Cascadia local mystic musician, surfer, photographer Scott Sullivan grabbed a car-less Johnny Grubbs on a dark short, rainy day in Cascadia to get this little nugget. Johnny and global storm chaser Kohl Christianson were the only guys out this day. Linebacker sized powerhouse Johnny pushed his 6’1″ Air E Ola to the inner limits and claimed to an empty beach. You feel appropriately dressed in a wetsuit in and out of the water on days like this…warm flannels and cool beers are always delicious on the back end of a session and steep muddy hike out. Johnny builds Lib Tech surfboards every day and surfs when he can get a ride to beach.
“I woke up that day to cold ass, pouring rain, I called Johnny to see if he was going to surf but his car was broken down and he had no ride. I picked him up and first we ran out of gas, then we almost got hit by a logging truck, and then we finally showed up on the beach as the rain turned into Monsoon status. Johnny paddled out on his old polyester gun and snapped it in half on the first wave. He switched to his Lib board and paddled back out and just went to town. Everyone else had already gotten out of the water because it was getting too nasty out there with some heavy closeouts in the mix. He was just laughing, totally in his element and dropping into these ledging beasts. I was, in the meantime, soaked through my rain gear and giving my camera the bath of its life shooting through the pissing rain. I wasn’t sure what I had even captured through the lens until I got home and looked at the shots. It was such a rush being out there that day and watching Johnny power through some really heavy sections on that board. He was fully putting it to the test. Late drops, laying it on the rail and getting as far back on the foam ball as he could get. Cold water, pissing rain, whales, eagles and barrels. Pure Pacific Northwest.”~ Scott Sullivan