I shot my first published photo at Steamer Lane. The magazine went belly up before they paid me. In 1994 I came back from Bosnia a mess and got a job in Santa Cruz to get out of San Francisco. The first night in Santa Cruz I was awakened to hear what I thought was heavy artillery. I lay there trying to figure out who it was and how far away they were, then remembered I was back in California...when I figured out it was big surf breaking at Steamer Lane I jumped out of bed, grabbed my mountain bike, and rode the six blocks to the beach. It was four in the morning and there were about 30 surfers out. The waves were awesome.