Crystal Thornburg

Crys­tal Thorn­burg is a surfer/artist born and raised in Hawaii. An avid trav­eler and envi­ron­men­tal­ist, Crys­tal has been fea­tured in the film Slid­ing Liberia, as well as being a surf ambas­sador for the cloth­ing com­pany Patag­o­nia and a part­ner in an organic farm. We chat­ted with Crys­tal to learn more.

What was your life like grow­ing up?
Grow­ing up in Hawaii, I was sur­rounded by the sea. With both of my par­ents hav­ing been surfers since the 60’s, you could say I was born into it. We always made trips to the beach, whether it was for surf­ing, sail­ing, fish­ing, or snorkeling.

I started com­pet­ing at a young age in swim­ming, pad­dle boarding, kayaking, out­rig­ger canoe pad­dling, surf­ing, body­board­ing, and water polo. Although I spent a lot of time in the water, I also lived in the moun­tains on the south­east side of Oahu, build­ing forts in the for­est with the neigh­bor­hood kids. I was an only child grow­ing up, and with my mother work­ing for the air­lines we trav­elled all over the world. The need to travel seems to have been ingrained in me.

When did you get your first surf­board?
My first surf­board was given to me by my dad when I was about eight. It was a pre­vi­ously enjoyed 8’6″ Coun­try Surf­boards painted bright green. I remem­ber surf­ing Waikiki on it all the time. I was young and embar­rassed that it was a used board. That is until Aun­tie Rell (Sunn) com­pli­mented me on my board, then I took it every­where with pride!

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood up on a surf­board?
I started surf­ing so young I don’t really remem­ber my first wave. My mom surfed with me in her stom­ach on Kauai, and so I guess I fell in love with it then! I do remem­ber when I was about two or three being on my mom’s body­board rid­ing waves with her at Waikiki and hav­ing the biggest smile.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young girl?
Grow­ing up I was mostly admired my fam­ily for being so sup­port­ive and lov­ing.
I also admired Rell Sunn whom was a god­dess of the sea, and my swim team coach Rowdy Gaines who is a U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame mem­ber. He taught me how to train hard and live a healthy life. Grow­ing up pad­dling canoe for the Out­rig­ger Canoe Club, I was inspired by Duke Kahanamoku for his grace and speed in the ocean.

Who/what inspires you?
I seem to be con­stantly inspired by nature due to it’s con­nec­tion with all things.
Which in turn causes me to be inspired by peo­ple whom make it their pas­sion to be aware of that con­nec­tion. I’m also inspired by peo­ple who strive to live a non-violent lifestyle.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
The great­est thing I have learned in my life thus far is find­ing and appre­ci­at­ing the com­fort of being in silence. And that com­pas­sion and under­stand­ing will get me through the chal­leng­ing times in my life.

What are you most proud of?
I am most proud of my par­ents and how they have been so sup­port­ive, lov­ing, and hon­est through­out my life. I’m also proud that I was able to fol­low my dream and stay on the path to grad­u­ate with a Bach­e­lors of Sci­ence in Envi­ron­men­tal Sci­ence with a minor in fine arts.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out and why?
There are two very dif­fer­ent places that I have trav­eled to that are across the globe from each other: Liberia and Myan­mar (Burma). These two places stand out for me because they have both seen bru­tal vio­lence in recent years, only months before I had vis­ited them. The peo­ple of these two coun­tries are cry­ing out to places like Amer­ica for sup­port, but lit­tle is being done to help. This has made me even more grate­ful for our free­doms that we have here in this coun­try. And although the peo­ple in Liberia and Myan­mar have been heav­ily chal­lenged, they do have one thing in com­mon – hope.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing has changed my life because it has influ­enced so many of my choices.
I’ve cho­sen to live near the sea, travel to other seas, spend many hours learn­ing about the sea, and to expe­ri­ence it daily. My days revolve around the ocean and it’s con­di­tions. It is the one time dur­ing the day to really expe­ri­ence true med­i­ta­tion and mind­ful­ness – the ocean helps me to remain in the present moment.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
I love to work in the gar­den with my fiancée Dave Homcy. We grow salad greens which pro­vides local, organic, and fresh pro­duce to North Shore fam­ily and friends. We named our salad oper­a­tion “Crave Greens,” which com­bines our first names Crys­tal and Dave to make Crave. I enjoy read­ing and cre­at­ing art of any medium. Body­surf­ing dur­ing sun­set, just absorb­ing all the col­ors, and tex­tures of the end of the day, and fin­ish­ing it off with an out­door bub­ble bath in our gar­den. I also enjoy tak­ing those mem­o­ries of the col­ors and tex­tures in nature, turn­ing them into some sort of art project, using clay, pho­tog­ra­phy, paint­ing, sewing, or glass.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
I don’t really fol­low the surf­ing tour, but I do know I enjoy watch­ing friends that surf with grace such as Rasta, Belinda Baggs, Travis Reynolds, Megan Abubo, and Joel Tudor.

What is your cur­rent favorite board? Your favorite surf spot?
I love my orange and yel­low five stringer 9’0″ sin­gle fin shaped by Santa Cruz shaper, Travis Reynolds. One of my favorite surf shots is Robert­sport, Liberia. It is by far on of the longest left point breaks I have ever experienced.

What’s your favorite meal?
My favorite meal is any­thing cooked by Dave, any­thing he cre­ates in the kitchen is a mas­ter­piece, but I must say I love it when he cooks Ital­ian! I also enjoy eat­ing Thai food from my friends Opal and Aoy in Haleiwa who have a food truck. I’ve known them for about ten years and still can’t resist their Thai gar­lic noodles.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
I am lis­ten­ing to a few Pod­casts such as “Learn Thai”, “Radio Dharma”, and “NPR.” Music on my iPod would include but not lim­ited to: Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Abyssini­ans, Beck, Ravi Shankar, Bob Dylan, Mason Jen­nings, Bon Iver, Buena Vista Social Club, Cat Power, David Bowie, Fleet Foxes, Leo Kottke, Paula Fuga, Hep­cat, Janes Addic­tion, Johnny Cash, King Tubby, Jon Swift, M. Ward, Manu Chao, Pearl Jam, White Buf­falo, and Radio­head, to name a few.

What are you most grate­ful for?
I’m grate­ful for the chal­lenges that has taught me to rec­og­nize that obsta­cles in my life are the very things which shape who I am. And I’m grate­ful for hav­ing the oppor­tu­nity to travel the world solo, as well as with friends and fam­ily, to dis­cover dif­fer­ent cul­tures. But I’m mostly grate­ful for the free­dom to learn and believe what I want.

What’s next for Crys­tal Thorn­burg?
My biggest life chang­ing event is get­ting mar­ried to my best friend on August 7th 2010. We have been together five won­der­ful years, and have been blessed with already see­ing much of the world together. He con­tin­ues to sup­port, inspire and test me through­out life – and I hope to do the same. And we have been lucky enough to work on surf films together such as “Slid­ing Liberia”, and the soon to be released “El Mar, Mi Alma,” There are also new film projects in the works which will allow us to keep trav­el­ing and liv­ing our dreams.

To learn more about Crys­tal Thorn­burg click here. To view the trailer for Slid­ing Liberia click here. Pho­tog­ra­phy by Jim Russi.