (with no tomatoes).

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
I don’t own an iPod, but I’ve been lis­ten­ing to a ton of Phish lately since I got back from Fes­ti­val 8, Slayer (as always), Dag Nasty, Grate­ful Dead, Anni­hi­la­tion Time, Carry On, pre ’87 Metal­lica, lots of Jethro Tull, Rush, and some Cap­tain Beyond.

What are you most grate­ful for?
(Sar­cas­ti­cally) I’m most grate­ful for the Dead. Seri­ously, very grate­ful for the Lord, my men­tor Ron, and my fam­ily and true friends for their sup­port in all I’ve been doing cre­atively and try­ing to make hap­pen lately.

What’s next for Kyle Light­ner?
My first art show, being held at Hur­ley HQ– when­ever that may end up being. I’m lagging.

For more infor­ma­tion on Kyle Light­ner and his work, click here.