Editor’s Note: Nate Lawrence is the youngest of us all. Maybe not in age, but it in life and youth, he wins. You should see his eyes light up around our mini ramp. Our when there’s a Desert Point swell. Or when Japan starts sucking in a Typhoon…he’s a full-on grommet. And while he’s still the best there is at documenting the modern game, we realize he’s seen some stuff go down that we want to share. Which is why I asked him to crack open the safe with his hard drives and just pick one a week to share. He opened with Andy. Because that’s just what you do when you’re a grom. —Travis
I’m old, but I’m not that old. I can’t be. I graduated high school in the year 2000 so that’s a big difference than graduating in the ’90s. Maybe that’s why I kept putting off this assignment of digging up old images.
I kept telling myself, “I’m not old enough to be that guy who posts throwback images!”
But then I pulled out the old hard drive. The one that doesn’t have USB 3. Or even USB 2. And what I found were some pretty classic moments: long hair and even longer boardshorts. But then I pulled out the old boxes of slides, blew off the dust and held each slide up towards the light. Then I realized. Oh shit, I am that old.
I’m gonna start out this little series with a photo of the The King. The year was 2006 and Andy came over to Bali to film with Taylor Steele. I believe all the footage was for Trilogy. I hadn’t shot Andy that much, but it is, still, to this day, is some of the best surfing I’ve ever witnessed. —Nate Lawrence