Know Your Roots by Damian Davila

It’s always good to know where you come from, who you are and have a purpose in life. For me growing up by the sea made who I am now, I don’t remember choosing to live there, but I know it was just my destiny and my purpose for this life.

Being at the beach every day since the 80’s and becoming a teenager in the 90s looking up to all these surfers from Socal coming down to my beach and ripping that epic surf in winter time made me want to do the same and be part of this beautiful lifestyle. 

I think it was around when I was 8 years old when I started bodyboarding just out front my house by my self in the whitewash every day and after playing around for a few hours I’d laid on the warm sand because of the super cold water and then after a while I went back in the water that was pretty much it every day for me after school, weekends and of course holidays.

It was until my late teen years when I felt the urge to start taking some pictures in the water, back then was a big deal to have a photo from a water angle. I always used to pretend I had an invisible camera and started shooting when I saw my friends coming towards me getting pitted, oh man that sensation of that moment until this day is so awesome. 

I got my first little disposable film cameras from Walmart and started taking pictures with really crappy results but back then you didn’t care because you could shoot in the water!

I had my real camera in late 2012 and my first ever water housing the following year, and ever since I’ve started shooting like crazy every day until my camera shutter broke! so I had to replace another hehe.

 

Thanks to my bodyboarding experience in my early years I do what I do now and I try to make a living out of it. I rarely shoot bodyboarding but I never forget about it and how I started in this lifestyle. 

So here are some of my first ever bodyboarding shots of some of my friends that started surfing with me and still continue to do it.

Thanks for everything and remember KNOW YOUR ROOTS!