Educated at UC-Santa Cruz as a literature major and history minor set him on a path to freelance writing (including an interview with Jack Johnson), publishing a short-lived surf magazine The Surfwriter’s Quarterly and writing a novel called The Tradewinds; featuring a fictional young surfer, Morgan Blake. After these accomplishments he was diagnosed with bi-polar depression and spent several years on a rollercoaster. While he still dabbles in writing, his graphic design career has been the vocation that has paid the bills. Discovering graphic design was like a child getting his first etch-a-sketch or a kid in a candy shop with too much money to spend. He began toying with video production in an attempt to add visuals for the music he worked on for several years. The videos were quirky and amateurish but Philip love to see his ideas in motion. He loved graphic design, however going from creating static images to video felt like, to him, being the first filmmaker to produce a “talkie.” The world became movement and Philip loved to see his work move. After that he, along with his girlfriend, Peggy Johnson, began creating 90 minute “Video Festivals” which they called the Aloha Maui AMPfest. These were Philip’s boot camp in terms of honing his skills with the hope that he might create top quality videos. All of this work appeared on local access TV on Maui. It was Peggy who suggested this documentary and with that suggestion a quote from Ernest Hemingway came to mind, “Write what you know.” Along his path Philip has had the honor of meeting some of the greats including Laird Hamilton, Paul Gebauer, Jack Johnson, Glen Hening (Surfrider Foundation Founder), Greg Knoll, Wingnut, Corky Carroll, Leroy Grannies, Tom Curren, Bruce Brown, Gerry Lopez (With whom he surfed alongside of at Ho’okipa Beach on Maui). Philip began poring over countless hours of archival footage, brushing up on major historical accomplishments, drawing from his reading of Nat Young’s History of Surfing, and spending time on Matt Warshaw’s site The Encyclopedia of Surfing. After months of research the production began. It took no less than three dozen edits, splicing in appropriate music and finding video of significant events like WWII, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and the Vietnam Era. Then the came time to put it in front of the eyes of people outside of Philip and Peggy’s circle of friends. The reviews came back positive and Peggy and he began to put in the final touches and give it a bit of polish. Much of what You’ll see interns of chapter markers and visual effects are those Philip created with both his knowledge of graphic design and the candy store that is Final Cut Pro. So now we present to you with love, Makai Side: How Did We Get Here?, A History of Modern Surfing. We hope you’ll enjoy it and thank you in advance for taking the time to watch our contribution to the annals of surfing culture.
