State Representatives

California’s coastline is 840 miles long — Eric Soderquist surfed the whole thing. Not every break — that would be lunacy — but the pro surfer and his friend, photographer Chris Burkard, ambled down Highway 1 and its tributaries, from Oregon to Mexico, hitting as many spots as they could. They used the recommended vehicle for such a mission, a 1978 VW Bus. It took them two months. They had no plan, other than to stick to the coast, find waves, and stay alive (ranchers and military cops hate trespassers, on surfari or no). Soderquist surfed everything, Burkard took pictures of likewise, and the resulting book, The California Surf Project, is a dreamy slice of California, a combo surf book, art book, and travel book; a love letter to the West Coast; a document to in-state, border-to-border wanderlust. It’s also a lesson for every local waterman, who should pause to puzzle again at how generations of surfers could just not know about Maverick’s. That’s happening now, to you and your state. Get on the bus.

Soderquist and Burkard are again traveling the coast, this time on a book and slideshow tour.
Sat., April 18, 7 p.m., 2009