Dave Homcy

Dave Homcy is an accom­plished film­m­maker based in Hawaii known for his work on Slid­ing Liberia. His recent film col­lab­o­ra­tion, Come Hell or High Water with Keith Mal­loy, cel­e­brates the art of body­surf­ing. We spoke with Dave to learn more about his life and inspiration.

What was your life like grow­ing up?
Grow­ing up in Florida, I felt like I was dif­fer­ent from the aver­age kid. My fam­ily and I would travel for three months every sum­mer through­out the coun­try up and down, which I believe gave me the travel bug at an early age. Where I grew up in South Florida, it was unde­vel­oped, so for fun we would hunt, fish and surf in rel­a­tively uncrowded waves.

When did you get your first surf­board?
My first surf­board was given to me by Doc Paskowitz when I was ten. He hap­pened to be in the area show­ing a surf film at Lake Worth High School where my father was a stu­dent activ­i­ties direc­tor. After the film, Doc pre­sented my father with a pink Morey Doyle surf­board and said “Take this board home and teach your son to surf”.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
I remem­ber when my father took me down to the Juno Pier with the surf­board from Doc. We went out and the surf was really small. He pushed me into a few waves, and after finally mak­ing my way to my feet, I real­ized that this was some­thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young man?
I looked up to my par­ents and grand­fa­ther. I looked up to my par­ents while we were on the road trav­el­ing. Show­ing my sis­ter and I how to live sim­ply out of a van and tent while adven­tur­ing to new places every year. My grand­fa­ther was an incred­i­ble musi­cian, and I loved hear­ing his old time blues songs. As for surf­ing, I admired the time when surf­ing was start­ing to influ­ence my life, guys like But­tons and Larry Bertlemann.

Where did your inter­est in pho­tog­ra­phy come from? And film?
My inter­est in pho­tog­ra­phy started with my father. He was a pho­tog­ra­pher and news reporter for the Air Force. He was sta­tioned in Puerto Rico and I loved look­ing at the pho­tos he took while he was there. On our road trips I would play around with our Canon AE1, but my real inter­est started when I took a pho­tog­ra­phy class in eleventh grade. After I grad­u­ated high school, my inter­est in col­lege was non-existent, so my father’s best friend was in the film busi­ness and took me under his wing. My first job with him was inter­view­ing and film­ing the musi­cian BB King at one of his con­certs for the T.V. show PM Mag­a­zine. It was a great expe­ri­ence for me and I was hooked.

Who inspires you?
Vic Muniz, for his pas­sion for life and art; My wife Crys­tal, for inspir­ing me to always have fun, and Sion Milosky for liv­ing a life tak­ing care of oth­ers and liv­ing his dreams to the fullest. I always felt I was in good hands no mat­ter what the sit­u­a­tion; and my mother inspires me for becom­ing younger as she grows older. Doc Paskowitz for his pas­sion to bring surf­ing to Israel and for his per­sis­tence in cre­at­ing peace through surfing.

What inspires you?
The ocean inspires me because its always chang­ing. Our gar­den, because we are able to feed our­selves and friends from it every­day. And shoot­ing film because it’s more than ever an art form.

Tell us what you remem­ber about your most mem­o­rable wave.
One of my most mem­o­rable waves or surf ses­sions was surf­ing “Macaroni’s” in Indo, under the full moon on my birth­day dur­ing the first OP Boat Challenge.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
The great­est thing I have learned in life is to be honest.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
No. Because I feel that where I’m at in my life is exactly where I want to be.

What are you most proud of?
Being able to turn my pas­sion into a career.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
My wife, Crystal.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
Sion Milosky, Kohl Chris­tensen, Kelly Slater, Dane Reynolds, Coco Ho, and Stef Gilmore

What is your favorite board? Your favorite surfspot?
My favorite surf­board is my Travis Reynolds 9’3″ Sin­gle Fin and I love to surf it at Chuns Reef.

What’s your favorite meal?
Lin­guine with Red Clam sauce.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
What­ever my wife puts on, mostly, Eddie Ved­der, Iron and Wine, Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, White Buf­falo, Jack John­son, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Ben Harper, J Cole; among others.

What are you most grate­ful for?
The life I have; my health, friends, and family.

What’s next for Dave Homcy?
Con­tin­u­ing to work on the T.V. show Hawaii 5–0, and look­ing for­ward to the releases of these projects that I’ve filmed recently: “Come Hell or High Water,” “El Mar, Mi Alma,” “Bunker 77,” and “Eddie Ved­der– Long­ing To Belong.”

Here are a few links to see what I have been up to: www.davehomcy.com, http://vimeo.com/davehomcy, http://cravegreens.tumblr.com/

Pho­tog­ra­phy cred­its: 1. Photo of Mark Healy by Dave Homcy, 2. Baja, Mex­ico by Dave Homcy, 3. Waimea Bay by Dave Homcy, 4. Photo of Dave Homcy by Jeff Lindt, 5. Photo of Dave Homcy by Crys­tal Thornburg-Homcy.