Andy Davis

Andy Davis is an inter­na­tion­ally rec­og­nized Cal­i­for­nia surfer/artist. His casual and styl­ized paint­ings have graced cloth­ing, gal­leries, retail stores, mag­a­zines, and hotels. His recent col­lab­o­ra­tion with Bill­abong has set him on a new path. We met with Andy to find out more.

What was grow­ing up like?
I grew up between Orange County and down here (Leu­ca­dia, CA). My par­ents split when I was pretty young when I was in the 3rd grade. We were liv­ing in Fuller­ton at the time and my mom’s sis­ter lived in Escon­dido. So my mom packed up, and moved my brother and I about 25 min­utes inland from here. I played a lot of sports when I was a kid – soc­cer, bas­ket­ball, base­ball – all that kind of stuff. I grew up watch­ing car­toons and I was super into pop cul­ture as a kid. I would go into arcades and play air hockey. All that stuff you do in the 70s as a kid.

What were you early expe­ri­ences in the ocean?
Got into boo­gie board­ing and body surf­ing as a kid. I was try­ing to stand up on my boo­gie board when I was young, around the 4th grade. My dad would always take us to Laguna – Oak Street and Brooks Street. In the sum­mer­time, we would all go to the beach and hang out there. I learned to prop­erly surf on a board in the 8th grade in La Jolla.

What got you into surf­ing?
I got inter­ested in surf­ing from all of the mag­a­zines. I’d look at all the pic­tures and stuff. Back then, there weren’t any videos. Sure you could catch a surf movie when they came to town, but I was pretty young and I lived inland. The first one I saw, I was in high school. As far as the mag­a­zines, it wasn’t about all of the exotic loca­tions, it was really about the peo­ple. It went from the 70s dropout cul­ture to super-pro in the 80s. I was kinda in that gap. I remem­ber see­ing pic­tures of Larry Bertle­mann, But­tons, Mark Richards, and Cheyne Horan.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood up on a board?
Oh yeah! Stand­ing up on my boo­gie board. When I first stood up, it was going so much faster. It was a whole new chal­lenge. It was so much fun. Even with play­ing sports as a kid, surf­ing by far was the hard­est. Every wave is dif­fer­ent and it wasn’t some­thing that you could eas­ily get wired. Just watch­ing your friends and laugh­ing – the enjoy­ment of it all. It seemed all so inno­cent in the beginning.

Do you remem­ber you first board?
Yeah! It was a Randy Lewis quad. I got it when I was 14. I was thrilled – one of the most excit­ing parts was actu­ally going to the shop, pick­ing it off the rack, pick­ing up in my arms, and tak­ing it home and wax­ing it. It was prob­a­bly one of the best feel­ings I had had in my life at that age. It was a total spark.

When did you first get into art?
Since I was lit­tle. I just always drew. It was a way of doc­u­ment­ing what was going on. As soon as I was done doing some­thing, I would want to go home and draw it. Whether it was soc­cer or all of the stuff I was doing – like car­toons and stuff I was watch­ing. It has always been an out­let for me ever since I was lit­tle. So when surf­ing came into my life, it was all I wanted to do. Not liv­ing at the beach, I would spend a lot of time draw­ing pic­tures of surf­ing, things I wanted to do, mak­ing up my own trunks and wet­suits, and cre­at­ing my own kind of brand.

Did you skate­board?
I would go out and skate and pre­tend I was surf­ing. I didn’t have a car or live at the beach, so I spent a lot of time skate­board­ing. Skat­ing, day­dream­ing, and draw­ing – that’s def­i­nitely where it all came from.

What were you hop­ing to cap­ture with your art?
I wasn’t try­ing to cap­ture any­thing. It was more of an out­let and I just wanted to pour it all out some­how. I didn’t do well in school and I really wasn’t inter­ested. I had trou­ble pay­ing atten­tion, so all the thoughts that were going on in my head were all around music, skat­ing, surf­ing, girls, and all that kind of stuff.

What’s your process for doing your art?
Most of the time I just doo­dle. I’m either scrib­bling on some­thing or kind of writ­ing down ideas. Like if I had a show or a project I have to do. My process is very organic – loose and spon­ta­neous. I’m def­i­nitely not a fun­da­men­tal­ist and I don’t have a rou­tine – I just sort of go with it nat­u­rally. I try not to fight it and I just make sure I hit the dead­line on time. Some­how it all works out.

Who or what inspires you?
I admire any­body who has the pas­sion to do things that make them hap­pier and that chal­lenge them to help them grow and learn, so that they can evolve and be the best they can be, whether it is some­one who is a gar­dener or some­one who’s a mechanic or even a chef.

What are you most proud of?
I’m most proud of being a dad. And try­ing to be a good hus­band. I could never fathom how it much it means, and how impor­tant it is, and how life-changing it is. I now have to be more patient and more respon­si­ble. It has made me really slow down, not be so self­ish, and to be more present. I look at things now with a totally dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive. Every day is a new adventure.

I’m grate­ful for being here this long and for all that I have thus far. I’m pretty blessed and for­tu­nate to have to be able to live the life I have led. And I’ve been pretty lucky to do what I love to do for the past 15 years.

Did you always think you would have this kind of life?
I’ve never had a mas­ter plan. I was always too busy day­dream­ing. I don’t do well try­ing to focus. Even in surf­ing, some­times it’s bet­ter when you don’t think. Some peo­ple can force their way through things and that’s how they learn. For me, it’s a “less is more” theory.

What do you love about surf­ing?
So many things! The nat­ural ele­ment is the most won­der­ful thing for me. If the ocean didn’t exist, there wouldn’t be surf­ing – just the fact that it exists! It’s there for peo­ple to learn from and to have adven­tures and expe­ri­ences. There are no rules. It is so vast that you can never know every­thing about it. It’s just a wonder.

Every time you go out it’s a dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ence. If it is just get­ting your feet under water, salt on your face, swim­ming in it or div­ing in it, catch­ing a wave, sail­ing on it – what­ever. It’s one of those things that is so dif­fi­cult to put into words.

For me, hav­ing to have most of my life being in or around the ocean is a pretty sacred thing. And espe­cially liv­ing around here – it is so hard because it’s so crowded – it’s easy to get jaded. Or start to become frus­trated. But then again, you can go out and have the most bliss­ful expe­ri­ence. Surf­ing is a big part of my life. And couldn’t fathom a life with­out it.

What is the most mem­o­rable place you have trav­eled to?
New Zealand. There is some­thing about the energy there. It felt like… this is how life is sup­posed to be lived. It was really sim­ple and slow paced. It gave me a feel­ing about how Cal­i­for­nia must have been like in the 60s! It is so very vast, and very raw with con­gre­ga­tions of peo­ple who have set up shop. It is visu­ally stun­ning and prob­a­bly the green­est place I’ve ever been. Most places I’ve gone to I’ve wanted to get back home. But there, I was like – “I need to stay here.”

There are places in Hawaii that are really spe­cial and sacred. And that I feel I have to tread lightly at. New Zealand isn’t like that. Maybe in some places where the Maori cul­ture is. The vibe in New Zealand just wasn’t heavy like that. I felt very wel­comed there. My wife and I have vis­ited there at sep­a­rate times. And my brother lives there now and he’s ris­ing a young fam­ily. My wife and I are really want­ing to live there and set up shop there. New Zealand is call­ing to us.

Who are some surfers you admire?
My favorite surfer right now is Ryan Burch. I think he is doing things that haven’t been done yet. He’s like a mod­ern Machado – he’s insane. Being a tall, lanky goofy-foot myself, I really enjoy watch­ing him surf.

I think Alex Knost is one of the most gifted surfers we’ve ever seen. He has a total dif­fer­ent approach and I think he’s got crazy bal­ance. What he does and what he does it on – no one can surf like him. Nobody in the world – not even Kelly.

I love the way Tyler (War­ren) surfs. He grew up with the whole Hobie crew, he’s become a great shaper, comes from a great fam­ily, and can surf all kinds of equip­ment. I think he has a lot to offer.

Liz Clark. For every­thing she’s doing – explor­ing the ocean as a young woman. The chal­lenges that she faces are mind-blowing. And she takes it all with style, and is such a great human. There just isn’t a lot of peo­ple like her on the planet. What she is doing for women and surf­ing is so great.

Bethany Hamil­ton. Her story is one of courage and for her to be able to over­come the obsta­cles she has had to face in life, and to be able to do it on a level that most peo­ple can only dream about. That stuff is just crazy.

Where do you get the inspi­ra­tion for your art? The lines and col­ors…
A lot of that is from car­toons! I just loved them. Car­toons like Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera, and Dr. Seuss. All the fun stuff before it became too vio­lent. I mean there was always vio­lence, but it was this crazy, unbe­liev­able “drop a mal­let on your head” vio­lence. It wasn’t seri­ous or polit­i­cal. All that stuff from the 60s and the 70s – I loved it.

A lot of the way surf com­pa­nies have por­trayed art has been so shitty. I want to do art that looks the way I see it. I want to see it in a sur­real and dreamy way. I want to see peo­ple surf with­out logos all over their boards. I want to see it in these colors.

I basi­cally took all of the stuff I have seen before and try to put it together in a new way where you might see a guy crank­ing a bot­tom turn but he doesn’t have a face! Or like these arms are like a bird – kind of like the way pel­i­cans fly. When you think about a guy like Lopez surfs – he’s per­fect – just like how a pel­i­can flies.

How impor­tant is style?
To me, it’s way up there. I like peo­ple that have flow. Peo­ple who have spent time under­stand­ing the cul­ture. It can be some­one who can make it look effort­less or it can be some­one who can look sketchy because they are pulling off some­thing hard. It’s a blend. But I do think style is really impor­tant. Visu­ally, it is one of the most impor­tant things to me.

What kind of board are you rid­ing these days?
I just got a board from Tyler War­ren. A lit­tle 5’2 – one of his Mini-Simmons-esque “bar of soaps.” I’ve been rid­ing his boards for about the last six months. Prior to that, I had a Rich Pavel Speed Dialer. I like rid­ing all kinds of boards. I haven’t rid­den any “high per­for­mance” boards since I was 26 (Davis is 41). It’s been a long time. I just kind of ride things I get a lot of enjoy­ment out of.

What’s your favorite meal?
I don’t know about one par­tic­u­lar meal, but my wife’s cook­ing is amaz­ing. As a kid, I had such a poor diet – I was a junk food junkie. It was like all fast food. I changed my habits in my mid-twenties and I haven’t looked back. All our home-cooked meals are amaz­ing. She puts a lot of love into it and she makes it with all fresh ingre­di­ents. The more she puts into it, the more we get out of it, for both my lit­tle boy and me. We’ll go out and eat and it’s just not as good!

What about music?
I couldn’t func­tion with­out music. Every part of the day has to have a sound­track. It’s like the ocean – I couldn’t imag­ine a world with­out music. I like all kinds of music – it’s a mood thing. Some­times I like to lis­ten to jazz, some­times reg­gae, clas­sic rock, blues – I have pretty eclec­tic taste.

What Golden Rule do you live by?
Bal­ance. It keeps things in per­spec­tive. It’s know­ing that it is okay to make mis­takes and be frus­trated. And to be able to cut that off, start over, and start fresh. Also to not take things for granted. I real­ize how lucky I am. My favorite thing every­day is going to bed with my fam­ily and wak­ing up with my fam­ily. It’s the biggest thing for me.

What’s next for Andy Davis?
Today and tomor­row (laughs).

Find out more about Andy Davis and his art­work here and his col­lab­o­ra­tion with Bill­abong here.  Por­trait by Glenn Sakamoto. All images cour­tesy of Andy Davis.