Chris Del Moro is a Cal­i­for­nia surfer / artist who recently starred in Thomas Campbell’s The Present rid­ing an Alaia. Equally adept at rid­ing all wave craft vehi­cles, he is also the owner of Col­lec­tic, a surf inspired cloth­ing line. We caught up with Chris to get the lowdown.

What was life like grow­ing up?
My child­hood revolved around love, explo­ration, cre­ative endeav­ors, fam­ily, fun and a early con­nec­tion to the sea. I was raised in between my mom’s world in Los Ange­les and Flo­rence, Italy where my bio­log­i­cal father is from. Being exposed to these two very dif­fer­ent cul­tures from such a young age was a bless­ing I am just now fully understanding.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young man?
I have always admired my grand­fa­ther, Chester Wol­frum, and my grand­mother, Luanne. My mom has been my rock. Mar­ley played a large role in expand­ing my mind and Cur­ren for his lines drawn in the sea. I have also always been attracted to nat­u­rally gifted beings that shine light upon our world.

When did you get your first surf­board?
I saved $75 from recy­cling cans one sum­mer. Then I coaxed my cousin Mis­cha into tak­ing me to the local surf shop and I bought a 6’0″ Stavros squash tail thruster,with pink lams and two pur­ple gorilla grip deckpads—thick and sick. That after­noon, he took me out in over­head storm surf and I came close to drown­ing. I’ve been hooked ever since.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
Bliss.

Where did you inter­est in art come from?
Art has always been a nat­ural expres­sion. Since child­hood, I vividly remem­ber express­ing myself through var­i­ous forms of work­ing with my hands—from fin­ger paint­ing sofas, draw­ing G.I Joe fig­ures and even­tu­ally hav­ing my doo­dles turn into my work.

What is your process when cre­at­ing your art?
I’ve always trav­eled with sketch books; it allows me to scrib­ble down thoughts, images and var­i­ous inspi­ra­tions I expe­ri­ence. I’ll often ref­er­ence my books and use many of the rough sketches as inspi­ra­tion for var­i­ous fine art pieces, clients or a great rea­son to get cre­ative and unwind.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out? And why?
Liberia—so raw, pow­er­ful and unique to any place I’ve ever expe­ri­enced. Really turned my world upside down. Never expe­ri­enced such harsh liv­ing con­di­tions. Made me real­ize how ridicu­lously blessed many of us are to live the lives we lead and that if the amaz­ing peo­ple I met in those cir­cum­stances can have a smile on their faces day after day, I sure as hell need to mon­i­tor the so-called bum­mers of life.

What is it that makes you such a nice per­son? What code do you live by?
I’m only a prod­uct of the peo­ple and places I sur­round myself with. I’m blessed to have great friends, fam­ily and the oppor­tu­nity to expe­ri­ence the power of nature on a reg­u­lar basis.

Who/what inspires you?
Any­one true to himself—who uses their tal­ents to help the earth or other people.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
When you look at earth from afar, it’s a mere speck which in turn dwarfs con­ti­nents and really helps remind me we, as humans, are noth­ing more than spi­ral­ing par­ti­cles of sand float­ing around the great unknown.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
No. Every­thing has hap­pened for a rea­son. Good, bad or cos­mic, we learn from all our actions and hope­fully are aware enough of the impli­ca­tions to make change or con­tinue on blessed paths.

What are you most proud of?
Liv­ing the life I dreamt of as a child.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing is my daily dosage of nature; the sea cleanses me, gives me energy and always keeps me striv­ing to reach a higher level in life. In so many ways, it has shown me the world, given me the sub­stance to sur­vive and is the “funnest” activ­ity I’ve ever experienced.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Nature, love, music, and food. Tap­ping into all four on a reg­u­lar basis sends me into orbit.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
Any­one who is able to lead from their hearts instead of their minds. It’s such a pure way to slide waves. Seems to be the best way to find true, mag­netic pos­i­tive energy via wave riding.

What is in your cur­rent quiver? What is your favorite board? Your favorite surfspot?
I’m a board whore—love expe­ri­enc­ing dif­fer­ent ele­ments of trim and slice and dic­ing. Cur­rently, I’m hoard­ing ala­ias, tra­di­tional Bing long­boards, sin­gle fins, quad shredlips, thrusters, keels, bonz­ers, big ass wooden boards, old pigs, car­bon fiber rock­ets, asy­met­ri­cal mind trips, knee boards and, oh yeah, love me a good boo­gie board now and again.

I surf a lot in North County San Diego and all around the world when I’m not home. Sta­tic sporadic.

What’s your favorite meal?
Quinoa with Earth Bal­ance, avo­cado and herbal mare, side of tofu and veg­gie scram­ble and a mas­sive shakra salad with water.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
Kings of Con­ve­nience is play­ing right now. Beirut just wrapped a set and Pan­dora has been set to Bjork, Thiev­ery Cor­po­ra­tion and a song called “Cos­mic Lovers” has been inspir­ing me as of late. Besides that, I’m obsessed with my record player and my vinyl col­lec­tion is get­ting out of control.

What causes/projects/organizations do you sup­port?
I help run the Surfers for Cetaceans orga­ni­za­tion along­side a great group of ocean activists from around the world, help­ing to keep our sea clean, stop the Japan­ese dol­phin hunts and hope­fully side­line the con­tin­ued hunt of whales in the Antarc­tica Whale Sanc­tu­ary (www.s4cglobal.org). Besides that, I sup­port any other group help­ing to fight for the preser­va­tion of this amaz­ing planet.

What’s next for Chris Del Moro?
Wait­ing for the tide to rise so I can shred—absolutely jonesing for the glide. Then I can feel nor­mal again, get to some of the art jobs that I’m way behind on. Have some travel plans (Aus­tralia and South Amer­ica), new boards to test, fresh air to breathe, peo­ple to meet and hap­pi­ness to spread. If you read all this ban­ter, I appre­ci­ate your time and wish you well on your path.

Find out more about Chris del Moro and his cloth­ing line here. All pho­tographs cour­tesy of Dane Peter­son.