Nelly's Magic Moments Podcast
Dave “Nelly” Nelson is a globally published veteran surf and skate photographer with countless magazine covers and spreads to his name. After spending years as a senior photographer at TransWorld Surf Magazine, Dave now shoots freelance for domestic and international publications.
Major action sports brands such as Vans, O’Neill, Fox, and Reef commonly contract Dave to shoot on location for trips locally and abroad.
As one of the best action water photographers in the world, he is usually in the right place at the right time to produce “the goods”. Dave’s relationships and mutual respect with some of the most elite athletes in the world give him access to the best action at the best spots.
Dave’s dedication to the sports of surfing and skateboarding is matched by his values as a person. A true family man, Dave cares about is daughter and wife as much as he cares for his community of Santa Cruz. A consummate role model for young athletes coming out of his hometown, Dave has helped pave the way for some of the best young talent in Nor Cal.
Nelly's Magic Moments Podcast
Adam Replogle , Chris “Bear” Green, and Craig Young: Golden Era Surf Culture, Sobriety, Mentorship & Making Art in Santa Cruz
The room hums with old stories and new nerve. We sit with Adam Replogle , Chris “Bear” Green, and Craig Young—three Santa Cruz originals whose lives trace the arc from a golden era of surf and skate to sobriety, mentorship, and a creative second wind. The first act is pure place: Capitola as a melting pot, surf movies at the Civic that packed the town, river mouth bars that made heroes, and the shortboard and skate booms documented in grainy photos and backyard ramps. It’s loud, funny, and vivid; parties rolled from Day’s Market to the sand, and if you were there, you remember the nicknames.
Then the tide turns. We dig into what happens after the legend years, when the dimmer switch of substance use lowers the volume on connection and the ocean grows distant. Craig walks us through a 27-year tattoo run, world travel, and the moment he and Bear picked a date and stopped for good. No platitudes—just the quiet shock of clarity, the return of salt and sunlight, and the simple rituals that rebuild a life: daily cold dips, long bike rides, boards and art taking shape by hand. The creativity didn’t vanish; it was waiting under the noise.
We also talk identity and expression as Craig’s headdress, feathers, and handmade jewelry spark questions and conversations. What looks like provocation is actually presence: collecting, crafting, meeting strangers, and choosing love and humility while listening to concerns. The deeper thread is agency. If money, politics, and power are human-made narratives, so is the story you choose to live. Sobriety can be a fresh draft. Mentorship can be a plot twist that helps a kid paddle out—not just for waves, but for a voice. The ocean still heals. The town still breathes. And the best time isn’t only behind us; it’s wherever we start turning the dial back up.
Listen for history, stay for heart, and share it with someone who needs a nudge back to the water. If this resonated, follow the show, leave a review, and send it to a friend who could use a reset.
He snagged that right out of a Mexican's hand and what's his good will.
SPEAKER_02:Alright, boys, keep it down a little bit. Boys, keep it down a little bit. We went in live there. No swearing that was good. Nelly's Magic Moments podcast. Nell Dog. A crew. Are we on right here? Nelly, we've been going for a few seconds. I think I had a little bit of the energy in the room before we started. Nelly, who are we sitting with?
SPEAKER_04:I love the energy. I feel like I'm back at the slab or two six right here. We got Bear, we got Adam Ripogle, and we got Craig Young. Um, three of the most eclectic and iconic surfers and inspirations actually in my life. Um, so let me introduce these guys. Uh we'll start with Adam. Baggies. Um, uh Adam's one of those people who just love to make me laugh. He's quick-witted and he's great at heckling. Um, Adam and I have had a long history as well, and someone I can always count on. So I have to read this because my brain is pretty toast after a long flight. Um Adam had a long relationship with O'Neal, which which uh led us to shoot a lot together. And um what's that? Go ahead. Sometimes, right, Adam?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, that's where the heckle's gonna end.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Um and he now owns a sick board shop on 41st Avenue. It's called YB Board Shop. So that's Adam Ripogo. There's a lot more I could say, but we'll get into that. Chris Green, Bear. One of my favorite humans. We call him Bear or we call him Jack. If you ask anyone, they'll tell you he's one of the most stylish surfers around. But now he prefers body surfing more than anything because he just loves getting barreled. His poetry and songwriting is next level, and I'm so excited to read read the piece that he's doing on CY for SC Vibes next month.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Speaking of CY, Craig Young. Craig and I did a lot of traveling and surfing and skating, shooting together over the years. He even shaped all my boards. His artwork is nothing short of amazing. He's a poet, an inventor, and a craftsman. Craig is not afraid to express himself. And when you see Craig cruising, you know you're in for some good vibes.
SPEAKER_02:Dang. That's some intros right there.
SPEAKER_04:So those are the intros I got going. Thank God I wrote them down because my brain is toast.
SPEAKER_02:Let me go backwards a little bit um just to kind of connect those intros um to this podcast. Nelly, kind of circle through and then you can linger a little bit, like when these dudes came into your life. Like, you know, and like not on the date or anything like that, but was it all at the same time or was it kind of broken up a little bit?
SPEAKER_04:All pretty close together. I think I met maybe Adam first when he was a tiny little uh toe head down in Capitola. And uh he was just this little sarcastic, funny heckler skated the mercantile down there. Yeah. And we'd be down there doing board slides on the curb, and um, you know, shortly after met Bear and CY. Were you um were you in the photography game or you just a dude at that point? Oh no, way before I mean yeah, it was way before photography. Guy with the blue sticker truck, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Sar conduit too was uh Whitey. Yeah, Whitey, uh, Whiteman, TR, the guys that skateboarded, uh, Heinen, yeah, Beeson, yeah, Mike Beeson for sure. You know, yeah, Capitol was really cool. Early 80s, it was it was priceless down there.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, there's no doubt about it. That was definitely Whitey, but also like Yeah, there was this huge crew of surfers and skaters, and they all just kind of mesh together and we all know.
SPEAKER_02:Different schools, different were you guys all over the place with schools?
SPEAKER_06:Capitola was like a melting pot. Yeah. Yeah, people from everywhere would learn how to surf there. So um like Peter Moe lived in Aptos, he learned to surf there. Guys from the west side would come there and surf, guys from over the hill would come to surf. Some of our good friends were actually from Saratoga or Las Gatas. Yeah, yeah, that was the spot. That's where everyone sort of No, that's very good.
SPEAKER_01:Bigger memories. Yeah, I was an Aptos guy. Uh well, I was originally a Southern California person. I came here when I was 12 years old. Tranny. So I am a trans certified certified.
SPEAKER_06:I was born in Las Gadas. I was having old.
SPEAKER_01:But I was born in uh Jacramento, you know, the snake. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I lived on Depot Hill for 25 years. Okay. Garaged out.
SPEAKER_02:Craig memories.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I started out at uh Natural Bridges preschool, and then my mom didn't like the wind on the windy west side, so we moved to Tola and you know, learned how to surf. Tola, Capitol Junior High, Soquel High, and Adam grew up right down the street from me, and we brode out pretty hard. Yeah, before I even surfed. Before even yeah, I mean before we surfed, yeah. Yeah, I mean it was like Adam, come here. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:I was I was like stealing and stuff, you know.
SPEAKER_05:I go out at it. Yeah, he'd he'd be trying to, he was friends with my brother because my brother's about his age, you know. Yeah, and he'd be going, okay, I'm going home now. I'd go, no, Adam, come here. He'd be like, what, what, what? I'd go, come here, and I'd just shake him upside down and firecrackers and fall out and quarters and change and junk. Like, okay, you can go.
SPEAKER_02:What's the age difference in this group? You guys all pretty close or no? It's a little bit like age? I'm 54. Yep.
SPEAKER_05:I'm 61. Green, 61, I'm Craig's 58. 58.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I'm right there. Yeah. So so definitely not only within the culture, but within the same sort of like um, you know, groups and crew to hang with, like a legitimate crew to hang with.
SPEAKER_05:It was an amazing crew, too. That the whole 80s scene was just out of control. I call it the the people who have been to the surf movies at the Civic. You know, you know, flinging frisbees, like all sides would get together and just be like hanging tough, waiting for the lights to go down to fire it up. And then here comes the, you know, here comes the ventures or something, you know, and it's like a barrel, Jerry Lopez dropping in. It's like, you know, that was the best thing in the whole world. Yeah. At that particular time, you know. And my grandpa was the maintenance guy at the civic auditorium, so I would always go, I'm in there. You know what I mean? And he was a maintenance guy at the lighthouse, too. So that was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_04:But it was magical, magical times. The crew ran very deep. There's like literally over a hundred probably people, you know. I mean, if you count everybody, the bookers and the I mean, on and on, it just goes the Hannems and the every rebels that didn't go to school, basically, and we all partied and and ran them up.
SPEAKER_06:A bunch of latchkey kids, you know, straight out of latchkey kids, kids, single, single moms, a lot of our raising bunch of boys.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. The difference I think between um, you know, from my my perception, having been born and raised here, and Adam and I were talking about like second, third generation, you mentioned something about surf movies at the Civic. The culture back then, it was interesting because you had the dudes that were surfers and skaters, but then when something at the Civic like that happened, um, it would be a community event. I mean, clearly everybody that was in, you know, the core was there. But then also on that night, it was just the thing to do. And so that Civic was filled with not just surfers and skaters and people in it. There was definitely, you know, the people that recreationally kind of lived in town, it was the thing to do that night. The difference now I've noticed is that it's way more isolated. And this could be with the you know, the difference change in the population and how it's going right now. But when you have an event at the Rio or something like that, it's 100% core. Do you I mean it's like it's not as it's not as community-based, and I know that's because it's a change in community right now. And I'm I'm going to what you're saying. Like the 80s in particular was, you know, we always want to think it's a golden age, but I do think it was. I think it was a golden age in this town of not only, you know, the not only the culture, but the way it was documented, the way it was filmed, and the way it was sort of elevated. Um, it it it's hard for me to imagine in the world we live in with social and things like that, um, you know, even the shit that was on the streets, the zines and things like that. It's hard for me to imagine that kind of like golden era coming back, you know, as far as you know, this culture.
SPEAKER_04:That was the difference, you know. Yeah. Back then, like Bear would be playing a cornerstone show, everyone would go. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it was I remember some iconic ones at San Lorenzo Park, and just it was just raging with East Side, West Side, surfers, skaters, Rastas, all the reggae crews. That was early 90s.
SPEAKER_05:Well, dude, everyone, everyone would pull into days market to find out where the party was. It's exactly 80 people looking for a party. It's like, well, this is the party. Exactly. And you know, kegs on the beach, the whole nine yards. It was all, you know, fireworks on the beach in Capitola, skateboarding at school, all that kind of stuff was happening, and it all sort of just dissipated into a wilderness, you know. I I like to say we got the best of the last of Santa Cruz. You know, the guys before us are going, we got it better, which they probably did. But I'm I'm thinking, you know, now there a lot of the cool, fun stuff that we used to be able to do isn't available anymore. You know, you can't even have a band at your house. If you call downtown and say, I'm having a party for my birthday, I'm having a band over. Somebody's gonna call. The cops are gonna come and bust it up without even 10 people there at seven o'clock. And now it used to be just, you know, kids and bikes and everything, just you know, we're having a party at Aunt Nelly's begonia garden. And it would just be out of control, you know. And the and the the heads that were there were so it was like the nickname, everyone had nicknames, you know. It was it was hilarious. You know, you got your, you know, what your pine cones and your your mid you know, just the classicest crew of people. I mean, I wouldn't have traded that in for anything. Ever. Ever.
SPEAKER_04:It was the same with the slab, too. You got on the slab and it was the craziest cruise ever.
SPEAKER_05:Where was that?
SPEAKER_04:So fun.
SPEAKER_02:I think something can only epoch one time, you know, and I think that's like we're talking about surf culture and we're talking about Santa Cruz. Um, but we can be talking about music also, you know, like the same people that say we had it better, like that old generation. Yeah, they're talking about maybe more the purity, the ability to go out to the best spots and have it to themselves, um, you know, a lot more. The thing about the late 70s, all the way through the 80s, early 90s, is that's when the culture went all the way to a 10. That's really when um everything was maxed out, you know, as far as in the industry even sort of followed. There was money that was in the industry, there was uh there was a lot of you know opportunities within the industry. Um, and you can say, I'm not saying it peaked out and there's nothing there, but it you can't undo when you've done that in sort of you know an event. Like you look back, and I'm not just talking about surfing more, I'm talking about everything. It has this one moment that was like the penultimate moment of that cultural thing, and I think that's what we're talking about in the 80s.
SPEAKER_05:And it was also the shortboard revolution. Yeah, you know, we just missed the longboard, we got into the single fin, the 5'8 Coletta single fin, you know, everybody had one, and then it turned into Joey Thomas twin fin, you know, and it was a shortboard revolution. So surfing was advancing heavily, skateboarding was advanced was advancing heavily, and it was just it was so cool. And to go back to bringing the town together, the only other thing that brought the town together like that besides the surf movie was when the river mouth broke. Remember the river mouth broke, everyone could just gather at the river mouth, and it'd just be another sort of you know collaboration of towns, best and worst, you know. It was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_04:And then the next era of that was the Murph bar.
SPEAKER_05:Especially the the 1982 Rivermouth uh bar that was out as equal to the into the municipal wharf, and it lasted throughout the summer. It was that was the most incredible bar. Yeah I think everybody got barreled there.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. But I remember sort of it being the skateboard generation, too, where all those skateboards that Santa Cruz was making that were coming out, but was sort of defined, you're talking about that pinnacle moment. Uh I mean it was just all around us, you know. Rob Roskop lived on our street, what Minkster was uh one of our boys. Like it was just it was so ingrained in our group that it's it's hard to see from within, but what was what was going on at the moment, too?
SPEAKER_04:And then TR was filming it all, and both he was filming all the surfing and the skating and the video and the stills and the magazines, and it was just happening. It was like I remember that era when he was living on 34th. He had a ramp in his face.
SPEAKER_05:Wally was ripping at both. Yeah, you know, he was ripping at skating and surfing and filming it, documentary. I mean, it was like the Stessic of Santa Cruz or something, you know.
SPEAKER_04:It was for sure. It still is, you know. No doubt, and he still kills it. Uh Mixter lived on 35th, Booker lived on 33rd. Really? TR lived on 34th. It was just every street. It was Adam, you're right though.
SPEAKER_02:The thing about it too is like that's the philosophical thing to think about is I think the word is nostalgia. You can't have nostalgia when you're in it. You know, you don't you can't like that's life. You can't appreciate as much when you're in the middle of it. You're just having a good time. And it's not until like a little bit of distance goes between you, you're like, oh shit, that was the time. You don't know it when when you're 18, 19, 21, or even younger and you're in it. The daily goal is just to be in it, not not analyze it, not to think about what does this mean and the big scope of everything. We knew we had it good here. We knew it was a really good time to live in this town. Um, but I don't think there's not enough of us that are are that there's certain moments, you know, that you say, like, I've got it really good, but you still don't, you know, you still don't have that full realization of how good you had it until a little time goes by. Retrospective.
SPEAKER_04:You nailed it when you said because it was multiple things that were pinnacling right then. It was not just surf and it was not just skate, and it was music. It was the punk rock, end of the punk rock era, the end of the new wave era. There was reggae, there was reggae shows. You know what I mean? It was just like nut the whole town was nuts all the time. Yeah. Yeah. And like Craig said, there was parties. I remember me and Craig climbing on a police piece of plywood and going down the hill at this party and took the gnarliest slam, probably one of the gnarliest slams of my life. It was like going 100 miles an hour and a big fly trendy.
SPEAKER_03:Like a just a you know, huge hill. Yeah. Now we go to the day in the life later.
SPEAKER_01:That's just but also too, but like being young, it's like things are so fresh. Exactly. That time of flying.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Yeah. Age-wise. Yeah, there's fresh. But there, you know, the point I've went what I remember is like when I was a Grom coming to the point, and it was during that era, and there was all alleys and they were all dirt, and people hung out there, you know. I mean, and it was it was dirty and grimy, and the the point market was like there was stuff growing out of shit in the middle of the market, you know. It was it was an art. Yeah, it was core.
SPEAKER_05:And the sewer house not like that anymore. Stinkhouse had in Capitola, you know, you'd climb up on the stink house and you know from El Toro Bravo and watch the surf, or you'd hang out at the trees at the in the roots at the end of the hook, you know, at the at 41st there, and just sit there and just you know, critique everybody in between sessions. And you know, and when I was a Grom, it was like Tola against the point kind of, you know. Yeah, it's not even less than a driveway in the western odds. It's like, you know, but you'd go up there, you'd go up there and you'd be oh, you'd see Rome Dog or Darren or some, you know, some of those guys, and they'd be like, chapital, yeah, right, go fair. Either this and that. So classic. Just heckled, getting heckled, you know, and you know, it's it was funny. It was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_04:So who are all the it's worth mentioning all the toller rats, you know. And the demons and the Heinan and TR and Matt Douglas and David Douglas and Surgeons. Yeah, the Sodermists or Matt Lansern and Greg Jeff Lamsom. Desma. Oh yeah. Yeah. Because I've just heard stories in TR and Meekster, and I mean I've just heard of any stories. I wasn't really around for that.
SPEAKER_06:But Jason Booker, the Lancet.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, the Long Morgan Larson, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And the Capitola classic.
SPEAKER_05:Brian Rule.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I remember watching that thing.
SPEAKER_05:Judy Lama. Wind Wave and Wheel. Yeah, I remember Wind Wave.
SPEAKER_06:A little surf shack down.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, how about Lonnie? Remember Lonnie?
SPEAKER_06:He was a killer gay board, he was an incredible artist, too.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. Surge.
SPEAKER_05:And then there was the other guy, the kind of lamboyant guy that surfed at Bombora. Yeah. What was his name? I forget that guy. Like, he was classic, though. He was cool, but he's just a little like the loafers, I guess, for for the for the those days. It was like, that's weird. Yeah. Now it's like, so what?
SPEAKER_01:It's tall. I mean, like, I know it's different times, but are they like toll rat? Oh, yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_06:They're well, there's gotta be just another group that thinks it's the best time of their life, and then they're a capital. Well, I mean, actually, there's a huge down there and their parents drop them off and they hit chips and they do the things.
SPEAKER_05:Well, there's a huge cast of uh of junior lifeguards down there now. I mean, the junior lifeguards has taken over every single beach from here to who knows where. They're everywhere now because there's so many more people and kids, and it's pretty cool, you know, to see all the kids doing their thing down there.
SPEAKER_02:But that's a good point, Adam. It's like that that's the thing that's first sign of I call it the Peter Pan effect in life. And it could be with anything, which is you singularly think that you had it a certain way, and you can't recognize that those kids are now in that way. And when they wake up, they're chasing the same thing. They're they're basically Nelly films some of these kids. There are crews, and there's definitely you know, crews that that you know um are running around right now. You can only exist in the world that you exist in right now. And the thing that's different, this is where I really have hope for this culture in particular. I'm talking about in particular the surf culture, which you know is is the macro, the micro, is the skate culture that's underneath it. Um there's there's a unique aspect to this town in particular, which is connectivity through mentorship, connectivity through stories. You know, the surfing's weird. Surfing's the only sport I can really think of that you can have an equitable conversation with a 13-year-old with a 45-year-old, you know, and it and it lands. It's not white noise. It is different than a lot of a lot of times when you're talking to a kid. I coach football for 20 years. It's very hard to connect sometimes with a 14-year-old on X's and O's and schemes and things like that, because you're just an adult. You're just, you're just that, you know, it's like that peanuts cartoon with, you know, they make it Charlie Brown's parents. Charlie Brown's parents. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. But when I'm with Nellie and we do some of these interviews with some of these kids, um, they're engaged, they're locked in. And then you talk about them getting some you know, advice from Homer, they're getting expiced from Flea, you know, like um that's where I do have a little bit of hope as far as whatever that means, um, that it's passed down more in this culture. And I'll we'll go around the table, you know, and talk about it. Do you feel the same way about it? Like as far as you know, the a connection between generations in this culture more so than other fields.
SPEAKER_05:Well, I mean, me and Chris were just talking about like when when you get the hook it for surfing, you know, when you discover surfing, it's like your whole wall's full of cutouts of surf pictures, and you are just like that's all you can think about. Yeah, you know what I mean? So the so and then and then now, I mean, I haven't surfed like that in a long time, but all my drawings are still surf, you know, all my thoughts are still surf, all my my heart's at the ocean all the time, you know, and with my friends that's you know, it's all still bright and shiny, you know what I mean? And uh I'm looking forward to getting back out into the water with the same enthusiasm I had when I first got the hook in me. That's all you know what I mean. And it's just like once you stop, you it's hard to like not have that, you know, in you, you know, because surfing to me is the most incredible sport. Not even a sport, it's just a way of life that there is, you know. I mean, waves. How can you eat? You know, it's not like you're running around a baseball field or something. Yeah, waves are insane. Yeah, and they're rare. They're different every time, they're straight out of nature. You know, anybody who's ever gotten a good barrel knows how the sound, the the I mean, it's it's this you're you're in the now. Now you're you're you're you know, there's no other moment going on, which is where we all really want to be in the first place and the last place. It sits right under the surface on your skin. And and so I mean, it puts you in the now right now, every time. You know, it enforces it on you. It it's it's and it's beautiful. Yeah, you know, I mean uh the the places you go to get to surf, like when I first went to Indo or you know, Hawaii, but Indo especially when I first pulled up to like macaronies or something, when it was just donging or uh treasure island, it was just like, what the hell? I get to go surf that that's just jump off the boat and paddle into a movie, yeah, for sure, you know. And it's just uh you can't beat it. You can't beat it, you know. And it's like everybody loves an ocean view, even if it's flat, you know, but when it's pumping, I mean the energy of the ocean is so overwhelming. Like when there's swell, you guys know all this. It's like the energy you get just from the ocean pulsing like that. It's it's amazing. And you see people that don't even surf all gathering around to check the waves, right? To check the ocean, to get the energy from Mother Earth that's coming in, you know what I mean? And it's like, what else do you want? You know what I mean? It's just beautiful, it's just infectious energy there. It is.
SPEAKER_02:And Nelly and I have talked about this before too. It's I think the overall kind of feeling, you know, if you're the thinking of it as a sport is weather and the planet affect the outcomes of other sports. In surfing, it is the sport. It is the sport, gravity, the water. We're 60% water as humans, you know, like it. And so it's a connective tissue between not only the you being in the water, we're mostly made of water. And so I think that's why you feel that certain way. I think for me, the the best memories of surfing as a kid, and then maybe I did have a little bit of clarity on it. Sometimes it was just out there talking to my friends when the sun's going down. It's not necessarily the events that happen, it's the connective tissue of being out there together, even when it's flat, talking. You know, there's some things that you get out there. Um, you know, you wonder how much therapy did you get in the water? How much therapy do you get in the water just paddling out, talking with your friends and therapy?
SPEAKER_05:Green manual dip daily. Youth youth serum. Talk to me about that. He jumps in the water every day. Pull that mic towards him. Let's hear it.
SPEAKER_01:Daily manual dip. Almost a hundred percent. Just daily manual dips, jump in, you know. I've done where I've did like you know quite a few years, no matter how cold it is. Yeah. Especially back to Tola. Run down the stairs, jump in, no matter how freezing it is, zapped, zip home, blood. Um yeah, it's uh it's the healer.
SPEAKER_04:Is it different from riding your bike all over town? Because both you guys tend to ride your bikes a lot. And I know that that's good like serotonin and good energy for you, but it is the ice bath theory different than exercise.
SPEAKER_01:Uh yeah, there's something about the uh the the cold death definitely. The ocean is definitely it's a combination of it all, but that ocean thing is uh pretty much magic.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Well, the salt water washes off all the demons too that you drag around throughout the day. You know what I mean? You just come out of the ocean and you go, yeah, refreshed. You know what I mean? I've I feel you know, you get high off it. All right. You know, like it's like it's it's the most amazing thing ever. Either it's tropical water or ice cold water. It doesn't make any difference. If you're in the ocean water, you jump into that stuff and you come out and you go, it's just perfect.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Right?
SPEAKER_02:I can't pass this up. That's perfect segue, washing away the demons, um, becoming a different person. Yeah, Craig. Um, we just talked about your childhood. Now I'm sitting at Cruise Iowa, which used to be the Sentinel. We had lunch last week, and we'll kind of work around, but let's talk about um I want to talk first about you know, you and the transition from this amazing generation to um your career a little bit, you know, as far as that, and just kind of like open it up a little bit, um, you know, for us to kind of understand what your life was after those RAT 80s a little bit.
SPEAKER_05:Well I started tattooing, you know. My brother bought tattoo equipment. I had no thought of tattoos ever, and he bought the equipment and mom went to Bali, and then Adam was one of the first ones, and we all just started tattooing, and then it became it was right at the beginning of big tattoo sort of revolution.
SPEAKER_06:There was no tattoo parlors in San Andreas at that time.
SPEAKER_05:There was maybe maybe staircase downtown. Yeah, and then I started doing it, and then it was just on. I was just I tattooed at my house for I don't know, 10 years or something, and then got a sh tattoo shop going uh on the east side, and that just took off, you know, and next thing you know, I'm traveling the world doing it, and it lasted for 27 years, you know, three different shops tattooing for you know multiple biker uh organizations throughout the state going to Sturgis, going to Hawaii, going to Alaska, all over the place and doing tattoos, and just you know, I'd just post up, got tattoo stuff, you're in, you know what I mean? And it was like, you know, the ladies were coming in like left and right. This is great. I don't have to go anywhere. All I do is draw. Perfect. I love this. This is all, you know, and I was surfing a lot, and that got me to Indonesia, you know, and then my mom was living in Thailand, so I'd go to Indonesia and I'd just boat tour and just Uluwatu and Kuda, and then like and I'd go to uh Thailand and spend a month in Thailand with my mom, and I made all these shorts and stuff, you know, and that career was pretty good. And I've done, you know, my me and my dad had a cabinet shop. I did salmon fishing and I've and I've always been an artist. So now, if you want to go into now, it's kind of like I just had to pull my energy back from a lot of things that were going on in my life that were less than par, you know what I mean? Explain that a little bit. Uh, you know, substance abuse and things like that. The partying from the 80s just carried through to uh, you know, to a sort of a you know, just it turned into just like a daily thing where it's not even partying anymore. It's just like maintenance of drinking and and using substances, uh uh and kind of toiling in the mud, yeah, so to speak, you know. And like me and me and Green, we were both sort of on the same trajectory of just going, what are we doing? We're, you know, and we decided one day at my house, we said, hey, look, let's cut this crap out. We're going to give ourselves a week to, you know, hammer out or taper off or whatever. Come next Tuesday, we're just we're done.
SPEAKER_02:This wasn't the midnight Tuesday one, was it? Is that this story that you told me last week? You said at midnight it's over. Yeah, this is the same story.
SPEAKER_05:This is the same story because it's it's the end of the that era, you know. Yeah, we're worried about it.
SPEAKER_01:Enough's enough. Enough's enough. Yeah, I'm drinking too. I tried to do it many times, I'd relapse. It's just like the same old business. It's like this is it. And we said we just as a team said the town is going in.
SPEAKER_05:You know, and it it was you know, it was a lot of just like prime creator just going, okay, guys, you're done. Yeah, you know what I mean. You guys are you guys got a bigger mission here. You had great lives, you had the free will to to spindle it off with your booze and all that stuff. How long ago was this ish? This ish was uh September 9th of uh last year. Wow. Yeah, so and it's been you know the most amazing. Year, I feel better than I felt during my best surf session at G Land right now. Inside, it's coming from the inside out. You know, I've got this jewelry going that I'm making and this Indian trip that I got going. And it's just expressions of how good I feel inside, just bursting out, you know. Yeah. I mean, I can't even explain how good I feel every single day. Even the worst parts of the day, I just go, whatever the prime creator's got in store for me, I'm just letting go.
SPEAKER_02:How hard was it letting um so September you said 11th? 9th, 9th. So September 9th last year. I always like to kind of broaden these conversations for a lot of a lot of people listen to this, and some of them are all over, and a lot of them are in a different circumstance. Um what was September 10th through what were the first 30 days like?
SPEAKER_05:You know, like Chris said, he tried to stop it a bunch of times. I did too. And it was, you know, some sandbags and stuff. This time there was nothing to it. It was done, you're done. What do you attribute that to? Um pure source energy. You know, my my angels, you know, my the prime creator, a legion of angels that have got me out of a million deadly car accidents and all sorts of things that I probably shouldn't be here for, that I sort of just breeze through. And in retrospect, like we were talking, looking in retrospect, I look and I go, something plucked me out of this. Yeah. So, you know, I look at it like it's just that time, and the best is yet to come.
SPEAKER_02:And how far were you in it? Because these guys talk about like you just weren't in the scene for a while. They sounds like you weren't around for a while in the normal uh social circles.
SPEAKER_05:I was just toiling in the mud. I was doing artwork and just doing drugs and drinking all day. Yeah, you know, and I worked at Gray Bears for about six years, and I lived in the back doing condensing styrofoam.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_05:And I just lived back there. I was the night guy, did all the maintenance around there and drove all the trucks and got them through the COVID thing. And I was, you know, there, but I was just, it was like fully self-contained. And uh, you know, I was just getting loaded back there most of the time. They didn't know, but I, you know, that's what I was doing.
SPEAKER_02:No, dog, were you seeing them much during this time or no?
SPEAKER_04:No, but I was gonna interject and say, like, when I was hanging out with Craig and what a lot, and he was shaping all my boards and shooting photos and surfing and skating, like we were both sober during that time. This is 25, 30 years ago. And you know, we had this like amazing friendship and amazing relationship. And you know, when one person's partying and another person's not, you kind of drift apart, and so we drifted apart.
SPEAKER_02:For your own sobriety.
SPEAKER_04:We still loved each other, you know what I mean? And so then when I saw him again, actually somebody came and told me they said Craig's sober, and I was like, What? Fucking serious, yeah. You know, the long time coming. Yeah, and then they told me Bear was sober as well and that they were doing it together, and I was like, wow. Like that, you know, I mean, that just doesn't happen.
SPEAKER_02:No. Bear, pull that mic over a little bit because I want you to because I I just think it's so fundamentally important that we blow by this, and I think a lot of people are in trouble sometimes. And I think they they hear the other side of the story, and Craig, and we're gonna go to Bear here, but I think they hear this thing like, I'm stoked, I'm riding my bike around, I figured it out, I've got this spiritual awakening. It sounds too fucking easy, you know. And then some when you're in it, it's not easy. And it's good, I think it's good to hear that you came to this point, it was a hard point. Um, and I I think it is encouraging that you just had the snap. Was it snap easy for you, Bear, or no?
SPEAKER_01:Quitting my main thing was just drink binge drinking. Yeah. All to have a good time, right? Yep. And all of a sudden the fun's not over, and I would, you know, binge out. And quitting was easy, but for how long, or when I say, I'm never gonna do it again. And then all of a sudden, when that urge would come up about you know, I want to go see music and get buzz or whatever, it's giving into the urge, and that's where every slippy slide thing happens. But this time around it was like because I've done it enough, just like Greg was saying.
SPEAKER_02:And how are you feeling? You feeling good?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I'm feeling great. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's it's it's it in you know, Adam, you on the outside in pull that mic towards you there a little bit. And you on that outside in, like your connection to these two guys in particular, same as Nelly, where they kind of in and out a little bit, were you stoked when they kind of or what what's your been relationship through this period? Because now you're talking, if you're saying this was a year ago and we're talking the 80s, um, you we're talking, you know, 30, 40 years now at this point, right? I mean, we're talking it's um it's getting to be a pretty decent amount of numbers. That's a lot of time in between. What's your relationship been with these guys over that period of time? And then the is there has there been a reconnection recently?
SPEAKER_06:Well, when you see when you see each other around town, it's like you just pick up where you left off. Yeah. Whatever they're doing on their on their on their personal time is up to now. Um Chris's mom was my teacher in high school too, so I was um I was around um Sarah Green a long time, uh, and she had a lot of patience with us, so obviously she was probably extremely patient repair. Uh but we uh we are all sort of on our own path, and we all have sort of our own struggles. So and these guys are really honest about what they do, and so it's it's different than having a friend that's you know hiding everything they're doing. You see someone and they go, Hey, we're I've been on a bad one.
SPEAKER_01:Are you gonna also too? I would when I was on one of my drinking rolls and uh the money ran out. This guy would definitely float. No questions asked. There's no yeah, there's there's no doubt about it.
SPEAKER_05:It was it I I kind of get the impression that people would think that we're just like, you know, it wasn't like we were you know laying around in the opium bins. You know what I mean? It was like we're partying, we're still producing that's not what it is. I totally agree with you. It's not what it looks like. I think what it's not is I mean there was people, there's people like in dire straits that are straight junkies, you know, with the needles and all that kind of stuff that are really like you'd look at that and you'd go, well, that's the bottom line. And I never put myself in that position, but I was consistently using, but I was always being creative and I'm cruising around and doing things and being productive and blah, blah, blah. But it was, it would, it would keep you limited to you're never really gonna get past this point while you're doing this stuff, right? You know, it you can be as creative as you want and do all this stuff, but it's always gonna keep you at a certain zone, you know, where it's like uh stuck, you know. So, but once you pull your energy back from that, and it's it's not easy, but it was easy this time because we were done. Yeah, you know, we were just done.
SPEAKER_06:But I could go to I could go to Dunlop's donuts at five in the morning, right?
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:And I would see Craig skateboarding at the crack of dawn, it's sort of dark out still on a on a skateboard that like a major engineer in the skating world should look at and go, wow, how do you how do you put that thing?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Um, it was like a carver skate with it probably weighed 40 pounds with like bunches of levers and springs and all kinds of stuff. Um, so when you would run into people and and they're still being really creative and still uh doing like genius stuff, yeah, you just gotta sort of go, Well, 100%. I gotta disagree. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Just because yes, you saw Craig skating, but there was zero chance Craig was gonna go surfing that day. And there was years where you didn't surf, and I know how much you love surfing. So although you were still creative. Now you're really creative. And this last year, the real creativity is coming out.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, well, it's it's the internal shine, it's it's all inside. It's the shine. It's all inside, and now it's it's pouring out, and it's it's interesting because this whole summer has been the most amazing summer of synchronicities and really amazing meetings with reconnecting with a lot of friends like Dave and Chris and and and Adam and just a lot of people from the past, my mom, my daughter, people I don't even know. I'm meeting every day, just ride around on my bike, just glowing. Yep. You know, and it's so cool to be able to not feel insecure.
SPEAKER_02:That was the thing I was gonna say right now, and um such a good conversation because um it's limited when you're younger how much experience you have in this with friends, family, things like that. And you've got people that just aren't here anymore because of these things. You know, like my cousin Sloan's just gone. We've talked about that before. The the reality is you're exactly right. It's not this stereotypical, you know, there's Craig stand on the corner of Costco looking for food. It's not that. You're still creative, you're still working. What Dave's getting at is what I agree with. It's a slow turning out of the light of your life social. It's a slow dial down. Yes, you're still doing all of it, but a lot of times, since you don't feel a certain way about yourself, you don't want to be around your old friends necessarily, not super stoked to, you know, reach out to and say, let's hang out today or let's do this. Um, and and eventually what you do is you're just sort of dimming that light on your entire life that you were supposed to have till you're gone. And I think that's more of an idea of how it looks, you know, I mean, that than a super obvious, oh my God, look at it. Okay, Craig, it's I I don't think anybody thinks that, but I think the thing, you know, the the message you want to get out is that um it is it is an absolute I think of like those horror movies where there's like you know, at the end of it, the the the ghost and has always been on their back and it's weighing them down. Yeah, nobody can see it, but it's there on their shoulders and it's pulling them down. That's addiction. Yeah, yeah. And it's the demons.
SPEAKER_05:It's the demons talking about the ones you can wash off in the ocean. And that's why I wasn't going in because the demons had me, you know what I mean? And it would be like, okay, uh here, I'm gonna give you some more crappy things that you can decide to do. And uh because you're already inebriated with other stuff, you're probably gonna do half of them, and then it's gonna turn the did the dimmer down a little more and a little more, and they're just hoping you just perish. It's exactly it. They're hoping it just ends you, and you know, so now it's like you take your power back and you start turning that dial up. That's it. Turning that dial up, turning that dial up, and you're doing it. Totally, you know, yep. You're doing it, and everyone else is doing it because everyone else is you doing it.
SPEAKER_02:Janelli's radar went up because we all have it again, family, friends like that. I'm sure knowing him a little bit now, but the radar goes up when somebody starts talking about how um, and not even somebody, how much they were coping with being fucked up. It's so it's the the number one warning sign of like when you're in it, you're saying, I'm killing it. You know, on some level, um, you're not, you know, you're not. And but I want to kind of, as we wind time here, and this is can go on for two hours if we wanted it, but I want to walk up to 1988, see Craig in the street, and tell him I'd be sitting inside the Sentinel. It's like a Jetsons episode, inside the Sentinel office lobby area. This used to be. Um, you're in a headdress, you've got you're bejeweled right now, and you've had this awakening. How does that happen, dude? Remember, you're talking to 1988 Craig.
SPEAKER_05:1988, Craig?
SPEAKER_02:I'd be going, dude, get that crack pipe out of your mouth. Well, tell us about it, because we talked about it last week, but I think it'd be really good for the listeners to know, like, because it's a very cool story. You and I had that hard conversation about appropriation and things like that. This isn't that. This is you finding your path out, right?
SPEAKER_05:Well, in 1988, I was actually living in Hermosa Beach, and I had a cabinet shop with my dad. Okay. And I was it was I was down there because I had all sorts of court problems going on up here. And uh I was working at the Bandstand restaurant and the Shadowbrook restaurant, and I was selling blow and I got busted doing that at the Shadowbrook, and then I got fired. And then I had all these court dates going on. And me and my grandpa went down to the courthouse and I was on the thing about 11 times, and it was just a bunch of nonsense, nothing criminal, but it was just like stupid stuff that had stacked up on me. And I just, I just called my dad and I go, let's can I can I come live with you, dad? And he lived down in Hermosa and yeah, and uh he said, Well, sure. Because I didn't really know him that good, and I wanted to get to know him, you know. So anyway, I was down there in '88 and uh I was down there for five years, and I was looking at the surf mags down there, and I kept seeing Adam and all these Steve Price and Machado, all these guys in the mag, and I'm like, man, I gotta get back home, you know. But at that point, you know, it was kind of that whole colors, colors, crack dilemma, crips and blood stuff going on, and it was, you know, I was still surfing a lot, but I was just getting, you know, that was a gnarly time. Yeah, Dave knows. I mean, it was a heavy time to escape. And uh so then I came back up here and bought a 66-point hat Catalina blue steel, but you know, I don't know. I I had an amazing life, even through all that abuse, and I can I wouldn't trade it in for anything because of where I'm at right now. And like we were talking about in retrospect, I look back and see that all that stuff counts in order to be where I'm at right now. And I feel like you know, all summer they've been working on the 2025 Apollo fucking mission thing, and that's me, and I've been doing it, and finally now with this podcast and reconnecting with my bros and my family, they just pressed a button to finally get the rocket boosters going, just starting to go, and the thing's just gonna blast off into you know into the atmosphere, you know what I mean, and ripple across the universe with love and authenticity.
SPEAKER_02:That's it.
SPEAKER_05:You know what I mean? Absolute love is how I feel inside, you know. And for my birthday down at Black's Beach, when we had a little bonfire, I asked spirits for authenticity, love, and truth and honesty. And it just keeps putting, you know, it'll just give it to you. Whatever you ask for, you get it, you know, and I feel that the world is recalibrating itself. The people are recalibrating into a 12-strand DNA from the 10th, from carbon-based to light-based. It's happening whether you like it or not. The world's recalibrating, we're all connecting. The universe is putting the chess pieces together to steadily flow, ride the wave into this new earth that we're gonna take back from this crummy centuries of being oppressed by the money thing, the politics thing, and all these idiots that inside us we know isn't right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Wars and nonsense. Absolute nonsense. Nobody wants that stuff.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, Adam and I were talking before we went on air that, you know, the and that's a perfect way to kind of talk about it, that these are all narratives that were created by humans. Like every single thing you're talking about right there is a collected narrative that people believe in. It can be it can be money, it can be religious institutions, government. That's all sort of something somebody made up in a group of people believed in. My thought on that is like we can also uh so we are subjected to these, we're subjected to speed limits, we're subjected to taxes, we're subjected to all of these things from narratives that are created. But the one thing about it we forget in there is like we have equal power to create our own narratives. We have the same standing to create our own life narrative. And I think that's where I'm looking across at an Indian, and I think that's one where along with your sobriety, like we talked about, I think you're choosing all these are chapters, right? These are chapters of the things we talked about today. It's all chapters in this book. You have your own book, everybody has their own book, and we're taking out these little bitty chapters. But you in particular, I think, are are writing, you know, and Bear are writing a new book, right? And you're writing this book because it doesn't mean that don't they don't exist. This is just a new version of yourself. Um, and talk a little bit before we go off air, like we did, we're not to kill too much time, but on this sort of like um this transition, people are gonna see you around, they've seen you around forever. Now they're seeing you around a bike and you might have a full headdress on. Talk about that a little bit, how that came.
SPEAKER_05:Creative expression. Yep, you know what I mean. It's creative expression. And uh the the story. I've been doing the open mic at some of the coffee shops around town. And I went on the 3rd of July as a cowboy to the one in the coffee shop in Aptos, the California coffee there. And uh the lady there, super sweet lady, made me a double latte, something or other. And I don't really do the caffeine that much. And I was just, my heart was just pounding. I did the open mic and I went home and I couldn't sleep, and by the morning I was an Indian. Next thing you know, I'm riding through the Aptos parade with a bunch of Indian flute music going, going, what independence day are we talking about here? And then and then I ride my bike over to the point and I'm riding through the parade at the point, going, What independence day are we talking about? Then with chain brakes on my bike, I'm like, shit, I gotta shoot the horse and the leg here. And so I drop it off at a friend's house and I start walking through town with that stuff. You know, I go over to my daughter's, I go over to Meeksters, and I'm walking along the boardwalk, and it's funny because I'd I'd walk by these big groups of Indian people from India and I'd look at them, I'd go, Indian. And they'd look at me and they'd go, yeah, but nah, not that kind, you know. And uh, and people would look at me and I'd be walking all crowd and and they'd kind of like look up and they'd go, whoa, they'd look away, like, whoa, what what what Indian? What the hell's going on? No, and I and I'm having the greatest time. I pick collected a thousand feathers from the beach. I make these headdresses, I make these pants, and I make this jewelry. And my daughter is embarrassed as you can get as a little 11-year-old, you know. I'm down, I see her down on the, I say, Hey, I'm at the harbor, where are you at? On the phone. She goes, I'm downtown. I go, I'll meet you at John Baduse. And she goes, Okay, so I come pulling up in the Indian step, and she just looks at me and she goes, Oh shit, he's an Indian. And he's she starts running down the mall, and I go, That's my wallet, young lady. That's my wallet. I go, I gotcha. It's so good. So hilarious. No, she's like, Dad, the Indian thing again. I'm like, I go, hey man, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, you know, you know, and I've you know, I've had only one encounter with an Indian person that actually was offended by it. And I just told her I loved her, and it was all good, you know. I mean, I just said, I love you, you know. I mean, and all the other people invited me to South Dakota to be in the big gathering that they have, and they said, Hey, look, everybody's been screwed over in this life. We're all one people. It is the weapon. Let's educate ourselves and come through this, you know, because each individual person's energy is huge. And we've been taught that we're just poor little old me. What can I do? Kind of a nonsense, right? And it's not the way it is. No, each one of us is a giant energy source that can project our energy and our love throughout the universe, not just from person to person, but you can do it energetically. Exactly. Because everything's energy. Yep. You know, you can't palpable. It's it's it's closing. It's the beauty, it's the beauty of life. You know what I mean? Closing thoughts, Nelly.
SPEAKER_04:Uh it's palpable. Yeah. But um Craig touched on it for a second, and he's somehow lost all his insecurities. I don't know if he ever had many, actually, thinking back, but it's really infectious to be around because I do have insecurities. And I'm very insecure. And being around people like him and Barney, Adam and Bear, like they they make me feel less insecure because they make me feel good about being me.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:You know what I mean? And I can't get enough.
SPEAKER_02:You know what I mean? Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And just listening to them and just listening to all that about love and energy, and you know, I mean, it's just like makes me feel good inside and and what a blessing.
SPEAKER_02:Adam, pull it towards you. And closing closing thoughts on any of this?
SPEAKER_06:Um, I'm just stoked to have my my buddies back. I'd say not they've they've never gone anywhere, but to have them back in this form and to be able to um yeah, just to to be alive in this block of time. We talked about that, you know, the 80s being a good block of time is pretty polarizing time for us. But right now is as good as it gets. I think right now we're we're dealing with um some radical things in our life. But when you're surrounded by really cool people that are back on track and good stuff, it makes you feel good.
SPEAKER_02:How are things going for the shop?
SPEAKER_06:Shop's challenging, but come by YB for a couple boards, I'll sell you a couple. Where's that? Tell them where it's out, website and all that. Or 88. Yeah, it's on 41st Avenue. Website up and all that? Yeah, YB or uhyourboards.com. We're gonna have a bunch of uh CY's artwork in there. Right now. That's right. We're gonna have some, huh? Yeah, Maya's artwork in there. We're gonna get some uh art on some shirts and stuff. And when the book comes out, we'll have that as well. Doing a big book on CY it's coming out.
SPEAKER_02:Amazing. Uh okay. Pull it towards uh Bear there and Bear, any thoughts on this whole thing, all of it?
SPEAKER_01:Uh good connecting with everybody. I'm doing great. Everybody's doing great. Uh one of our anthems is uh start where you stand and just live in the moment and be all you can be. And uh Oh, I'm also starting a little podcast coming up.
SPEAKER_02:Right on, we can help you promote it. What is it?
SPEAKER_01:It's called uh the Regal Peasant Formula.
SPEAKER_02:I love it. Are you just gonna are you gonna rip that off on your own? Were you studio? Are you just gonna do it like from your place?
SPEAKER_01:But a pretty raga, but I have a uh technological wizard.
SPEAKER_02:That's great. Well, we've got a lot of ways to help you with vibes through our TV network, through the magazine. Uh part of what we do as a production company is not just this part of it, but if you produce one, you have it done, we've got a way to get eyes on it, you know, through this TV network behind me. So we'll definitely help you now. This is rad meeting you, and I look forward to working on this article with you uh for the for the print issue. I think we got a really good sense of what this could be for this article because I was unsure after the lunch last week, you know, but I do think this hopefully can be like a broader scope of this dude's life, like we kind of finished up there. Um, not so much the a guy in a headdress driving down Westcliff. That's the smallest part of it, Craig. You know, the smallest the journey is the other one. And this was great. Nelly, um I'm asking you to circle around again, but any any thoughts that are trigging you outside of the just overall stoke?
SPEAKER_04:Oh well, I was gonna say that I'd like to dedicate this show to uh Tashi, mine and Bear's a really good friend. Just passed away. Oh, yeah. And uh just thanks, Adam, and there and see why, because you guys have had a huge influence on my life. I'm sure you know that, but just to reiterate it, it's been uh been awesome. We spent a lot of time together. All four of us. And then uh I'm just grateful to have you guys in my life and and uh thanks, boys. It's great, thank you.
