Jim Evans

Jim Evans is a surfer / artist who is best known for his stun­ning air­brush illus­tra­tions for the surf and skate indus­try back in the ‘70s. Surf­ing has always been a big part of Evans’ life and that kinetic energy con­tin­ues to pro­pel him into his mul­ti­me­dia graphic design today.

What was your life like grow­ing up?
I grew up in Ocean­side, CA, and spent most of my time surf­ing, play­ing in a rock band or draw­ing. Very lit­tle atten­tion was paid to school, although I did man­age to get a var­sity let­ter on both the swim­ming and ten­nis teams. Trips to Mex­ico to surf or hang out in Tijuana were a pretty reg­u­lar occur­rence while in high school.

When did you get your first surf­board?
In 1961. It was a 9’6” board built by Don Hansen, who had just opened a shop in Cardiff. I spent $125 of my hard-earned news­pa­per route money to get it.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
I loved it. I had always spent a lot of time in the ocean, but the expe­ri­ence of surf­ing was a huge game changer for me. Surf­ing became the cen­ter of my uni­verse; every­thing else revolved around it. I learned pretty quickly, imme­di­ately joined the Tama­rack Surf­ing Asso­ci­a­tion and entered local con­tests. When the Ocean­side Invi­ta­tional hap­pened in 1964, bring­ing the top guys to town, I was totally hooked on competition.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young man?
When I was young, I mostly admired musi­cians: Buddy Holly, Link Wray, Eddie Cochran. Then the Rolling Stones, Yard­birds and other Eng­lish Inva­sion bands. From a surf­ing view­point, my first idols were Phil Edwards and L.J. Richards; they were both local and the most styl­ish surfers I had ever seen. Since then, it has been mostly artists, design­ers, pho­tog­ra­phers, or film­mak­ers (like Warhol, Sage­meis­ter, Murakami, Del Toro, or Hedi Slimane).

How did you get involved in art?
I’ve always been an artist. When it came time to make a liv­ing, I started doing posters for my band and other local bands. Soon, I had a tidy lit­tle busi­ness going. Then, I went to Cal Arts and got into the under­ground comic scene. That led to album cov­ers, rock posters and a career. I met Rick Grif­fin early on. We surfed together and he intro­duced me to every­one. I soon had more work than I could handle.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out and why?
The North Shore of Oahu is my favorite place. It has every­thing and the surf energy is elec­tric. You feel like you are at the cen­ter of the surf uni­verse, and the con­di­tions are always dynamic and challenging.

Who/what inspires you?
My inspi­ra­tion changes and it is more in the nature of fas­ci­na­tion or obses­sion. I cur­rently find all the per­mu­ta­tions of new media inspir­ing. The way that new things instantly replace old in the area of com­mu­ni­ca­tion is some­thing I appre­ci­ate. I also find the lack of respect for exist­ing par­a­digms and method­olo­gies to be refresh­ing. New dis­rup­tive tech­nolo­gies come along and change the per­cep­tion of what com­mu­ni­ca­tion means, lead­ing to altered views of art, music and every other form of basic human interaction.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
I’ve assem­bled a lot of infor­ma­tion, and observed what seem to be many of life’s lessons, but I’m not really sure I’ve learned any­thing of last­ing value. Each time I think that I have learned some­thing, another les­son comes along and changes my view­point. For me, there is no empir­i­cal truth—only shift­ing per­cep­tions of the nature of reality.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
None … except pos­si­bly wish­ing I had worked less and enjoyed myself more.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
I started surf­ing so young that I’m not sure that surf­ing changed my life as much as informed my devel­op­ment. Surf­ing became my cen­tral obses­sion, a source of fun; it led me on adven­tures and pro­vided exer­cise. I tended to live places where I could surf. Most every­thing else I did because I had to do it. Surf­ing I did because I liked it.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Spend­ing time with my wife and family.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
Kelly Slater obvi­ously is a huge inspi­ra­tion and has dri­ven surf­ing to new lev­els. I like Taj Bur­row, Andy Irons, Dane Reynolds, Mick Fan­ning and Bobby Mar­tinez. Also, I think Sofia Mulanovich and other top female surfers are inspir­ing, and are hav­ing a major influ­ence on the pop­u­lar­ity and devel­op­ment of the sport. All of the slab surfers at Shipstern’s and the extreme tow guys at Jaws have com­pletely altered what surf­ing can be. I love to watch.

What is your favorite board? Your favorite surf spot?
I’m a big fan of Al Merrick’s Chan­nel Islands boards. I have a 6’6” Flyer thruster, a 6’8” Flyer II, and a 7’0” K-Step (for the big win­ter swells or trips to Hawaii). My favorite spot is prob­a­bly 2nd Point Mal­ibu at medium to low tide on a big late sum­mer swell. Mid-summer, I surf up top at 3rd. Other spots I dig are Swami’s and Table­top down south, and C-Street and Rin­con up north.

What’s your favorite meal?
Sushi at Nobu in Malibu.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
It changes con­stantly, but today I’m lis­ten­ing to Alberta Cross, Artic Mon­keys, The Big Pink, XX, Health, Darker My Love, and Mon­sters of Folk.

What causes/organizations do you sup­port?
My wife, Nancy, and I actively sup­port gay rights, AIDS research, can­cer research, Heal the Bay, Surfrider Foun­da­tion, pro choice, and all man­ner of pro­gres­sive envi­ron­men­tal, gen­der and human rights politics.

What’s next for Jim Evans?
I just got a new Nikon D3s, so I’ll prob­a­bly run around and take lots of pictures.

More infor­ma­tion about Jim Evans and his com­pany Divi­sion Thir­teen can be found here.