Ron Croci

Ron Croci is a tal­ented Cal­i­for­nia surfer/artist who cre­ates col­or­ful and fluid paint­ings which express the surf­ing lifestyle. A surfer for over 49 years, Ron shares with us his life of cre­at­ing art.

What was your life like grow­ing up?
Although I was born in Chicago of Ital­ian par­ents, we moved to Half Moon Bay in San Mateo when I was 12. It was a won­der­ful time for young kids to grow up; this was a time before stop­lights, before hip­pies, before drugs and before com­mer­cial devel­op­ment and the restraints that are com­mon­place now. At that time, there was only the breeze across the dunes and empty beaches. Near the town of Half Moon Bay, there were mostly farm­ers and beat­niks. On the week­ends and in sum­mer, we would leave home in the morn­ing and return in the evening with no wor­ries on the part of our parents.

Then, we dis­cov­ered surf­ing. Basi­cally, we were among the first surfers. We were the first to watch Mav­er­icks. From the farm­lands on the cliffs, we kids would stare in amaze­ment at the huge green peaks that would glis­ten white against the blue sky as the off­shore wind cas­caded from the wave tops. With our beaver-tailed wet­suits and balsa/foam boards, we as kids pio­neered almost all of the now pop­u­lar breaks. Then, there was open farm­land to the many beaches. We were like Tom Sawyers with surfboards.

When did you get your first surf­board?
All of my surf­boards grow­ing up were junk and I can’t really remem­ber how I got my first board. There were no shops except for O’Neill’s in Santa Cruz and old boards drifted from hand to hand. We were not like mod­ern kids with beau­ti­ful new short­boards; everyone’s board was at least nine feet long and really heavy. To walk from the Coast High­way to Ano Nuevo took 45 min­utes with two guys car­ry­ing two boards—nose and tails. My par­ents were poor Ital­ian immi­grants, so we could not afford such a lux­ury as a surf­board. They would say, “What is a surf­board anyway?”

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
My first stand up ride was at Cowell’s Beach in Santa Cruz—long and slow, but I felt like the god Mer­cury, trav­el­ing from one celes­tial realm to another.

Who did you look up to when you were a young man?
I was inspired by the likes of Sal­vador Dali, Phil Edwards, Ben Cartwright, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, my father and uncle plus many more. How­ever, as a kid I was so ego­cen­tric that there was hardly any room for any­one but me.

How did you get involved in art?
When I was 15 years old, two inter­est­ing things hap­pened at the same time. First, I watched beat­niks on the Peter Gunn detec­tive show. They played cool jazz and painted abstract art, which I thought was so absorb­ing. I was com­pletely enthralled by “the scene.” Then, at the same time, I was walk­ing down a library aisle in the art sec­tion, which was odd at the time since I knew noth­ing about the sub­ject, when I saw a book pro­trud­ing out from the shelf. It was a book about Sal­vador Dali. On the cover was his famous paint­ing “The Per­sis­tence of Mem­ory”. As soon as I saw the image, my con­scious­ness screamed out, “That’s what I want to do!” The rest is history.

What is your process for cre­at­ing your art?
Inspi­ra­tion, con­tem­pla­tion, then to thumb­nail sketches, to enlarged draw­ings, color comps and fin­ished art. My over­rid­ing con­cern is always how to make it beau­ti­ful. I strive for com­ple­tion, not cor­rec­tion. (For my process, see Club of the Waves: http://www.clubofthewaves.com/art_interview_ron_croci.php)

Of all the places you trav­eled to, what stands out?
That’s easy—the Kaiser Bowl in Waikiki. I have surfed that strip from Three’s to Ala Moana over 2000 times. I have seen there … per­fec­tion, degra­da­tion, sun­shine, cama­raderie, addic­tions, sad­ness and death.

What inspires you?
I am inspired by the greats in any field whether it is art, sci­ence or moth­er­hood. All forms of cre­ativ­ity inspire me—from the beg­gar with his sign to the Sis­tine Chapel.

What is the great­est thing you learned in your life?
Be atten­tive and care­ful of what you do as it will always come back to reward or pun­ish you.

Do you have any regrets?
There are at least 50 things that I have done that I regret ter­ri­bly and I have paid the price for my mis­deeds. Here is a short list: peo­ple I have taken unfair advan­tage of, rais­ing my voice in anger, stuff I swiped as a kid, think­ing my opin­ion is the only way of look­ing at things, not putting love before ego and try­ing to be controlling.

What are you most proud of?
All the typ­i­cal things one can be proud of (such as fam­ily, love, achieve­ments of all sorts). How­ever, from a pro­fes­sional per­spec­tive, it was my role and accom­plish­ment in the devel­op­ment and design of the Hawai­ian Mar­itime Museum. In my role as lead designer, I devel­oped most of the mar­itime exhibits depict­ing the past, present and future of Hawaii and her link to the sea. Thou­sands of Hawai­ian chil­dren have vis­ited this won­der­ful museum and have gained insights to their heritage.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
It means a lot—the sea is my mis­tress. How­ever, it has really not really changed me since I caught my first wave in 1960. Before that I was a man; after that I was a surfer. I have surfed and par­tic­i­pated in water sports basi­cally for 49 years—most of my life. These sports have kept me sane for most of these years.

Who are some of the peo­ple that are shap­ing the surf­ing path today?
Any­body who has read a surf mag­a­zine or seen a video is very aware of the cur­rent lead­ers in inno­va­tion, so I don’t need to go into it. How­ever, a lesser-known aspect of shap­ing the “path” applies to the path of surf­ing art, which is what we are talk­ing about here. I think Wade is really lead­ing the way. His recent seascapes are dark and brood­ing with a mix­ture of dread and beauty. His work reminds me of back­ground art for 1950’s Tarzan book cov­ers. On the other hand, Drew is a super sur­re­al­ist whose work is appeal­ing to kids and adults alike. Drew has opened the surf art door to artists and admir­ers alike.

What is your favorite surf­board? What are favorite surf spots?
My favorite board that I have owned is a nine foot Sparky from Hon­olulu. But, come on … we are talk­ing 49 years of surf­ing and I can’t remem­ber all the boards I have ever had.

My three favorite surf spots are: Palos Verdes’ Cove in Cal­i­for­nia, Kaiser Bowl in Hawaii and Sanur Reef in Bali.

What is your favorite meal?
I have two kinds of favorite meals. First is my mom’s home­made ravi­o­lis. My mom and dad would spend an entire after­noon mak­ing ravi­o­lis for the hol­i­days. The sec­ond is lob­sters or Cal­ico Bass that I catch myself. I sim­mer the crea­tures in lots of but­ter and gar­lic. Then, a Manoa let­tuce salad with cia­batta bread and home­made cheese, sweet­ened with sugar and dried fruit.

What is on your ipod?
I don’t own an ipod, how­ever if you are ask­ing what kind of music I enjoy lis­ten­ing to: Stravin­sky, Ravel, Debussy, Chopin, Coltrane, Arm­strong, Blakey, Getz, All­man Broth­ers, Dylan, Cobain, Eminem, 50 Cent, Afro-Cuban, Bali­nese, Bosa Nova, Tibetan chant­ing, Spike Jones. The list goes on. I love all kinds of music—no mat­ter when or where composed.

What causes or orga­ni­za­tions do you sup­port?
I pro­mote and I am a mem­ber of Pan­gaea Seed, which is a marine activist group from Japan which is attempt­ing to curb the use of shark as a food source. I try to help the many good causes that I am asked to donate to.

What are your grate­ful for?
I am grate­ful that I still have the oppor­tu­nity improve myself spir­i­tu­ally, artis­ti­cally, per­son­ally, morally and men­tally. I still have my health, and that means everything.

What’s next Ron Croci?
I just fin­ished the Indone­sian Surf­ing Com­pe­ti­tion art­work, which is spon­sored by Coca Cola. This art was cre­ated for t-shirts and prints. I have also designed sev­eral new t-shirt designs for the sum­mer sea­son. I am cre­at­ing four new seascapes that are going into print as lim­ited edi­tion giclees.

I am also paint­ing thirty-two 12 x 12 inch water color illus­tra­tions for the book titled Lil G. Lil G is an inspi­ra­tional book for young chil­dren teach­ing them about grat­i­tude. It will be my 12th book. I am hav­ing art­work in the new SIMA cal­en­dar. And am part of an exhibit titled “Art in Motion” in Redondo Beach. I also have to con­tin­u­ously sup­ply art­work to my gal­leries (McK­ibben Stu­dios, Beach Street Gallery, Mon­tanero Gallery and Kohala Coast Fine Arts). I will be spend­ing time this year also help­ing to pro­mote the book Surf Story.

Ron Croci’s web­site can be found here. Find out more about the Surf Story Project here.