Morgan Maassen

Mor­gan Maassen is a Cal­i­for­nia surfer/photographer. At only 19 years old, Mor­gan has com­piled a stun­ning port­fo­lio, cap­tur­ing that elu­sive moment expe­ri­enced in the ocean. At the same time, he has also acquired an envi­able client list. We spent some time with Mor­gan to learn more.

What was your life like grow­ing up?
Active and adven­tur­ous. My fam­ily, friends, dogs and I lived at the beach— skim­board­ing, spearfish­ing, surf­ing and swim­ming. My dad is a fish­er­man, so boat­ing was a huge part of my child­hood, be it trips to the Chan­nel Islands or just up and down the coast. My fam­ily trav­eled copi­ously, so grow­ing up I was for­tu­nate to visit some very inter­est­ing places. I was also deeply obsessed with skate­board­ing, Lego, com­put­ers and art.

When did you get your first surf­board?
I learned how to surf on a soft top when I was seven, but I didn’t really pur­sue surf­ing as any more than a casual activ­ity until I was about 10. Around that time, I got a David Pu’u/Morning Star short­board, which, despite being a very awk­ward shape, really cat­a­pulted my inter­est in the sport. I also began rid­ing my dad’s Becker long­board simul­ta­ne­ously, which helped fos­ter an appre­ci­a­tion for all wave sizes.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
I remem­ber the day vividly. Crys­tal clear water, scorch­ing hot and not a breath of wind—the per­fect August beach day in Santa Bar­bara. My dad, two best mates and I went down to Mira­mar Beach, where a clean small swell was rolling through. Dad pushed me into a clean thigh high wave at an angle. I just glided along, for what felt like for­ever, watch­ing the beach, water and reef below pass by. It was a sur­real, indescribably-warming feel­ing. At the end, I jumped off onto dry sand brimming.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were younger?
My par­ents. They’re my biggest heroes and best friends. My two clos­est mates grow­ing up, Matt Har­ris and Cody Traxler, are both a cou­ple years older than me. I looked up to them not only for their qual­i­ties, but because they were always more mature than me. Nowa­days, my surf­ing adven­tures are with Bran­don Smith and Trevor Gor­don. I couldn’t ask for more tal­ented, hum­ble, inspired and hilar­i­ous com­pan­ions. Will Adler is, by and large, my biggest source of inspi­ra­tion in the human form, and to call him a close friend is one of the great­est hon­ors I know. On the hero scale, there was Shane Dorian, the Shorty’s team, Steve Jobs, Lee Scratch Perry and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Where did your inter­est in pho­tog­ra­phy come from?
When I was 13, a school project requir­ing a men­tor and their trade led me to make a small surf film with a fam­ily friend. From there, I con­tin­ued to make films for fun and still do to this day. About two years ago, I decided to carry a still cam­era in my bag to take snaps to accom­pany the video I was shoot­ing. My dad, who’s long been tak­ing pho­tos, encour­aged me with his equip­ment and pho­tog­ra­phy slowly grew, more and more, into a hobby and then a pas­sion. About a year ago, I stopped film­ing and started shoot­ing full time, and using the cam­era to explore more sub­jects than just my imme­di­ate interests.

What inspires you?
Everything—the ocean, art, travel, archi­tec­ture, music, peo­ple, trees, cloud­scapes, tech­nol­ogy, nature, films, typog­ra­phy, Will Adler, lit­er­a­ture, love, hate, sim­plic­ity, beauty, fear, ugli­ness, motion, light, dark­ness, the night, the earth, thought. I love life. I love ideas. I love emo­tions. I love see­ing and feel­ing every­thing around me.

Tell us what you remem­ber about your most mem­o­rable wave.
No wave nor ses­sion stands out in par­tic­u­lar for any type of inter­ac­tion with the ocean. A few weeks ago, I shot water­hous­ing in the morn­ing, dodg­ing rocks and dead seal car­casses in mocha brown water and junky storm surf in a sweep­ing cur­rent. The water was cold. I smashed my leg into a mas­sive sub­merged washrock and I almost fell climb­ing up a slip­pery cliff when I was done. For some rea­son, I reflect on it as more inter­est­ing than any recent out­ings in the last month.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
Do good. Drink tea. Never depend on applause.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
I wish I had explored cam­eras ear­lier on. I look back on all the trav­el­ing I did as a child with­out a cam­era of any kind in my hands. But, in turn, that gives me so much more moti­va­tion for, and when I’m trav­el­ing with, cameras.

What are you most proud of?
My fam­ily, being drug-free, the free­dom I enjoy and the peo­ple I call my friends.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing has been a great cat­a­lyst for explor­ing the world. It’s intro­duced me to some of my clos­est friends, been a sta­ple in my pho­tog­ra­phy and film­mak­ing work and is such an amaz­ing sport to par­take in. Just surf­ing alone or with just a few friends—there is noth­ing like it. Such a privilege.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Travel, my fam­ily, love, our dogs, cre­at­ing things.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
I don’t know. I don’t fol­low surf­ing pro­gres­sion or pol­i­tics much at all. I like to watch Dane Reynolds surf. Shane Dorian for prac­tic­ing his style in every­thing from 2 to 60 foot waves, doing his own thing. Trevor Gor­don and Bran­don Smith for surf­ing for the right reasons—themselves. That seems like a rar­ity in this day and age. Almost every­one is surf­ing for fame, for­tune and image.

What is your favorite board? Your favorite surf spot?
I have a quiver of odd and fan­tas­tic boards from Ryan Lovelace. My yel­low and blue Churchills are the apple of my eye. I love The Wedge in New­port Beach, Ke’eke shore­break in Hawaii and a cou­ple mys­te­ri­ous spots in Cen­tral Cal­i­for­nia. Really any­where with clear water tick­les my fancy.

What’s your favorite meal?
Roast toma­toes, fresh fish … any­thing from Taque­ria Rincon.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
Depart­ment of Eagles, Cari­bou, Buck 65.

What are you most grate­ful for?
The places I’ve been, the peo­ple I’ve met, the things I’ve seen. My fam­ily and my life.

What’s next for Mor­gan Maassen?
Travel. Art. New photo projects. A film idea that keeps me up at night.

Find out more about Mor­gan Maassen and his work here.