Traveling the World as a Surf Photographer with Jimmy Wilson

Jimmy:    00:00:00    So he gets, I look down and I see it. He's just getting drug underwater, fighting the shark, and I'm, I just immediately started taking photos. I got a photo of him, like where he's actually underwater.  

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.

Kristin Wilson, Host:    00:00:32    Hey there, Kristin, from Traveling with Kristin here, and welcome to episode 158 of Badass Digital Nomads. I've been gone for the past two weeks finishing the author review of my first book, Digital Nomads for Dummies, and I am happy to report that it is complete. I have sent off the last chapter of the manuscript last week, and I am so happy and excited and exhausted and relieved to have finished my first book. It's, uh, something that I've been wanting to write for five years, this exact book. And so it feels really good to have accomplished this goal and to be able to share so many things about the digital nomad lifestyle and how to attain it in the form of a book that anyone can read. I just got word from the publisher that it will be translated into Dutch and hopefully many more languages to come.  

Kristin:    00:01:39    So I'll keep you all posted on that. And the different languages that you can read the book in and where you can buy it. It's available in all major bookstores. I'll link to a few of them in the show notes. I think Target, Walmart, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, so lots of places to get it. And it will also be an e-book form and an audiobook will be coming out later this year. So the release date is August 9th, and then the audiobook will be coming, I believe, in the fourth quarter of the year, or perhaps the beginning of 2023. So I'll keep you all posted, but it's been very difficult. Um, my, my friends have been checking in on me and they're like, how do you feel now that you've finished? And I was telling them that I feel all of the feelings, um, every emotion and no one ever told me <laugh> how difficult it is to write a book.  

Kristin:    00:02:40    So if you are thinking of writing a book, I guess I could do a podcast on lessons I learned writing a book. I'll make a post in the Facebook group, like a poll to see if, um, if you guys would be interested in an episode specifically about that. Um, I know from speaking with a lot of you on the phone that many of you are interested in starting a blog or starting a YouTube channel and maybe writing a book too. So everyone's doing different things and, and has different goals and interests. So I wanna help you in any way that I can. One of my big takeaways from this process has really been the importance of consistency, focus, and maintaining momentum and just thinking about it as a marathon, not a sprint with any long-term project or goal that you are embarking upon. And also the importance of rest and balance and self-care.  

Kristin:    00:03:40    It's emotionally, mentally and physically draining on your energy to really focus so intensely on something. And so this has led me to be more mindful about what I was eating. I even enrolled in an organic meal delivery service so I could focus on nourishing foods. I cut back on coffee, I quit drinking alcohol completely for months. And um, and one of the things that has also helped me has been the supplements that I've been using from Organifi. Organifi is the sponsor of this podcast, full disclosure, but I've been really relying on their products. They have their green juice, their yellow and red drink, and they're all for different things. The green juice is made specifically for body reset and stress support, and it has all kinds of good stuff in it, from wheatgrass to spirulina and chlorella and matcha. And I've been supplementing my reduced caffeine intake, my decaf coffee habit with this green juice from Organifi.  

Kristin:    00:04:54    And they're giving badass digital nomads listeners 20% off your first order. So you can take advantage of that by going to organifi.com/travel. And you'll land on my page and you can get the discount there. So that's O R G A N FI.com/travel. So I've been having the green juice in the morning, the red juice and the afternoon, which is for energy, and then the yellow at night, which is restorative and helps calm you and relax you. And it's been part of my evening routine now for a couple months now. This week's podcast is a replay of an interview with my younger brother, Jimmy Wilson, who was the former photo editor at Surfing Magazine. And he is a world traveler who has been to many more countries than I have. And I wanted to share this interview again because it was published so long ago. So a few people got to listen to it.  

Kristin:    00:05:59    And it was also his birthday recently, um, over Memorial Day weekend. And so I was thinking of him and I thought, you know, that interview was really valuable, so I wanted to share it with you all again. And so you'll hear us talking about hanging out and surfing over Memorial Day, but that was Memorial Day, two years ago, uh, not in 2022. I invited Jimmy on the podcast because I think that his lifestyle represents what I like to think of as the new normal in the world. He works for himself as a surf photographer, but he also has a job working remotely for Vans as their social media marketing manager. And then he also has some other side hustles and projects that he does. And he gets to travel a lot, work from home, take care of his daughter and co-parent her. And it really kind of sums up the lifestyle that you can have today.  

Kristin:    00:07:03    You can have a part-time or full-time remote salary job. You can have one or two or three different side hustles and you can have that location, independence and flexibility to be able to work from home or work from anywhere or even not work sometimes. Jimmy was just in the Mentali Islands a week or so ago, and he was offline for at least eight to 10 days. And so sometimes, you know, you're not online, he had no cell phone service. It took him 27 hours of travel just to get to the airport to fly back to California. So I haven't even ever been in a place that's that remote. So that was really interesting to hear, um, him talk about, I I asked him to write a blog about it or something because it just seemed like such an adventure. So in this interview you'll hear some tips and some crazy stories, like the time that he was almost in the middle of a shark attack in South Africa. But also I hope that it provides just one more example of the creative ways that you can make a living in the world today. Enjoy.

Podcast Interview:

Kristin: What did we do today, Jimmy?  

Jimmy:    00:08:19    We just got done surfing down in the Anastasia State Park, riding bikes down the beach for like, I don't know, five hours or something. <laugh>.  

Kristin:    00:08:30    Yeah, we woke up at 5:00 AM and we got to the beach, we got to our friend's house by like six, and then we got, we rode our bikes for at least, I think it was almost 45 minutes to get down there.  

Jimmy:    00:08:46    Yeah, it was a little high tide, so the sand was soft.  

Kristin:    00:08:50    So we went to the end of this state park and went surfing because there was rare swell in St. Augustine. And we surfed for like five hours and then we rode our bikes all the way back. And so we're exhausted, <laugh> exhausted and delirious. But we're doing this. Can you just tell us, like, I know you've done a lot of stuff in life, but what is just your bio in a nutshell? Like, just tell people just a little bit about your background and what you do.  

Jimmy:    00:09:18    Um, yeah, I guess mostly I would just consider myself a photographer. That's probably what I mean, that's been my job and that's what's taken me on my career and um, you know, pretty much given me a purpose in life. But, um, other than that, I, I worked for a couple magazines, Eastern Surf Magazine. I was the photo editor for a couple years. And then Surfing Magazine, I was the assistant photo editor and then eventually photo editor. And um, also did a bit of writing here and there and kind of just tried to pretty much be able to do anything in a editorial realm that would keep me getting a paycheck.  

Kristin:    00:10:07    <laugh>, would you consider yourself a freelancer in a way?  

Jimmy:    00:10:12    Well now I'm a hundred percent a freelancer because Surfing Magazine died, uh, January, 2017. So after that I went full freelance. And um, I work for Vans Surf mostly, but I'm just a contractor so I can kind of do jobs for other things and I work from home, so I'm pretty flexible.  

Kristin:    00:10:41    How many different revenue streams would you say that you have?  

Jimmy:    00:10:45    Well, now, not so many because there's not that many places you're getting a paycheck and the surfing world pretty much on, on Instagram and nobody really wants to pay for Instagram photos or videos that often. So I get a couple random sales here and there, uh, some print sales and uh, but my main job is through Vans now and that's what I concentrate on, like almost all my time, all my time goes to them.  

Kristin:    00:11:18    So things right now are a little bit weird because of, uh, you know, the obvious coronavirus, but what was your life like before the pandemic and then what has it been like over the past couple months in California? Like take us through kind of a day in your life at home before and then also when you're on the road.  

Jimmy:    00:11:40    Well, mostly, um, I do the social media for Vans, so for the surf account. So I'm doing stuff for that every day and I can kind of work that out at any, any point in the day that I have time. Um, sometimes I work late at night, sometimes I work in the morning, whatever, it just changes. But, um, the other part of the job is traveling, going to all the events. So we have the Duct Tape Invitational and Duct Tape Festival, a longboard, uh, competition inspired by Joel Tudor. And then there's a festival portion of that, which is just an added element with Shapers and um, some vendors and music and just added fun to those events. So I go to all those, there's the Vans US Open every year in Huntington Beach. And um, the Van's Triple Crown on the North Shore. I spend a month on the North shore of Hawaii every year. Um, and then there's a, uh, trips in between there for, uh, swells, random storms and any of the oceans that send a good swell or there's a campaign or whatever. So it's a lot of traveling since this pandemic, there's been zero traveling mm-hmm. So I'm basically been home for longer than I've ever been home since I was in high school.  

Kristin:    00:13:10    And have you been working at home or? 

Jimmy:    00:13:13  yeah, I always work from home or I mean, yeah, from the road if I'm on the road.  

Kristin:    00:13:19    How many countries have you been to now? I don't even know.  

Jimmy:    00:13:22    I have no idea. I think I tried writing some down, but yeah, I'm, I'm not sure, but a lot of the countries have been like repeat countries, so yeah. How many times have I been to Australia or Indonesia? Probably been to each of those like over a dozen times.  

Kristin:    00:13:39    Yeah, that's true. I remember when you first started traveling, like when we were teenagers, right?  

Jimmy:    00:13:47    Mostly like Puerto Rico or Central America.  

Kristin:    00:13:50    Yeah. Was that your first trip Puerto Rico?  

Jimmy:    00:13:54    First surf trip was to Puerto Rico. First photo trip was to Puerto Rico and then I lived in Puerto Rico for a bit too. So pretty much everything starting my career in photography was in Puerto Rico, not Florida. Because Florida is not a good place to be a surf photographer.  

Kristin:    00:14:14    No, there's not so many waves here. I mean, even though it's changed a lot and uh, now it's even harder to be a surf photographer, but like how old were you when you knew that's what you wanted to do?  

Jimmy:    00:14:29    Probably sophomore year of high school. So what is that, 16  

Kristin:    00:14:34    Mm-hmm. 15, 16. Yeah,  

Jimmy:    00:14:36    I think that's whenever I really dove into it.  

Kristin:    00:14:40    Is that when you had your first photo published or was it before then? I think it was before.  

Jimmy:    00:14:44    It was pretty much right on the same time period. It was, I got a camera, I shot a roll film for a surf station ad, which is a surf shop here. And uh, they sent the photos in to Eastern Surf Magazine. I got a ad and then I also got a little photo published in their letters page. And so I got a check for like $15. I'm like, oh cool, I can buy like two more rolls of film <laugh>. So then I did that and got, uh, water housing and started taking some pictures in the water. And I think like the first roll of film, second roll of film I was getting, I got multiple photos published and that's when I was like, okay, this is, this is cool. I really like this and it's working somehow, so I should probably just pursue that. And it just kind of took off from there pretty early on.  

Kristin:    00:15:39    Were weren't your short first photos with, um, those disposable cameras or what were you using for the or was it Dad's camera

Jimmy:    00:15:46  Oh no. I bought like a legit camera. Um, I bought like a Canon, I can't even remember the, the model it was, but I bought like a decent camera that was fast enough to shoot, uh, sequences and shoot surfing stuff and got just a water housing and a fisheye lens. That was my first lens of fisheye. So it was just nice swimming with a fisheye, which is, you know, like I probably do that maybe once or twice a year now. But that was all I had to start.  

Kristin:    00:16:17    Yeah, I remember seeing you in your bedroom, like just reading the Canon Manual when we, I must have been probably 13 or 14. I was in high school still, and you would just be like in your room with the manual out teaching yourself photography and I always was kind of like, I was so proud of you, but I was also jealous in a way cuz I never knew what to do and I was like, man, Jimmy knows exactly what he wants to do and I had no idea. So I just went to college and was like winging it. But, um, I kind of wanna talk about that for a second. Like, you knew from high school what you wanted to do and then there was all this pressure to like go to college and get a normal job. And a lot of the people who listen to the podcast, um, quit their jobs to travel more or just start their own businesses or to like, make money using their own skills or they want to do that, they wanna get out of like a nine to five kind of job.  

Kristin:    00:17:19    Um, but there can be a lot of perceived risk and like family pressure and career pressure and like sunk costs and all this stuff, all these factors that go into doing that as like a 17 or 18 year old. How did you deal with the pressure from mom and dad to like go to college and how were you able to pursue your career track from the beginning, even when people were saying, you know, you can't make money doing that, or it's not a real job, or you need to get a four year degree and blah, blah, blah. Like what wa what was your thought process like?  

Jimmy:    00:17:59    Well, I don't think, I didn't want to real, I didn't want to go to college cuz, um, partly because there was no colleges around us where they were near the beach. I mean, you'd have to drive an hour at least or more to go surfing. So right away I was kind of not into doing that. I wanted to be where I could surf every day, but I just did. I, to me it was less of a risk to not go to college because you're not investing in wasting, not necessarily wasting money, but you're not spending money on tuition and all this stuff and you're getting a jumpstart on your, your career. Like I, I remember one of my teachers in high school was, um, talking to us about a doctor. He compared a doctor and a plumber financially, and he, he took the plumber who went straight outta high school, started working, worked his way up, uh, to eventually starting his own business.  

Jimmy:    00:19:02    And, and then he took the doctor who went to school for however long, a decade almost. And then he, by the time their salaries matched, it was like so far into the future it woke me up to go, okay, well I definitely don't wanna do that. I'd rather just kind of pursue something I want to do anyway, which doesn't require school. But I did go to Daytona Beach Community College, which I think is Daytona State College now, but they have a photography program there. I did two semesters there, got a call from Trans World Surf photo editor Peter Terrace, and he told me, I need you to go to Barbados tomorrow today with Kelly Slater and Benji Weatherly. And I was freaking out, you know, that's the best surfer in the world and another top level surfer and my favorite place in the world to go to. The waves were insane. My teachers were like, you can't go. And I was like, well I'm going <laugh>. And so I went and then they were, you know, I actually ended up failing a class, not photography, but like a,  

Kristin:    00:20:14    Like a gen ed class.

Jimmy:    00:20:15    Yeah, yeah. Another class in community college that semester cuz I missed so many days. And I was like, you know what, this is, this is bullshit. Um, my teachers were actually really excited that I loved surf photography and they actually pushed me to go do it. They were like, you don't need to be here. Not necessarily cuz you're like this great photographer, but just, I don't think I was that at all. But just because I already knew what I wanted to do and I was kind of already doing it. So, from that point on the first week outta school, I was like, it timed up well with a friend from Puerto Rico. Dylan Graves flew myself and a bunch of our friends to Australia, um, on his American Airlines, miles <laugh>, like he had so many miles there gonna expire. So he flew us all Australia round trip and he and I, he told me, you know, where do you want me to book your ticket? And I said, just book me back to Puerto Rico. I'm moving. So I moved straight to Puerto Rico straight after that and I had no real plan, but, um, it all works out, I guess if you just let it happen.  

Kristin:    00:21:26    <laugh> how old were you then? 

Jimmy:    00:21:29    I was 19.  

Kristin:    00:21:30    Yeah. So you're 19 living in Puerto Rico community college dropout, but like crushing it, I mean, you're doing exactly what you wanted to do.  

Jimmy:    00:21:39    Yeah, I was for a bit and then I, I was not paying much rent down there. It was pretty cheap. I can't even remember. I was staying in a fr my friend Aaron Geiger's house, but, and I was filming and shooting photos of him and the crew down there making a movie called Knock It Off too. So we did that and then I was getting into summertime, the waves go flat there and I was really struggling for money. I was like painting houses in the ghetto of Aguadilla for like, just to make some kind of money. Oh,  

Kristin:    00:22:09    I forgot about that.

Jimmy:    00:22:10    It was pretty low. I was, I was like, what am I doing really <laugh>. But um, after that, uh, I got a call from the guys at ESM, Dick Meall and Tom Duggan and they offered me a photo editor job at the magazine. I would've be the first photo editor since the founder, Dick Meall. And I was 20 years old. That was a really, felt like a really big opportunity that I wasn't maybe ready for. I definitely wasn't ready for actually but you know, I was like, okay, a real job, actual decent money at the time and I could live with my aunt in Vero Beach and drive up there. So I just did that for a couple years and it was an awesome experience. I got to meet a bunch of people. I got to, um, pretty much all the way up the East coast. I, I feel like I know somebody in nearly every single town up the east coast for that. And it's like a big family, the east coast surfing community.  

Kristin:    00:23:18    Yeah, for sure.

Jimmy:    00:23:19     They would've all like invite you into their house to stay if you needed.  

Kristin:    00:23:23    I would actually never gotten a hotel when I was surfing on the East coast. I just stayed at people's houses all the time.  

Jimmy:    00:23:29    Yeah, it's great. It's not like the other places. Well it is other places but not, it's not like that in California per se.  

Kristin:    00:23:35    Yeah. So then you worked at ESM for a few years and then at what point did you move to California? Um, how did that all happen?  

Jimmy:    00:23:45    Well, I got offered a job at Surfing Magazine like a couple months after I started working at Eastern Surf Magazine. And I didn't take it because I was like, that would just be so lame to get hired at this and immediately bail. So I was like, I'm gonna put in some time here and then, you know, maybe I'll move on eventually. So I put in two years there and then I got reoffered that position as assistant photo editor at Surfing Magazine. And at that point I was ready to get out and go like get on the road more and travel and just kind of experienced things as a somebody in their early twenties.  

Kristin:    00:24:30    Yeah. And you had all that experience then under your belt from working at ESM and kind of, you were kind of the jack of all trades there too, right? Like you were doing a lot of different responsibilities.  

Jimmy:    00:24:42    Mo it was mostly photo there but I mean they have the whole staff, the whole staff reads everything in the magazine, edits everything, you know, tries to point out mistakes and ads. They used to put everything up on a wall. Um, yeah, Matt Pruit there and Mez and Tom Duggan, they taught me so much about, you know, I was only, I remember having my first legal beer in the office <laugh>, you know, like it was, it was cool. Like at lunch I got a beer when I turned 21, but I learned a ton and then, you know, you keep learning a ton. You think you know a lot when you're 2021, but  yeah,

Kristin:    00:25:22     you don't know what you don't know yet. 

Jimmy:    00:25:24    Yeah.  You realize, I mean I, I'm still learning a lot, but you know, going into Surfing Magazine, it wasn't like a super easy transition because I was just a bit of a reckless child. So, you know, I got slapped on the wrist a bunch of times, <laugh>, but ultimately like I was so passionate for surfing, so passionate for photography and, and also people like, just one of my favorite things at Surfing Magazine was we had this trip called Grom Games we did annually and it was taking the best 14 year old kids in the world on pretty much their first surf trip. I mean, some of 'em had been on surf trips cuz there are prodigies, but first like magazine trip with their peers and um, kinda like bringing them up and bringing them into like how to shoot photos and how to film and work with uh, media. And we made it fun for 'em, like had a bunch of games for 'em and stuff, but that was kind of like my favorite thing to do was was work with like the kids and try to help bring that next generation up. And I think that was probably, yeah, that was probably my favorite thing going at the magazine  

Kristin:    00:26:43    That was at surfing.Right. Yeah, because, so at this time this was probably like the mid two thousands, right?  

Jimmy:    00:26:51    Well no, I-

Kristin:    00:26:52    it was like mid to late.  

Jimmy:    00:26:54    I moved out there in 2008 so

Kristin:    00:26:57    Okay. So that's when I was living in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and you came down a couple years to go surfing and, and just like explore with me. I remember we, we would like take my um, four by four and like just drive around Costa Rica, like go on our own surf trips and then in Nicaragua too. We were the only people, literally the only foreigners within a couple hours I think because at that time the boom was closed.  

Jimmy:    00:27:30    Yeah. The northern Nicaragua hadn't really been,  

Kristin:    00:27:33    Hadn't really been explored yet.  

Jimmy:    00:27:34    Yeah, no one I knew or which was pretty much, you know, it's most people it's surf world's real small, so unique, almost know everyone. No one had been there yet. And I remember visiting you down there and we got really good waves. It was in the winter, which is the off season. Yeah, that's actually the last surf trip I've done for myself. Really?  

Kristin:    00:27:55    In 2008. That was January, 2008.  

Jimmy:    00:27:57    Yeah, that's the last time I've done a surf trip. I've been on, oh probably 200 surf trips since then. But none of them for me surfing,  

Kristin:    00:28:06    We gotta go on one.  

Jimmy:    00:28:07    Just, I've been, I was trying, I was about to go to Mexico right before this whole thing started.

Kristin: Really?

Jimmy: And then I got shut down. That was gonna be my first surf trip in 12 years.  

Kristin:    00:28:17    Oh my God. You took the pictures. People who have listened to the podcast might have seen these cuz I've, I've shown them in my talks. My first digital nomad picture is like me with my white MacBook at a Palapa in Nicaragua at this hotel I was living at. So it was like a closed down hotel cuz it was the off season. So the owner was back in the US There were no vacation rentals in that town. There were no hotels. It was just like this little surf cabina. And I had the whole thing to myself. It was like me and the Nicaraguan staff and then you came down and I had been there for like one day or two days and then we were surfing by ourself in this like kind of sharky like sketchy area with huge waves. And then you took this picture of me sitting there with my laptop, like working at the Palapa in 2008. And it's just like, I'm so glad you were there for that. Cuz I mean that was a pretty crazy transition for me too coming from real estate in Costa Rica and like working with a team of people and having kind of like a company culture and then going by myself to Nicaragua to like completely start over. I was so glad that you came.  

Jimmy:    00:29:27    Yeah, I don't think we knew many people that were going outside the country to work. It was only like a trip for a vacation or for surfing or whatever. It was never like, oh, I'm just gonna go there.  

Kristin:    00:29:40    Yeah. It was a very <laugh> like weird lifestyle that we had compared to our friends. But then it's cool that you brought the Groms back there a few years later, right?  

Jimmy:    00:29:52    Yeah. That was the first  -

Kristin:    00:29:53  the first Groms Trip -

Jimmy:    00:29:54    Groms Trip was there. And that trip had Kanoa Igarashi , Griffin Colapinto and um, who else? Jake Marshall. Uh, these kids are all,  

Kristin:    00:30:10    Are they all pro surfers now?  

Jimmy:    00:30:12    Yeah, Seth Moniz, three of 'em are like the, some of the best up and coming kids on the WSL tour now. And a few, uh, the other two are on their way.

Kristin: Wow.

Jimmy:  To getting there. So it was a pretty crazy freak show crew. yeah.  

Kristin:    00:30:27    And the girls too, like, um, Caroline, right?  

Jimmy:    00:30:30    Yeah. We did take Caroline Marks on, on that on a trip, like later on. That was like six years later or  whatever.

Kristin:    00:30:36     And now did she win the world title?

Jimmy:    00:30:38  No, She almost did.  

Kristin:    00:30:39    Second place?

Jimmy:    00:30:42    . Yeah.  She - this covid took her

Kristin: Oh man.

Jimmy:  First world title away from her we'll see.

Kristin:    00:30:46    Oh that's the bummer.  

Jimmy:    00:30:47    She would win it this year. She's the, she's the best.  

Kristin:    00:30:51    So you've had a lot of, uh, crazy travel experiences. Let's talk a little bit about that. Um, what are some of the more remote places that you've been to?  

Jimmy:    00:31:03    Uh, I would say early in the days, going to Indonesia was really remote. Going to the Mentawai Islands just really far away. You gotta go through, I don't know, more than 48 hours of travel. No way more than that. And uh, you're out in these islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean, but now it's like, it's just become, there's land camps everywhere and there's people everywhere and it's just become completely different. But back then it was all boats and just very far away  

Kristin:    00:31:36    Like wooden boats, right?  

Jimmy:    00:31:38    I mean, you're staying on nice boats or not so nice boats depending on how much money you want to pay <laugh>. But I mean, yeah, the locals are all in wooden boats and yeah, he would go over there and not go on whatever. There was MySpace for like 12 days or something you'd get back. No emails, nothing. That's gone now. I missed that that time. That was actually really cool  

Kristin:    00:32:01    Going off the grid. 

Jimmy:    00:32:04    Yeah,  That's not really possible. But I guess what other places are remote? The Caribbean. I've explored a lot of the Caribbean and that's been probably my favorite thing to do is just go to places down there that not they've, they've been surfed before by people, but no one that we know or whatever you're, it feels like you're exploring, you have that feeling that you used to be able to get back in like the sixties and seventies and when everyone was traveling around finding new waves. It feels like that. That's cool to do. That's like something I really like to do. But I think now those waves are, all the remote places are mostly cold. I would say. You go somewhere cold and you know, you go up to Alaska or something that's, you gonna find a lot of remote stuff up there, but I've never been. I want to go.  

Kristin:    00:32:57    What are some of your favorite islands in the Caribbean?  

Jimmy:    00:33:00    Uh, Barbados, like I mentioned earlier, that's like, there's this wave suit bowl there. It's world class. Uh, I love Puerto Rico and then St. Barts was, als- was another one that I had a ton of fun. The waves weren't the best, but  

Kristin:    00:33:17    I wanna go there so bad.  

Jimmy:    00:33:19    Yeah, just the, it was a fun time there we had.  

Kristin:    00:33:23    And tell us about, uh, what happened after the hurricane. Didn't you get involved on there and go do some work?  

Jimmy:    00:33:30    Oh yeah. Uh, so Hurricane Irma, I was in Barbados again and um, yeah, the waves were really good. It's a kind of a heavy moment. Well yeah, really heavy. Um, a local kid down there, I think he was 16 years old, Xander Veia, he drowned, um, during the session. Hit his head on the reef and  

Kristin:    00:33:58    Wait, you were there? 

Jimmy:    00:34:00    Yeah,  and he's a friend of ours and 

Kristin:    00:34:02    Oh,  I forgot about that  

Jimmy:    00:34:03    Too. Yeah, so her, it's this huge hurricane and the waves are gr great and then, but you know, our friend passes away. We tried to save him but just couldn't get him in in time. It was, it was just way too hard to, to get him to the beach. The current was ripping out and well, CPR went, we did CPR for a long time. Dylan Graves and Nathan Florence especially, they were like trained in that, which we've all been trained more, way more since then. That was a big wake up call, but that hurricane was going by and terrible experience. And then it goes and smashes into like a bunch of our favorite islands that we'd go down there to visit all the time. So we felt like we needed to do something to help. And uh, John Rose, who's the founder of Waves for Water, Ben Bourgeois, who's one of John's best friends and one of our really close friends and Dylan Graves and I met, we linked up with them and went down to  

Jimmy:    00:35:05    St. Croix to base ourselves and go give filtration - water filtration systems out around, like the plan was to hit the pretty much every affected island and you know, make sure everyone has clean drinking water, which is so important. And also, you know, the, all the plastic bottles that they bring in on ships that just sit in the heat and are just terrible for everything. Yeah. You know, just to give these filtration systems they mean a lot. So we went down there to do that and then we, we got caught in uh, uh, hurricane Maria. We just, we went right as soon as we got down there this hurricane forms and smashed us and we were stuck on St. Croix. So we took that one.  

Kristin:    00:35:45    So yeah, so you go to St. Croix to help in the after immediate aftermath of Hurricane Irma. And weren't you guys with like the National Guard and stuff because it was so kind of like sketchy?  

Jimmy:    00:35:59    No, I mean we were in a hotel. I mean there was a bunch of other people there that were down to help because that was the only functioning island with the airport. And uh, but then that airport got trashed and then everything, nothing was functioning at that point. But the, the good thing is we were able to help out right there and then like immediately. Yeah. So we started pumping people then and then expanded throughout all the Caribbean. Um, and all those places got hit so hard, but they've seemed like they've mostly bounced back.  

Kristin:    00:36:28    Even Bahamas seems like it's bouncing back.  

Jimmy:    00:36:31    That was even like another level this last summer on that  hurricane.

Kristin:    00:36:34    And because yeah, we have a lot of friends out there too who have like, houses and surf camps and rentals and stuff and that was even, I mean that was awful. You almost went out there right? With Waves For Water.  

Jimmy:    00:36:47    Yeah. I wa I was thinking about going back but I just couldn't, it was bad timing for me with work. But I think what those guys do, John Rosen, the crew there is really, really good. They've done stuff all over the world helping out and they're just continuing to do that and hit places that a lot of people don't even think  about.

Kristin:    00:37:08     I I donated to them, I'm gonna link to it in the show notes guys, if you wanna check out Waves for Water, um,  

Jimmy:    00:37:15    I could speak for them just being legit for, you know, if you spend, if you donate money to some places, like such a small per percentage of that actually goes to helping. Whereas with Waves for Water, they're, they're really efficient and small  

Kristin:    00:37:31    How they use the resources. Yeah,  

Jimmy:    00:37:32    There's a small crew and they make a big impact.  

Kristin:    00:37:35    Yeah, man, you, you've been through, through so much and you've had near death experiences too and didn't you almost drown once in Puerto Rico surfing?  

Jimmy:    00:37:48    Yeah, I did. I, I've almost drowned a couple times, but I've learned a lot since then. And basically what you learn is not to panic ever. I get to hang around a bunch of big wave surfers, which I have no interest in, but they, you pick things up from them and there's these classes, these big wave risk assessment group classes that are for water safety. Since I'm shooting these people, I, I better be able to save 'em. Sometimes we're on jet skis, you know, sometimes we're just often way down the beach and somewhere in Western Australia or somewhere far away where from people where something goes wrong you have to be able to react and do something about it. So I end up being around all these people and they're some of the craziest people in the world and what I've learned is you can really survive a lot more than you think you can  

Kristin:    00:38:44    <laugh>.  

Jimmy:    00:38:45    So yeah, I, if I would've, if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't even have become close to dying in those times cuz I would've been way more prepared to take him on. But yeah, big wave surfing is - swimming out. I do a lot of swimming and I'm not a, I'm not someone who goes out at like huge pipeline or trope or some of the gnarliest waves and swims those I'd rather like be in the boat, which is not always safe either, but  

Kristin:    00:39:13    Right. We've seen like YouTube videos of boats going over the falls at Teahupoo.

Jimmy:    00:39:17     Yeah, no, I'm basically, I'm, I I'm pretty, I I keep it pretty safe. But eventually you're gonna be in a situation where something could go wrong or you, you basically have to swim because the surfers on the trip require you to swim because waves are that good and you know, that's the way you're gonna get the best photos.  

Kristin:    00:39:40    Were you there when Evan almost drowned in Hawaii?

Jimmy:    00:39:42    Oh, I wasn't there for that.  

Kristin:    00:39:44    So that was like your best friend's brother, I mean on one of your best friends, you have a lot of bestfriends.

Jimmy:    00:39:49   Evan and Eric are close -

Kristin:    00:39:51    So these are like two pro surfers, Evan and Eric Geiselman and then the younger one, did he hit his head or something at?

Jimmy:    00:39:59   Yeah, he hit his head in at Pipeline and a body border got to him and brought, was able to bring him in close enough to where the lifeguards could help and they resuscitated him on the beach.  

Kristin:    00:40:13    That was so lucky.  

Jimmy:    00:40:14    Yeah, I give him a hug every time I see him. 

Kristin:    00:40:18    Aww,  <laugh>. All right, we have to talk about Mick Fanning. Can you tell us that story?  

Jimmy:    00:40:24    Oh, the shark attack? Yeah. Oh, well attack the shark incident at Jeffrey's Bay 2016 I think.  

Kristin:    00:40:31    Yeah, take us through like

Jimmy:    00:40:32    in 2015 maybe. I, I can't remember.  

Kristin:    00:40:35    So I think it was 2015 maybe. Yeah. Take us through that day or that morning or whatever was going on that day because you were swimming that day

Jimmy:    00:40:42     Yeah, so I used to go around to a bunch of the world tour events and shoot photos of 'em, like sports photographer style and uh, that day was the finals day at JBA and I was covering Nive. It was just me shooting for Surfing Magazine. So I, I was like, all right, I know I need to swim at some point in this day. And I was just kinda like over it cuz it's just so sharky. The vibe is just beyond sharky but the waves were good and the finals were gonna happen. So I went out there and swam for a bit and it was a pretty weird feeling out there. You couldn't see like more than a foot underwater cuz it was so murky.  But it was sunny and it didn't feel like, you know, extra sketchy or anything.

Kristin:    00:41:33    So you're the only one swimming in the water, but there's like a crowd on the beach.  

Jimmy:    00:41:36    There was another photographer Alan Mange in swimming out there. He actually had a shark. Um, he wears a shark -

Kristin:    00:41:41    Repellent  

Jimmy:    00:41:42    Ankle brace thing that sends off a signal, which some people think actually attracts sharks to o

Kristin:    00:41:47    I heard that too.

Jimmy:    00:41:48     But either way there's sharks in uh, JBA, there's a lot of 'em. So yeah, I was in the water and I swam in right before it was, uh, Kelly Slater versus Mick Fanning in the semi and right after their semi I swam in cuz I knew I had to shoot the final and get like the winner getting chaired up the beach and everything. So I went in and I went to the top of the tower above the judges and above the, the whole contest site. And uh, I was up there, it was just kind of like a lull in the sets and you just heard this collective gasp from the crowd. Just everybody just, I'll never forget the sound, it was just so distinct cuz the, there's a lot of fans there and everyone's really into the surfing at JBA. It's not like Huntington Beach where no one's even watching. It's like people are core surf fans. So he gets, I look down and I see it. He's just getting drug underwater fighting a shark and I'm, I just immediately started taking photos. I got a photo of him like where he's actually underwater and no one else can has that or can see it cuz the camera angles were too. Okay. They were too low so that the wave came in in front. If you watch the webcast you can't see it, the wave's in front when that happens. But I got all these photos of that  and uh

Kristin:    00:43:04    because you were up on the scaffolding?

Jimmy:    00:43:06     Yeah, I was up on the very top part. You could be. And then, you know, we didn't really know what happened but then he, he went to the boat and the, the boat driver picked him up and uh, wow. He's just really lucky. Like he got hit by a great white but the great white wasn't attacking him, it maybe just ran into him, bumped him and he got tangled with it and uh, like ripped his, broke his leash like I think he got, maybe got caught in his leash. It was a crazy experience. But the first contest I've ever been to where there was no winner, it was a tie. Second pla uh, they got equal second.  

Kristin:    00:43:43    I didn't even realize that.  

Jimmy:    00:43:45    Mick and Julian Wilson. Yeah, yeah.  

Kristin:    00:43:47    They're just like canceled game over.

Jimmy:    00:43:49   Yeah, it was a weird after party that night. It was like, it was just real emotional and everyone was just thankful cuz Mick Fanning is the most, oh he's retired now, but he was the most popular surfer on tour by far. He was like, everyone loves him. He is just such a good guy and he's Australian. He, he, he like works really hard but he also like parties at times.  

Kristin:    00:44:11    <laugh> Half Tiger Australian,  

Jimmy:    00:44:13    He's just a great, he's a great person And so like everyone him getting hit by a shark was like, if we would've lost Mick Fanning, you know, that would've been  

Kristin:    00:44:24    Yeah.  

Jimmy:    00:44:25    Horrendous.  

Kristin:    00:44:27    That was a ma - that was so crazy. I'm sure a lot of people listening saw the like viral clips of that going on. I think I watched it like 10 times. And then also a like weird coincidence with Mick Fanning is that in 2003, I think you know this story, I was living in Australia studying abroad and Mick Fanning was already like pretty famous at that point. And one day my friend and I, my roommate Jackie, we paddled across this inlet that's super sharky, like full of tiger sharks and stuff to this island called South Stradbroke Island where they have like wallabies and stuff like that. And it's a super fun beach break. I was actually saying this morning that it was reminding me of it and um, I surfed all day like we surfed for six hours or something like that. And then on my last wave some guy dropped in on me and I like went over the falls and I got so worked and like held under

.  

Kristin:    00:45:26    It was really big and really shallow beach break and I, I got like rolled up onto the sand basically cuz like the waves were breaking right at the sand. And I just was so exhausted cuz we had like paddled over there and most people take jet skis and I'm just like laying on the sand and I open my eyes and like Mick Fanning is standing over me <laugh> and he's like, are you okay? Because like they, him and Joel Parkinson and like all their friends were standing up on the dunes cuz they had finished surfing and they saw the whole thing and he like ran down to see if I was okay.  

Jimmy:    00:46:02    That's the kind of person he is.  

Kristin:    00:46:04    And then years later there you were shooting him while he is getting in a fight with a shark.  

Jimmy:    00:46:10    Yeah.  

Kristin:    00:46:11    So yeah he is a good person. I'm glad that that thing that that worked out. But let's talk about something not life or death <laugh>. Um, what are some of the uh, highlights of your career?  

Jimmy:    00:46:27    I don't know, highlights. I guess getting a cover shot was always a big deal back in the day. So getting my first cover shot, um, that was like 2006. I was still working at ESM and I got a cover of Surfing Magazine of Dylan Graves. That was a huge deal for me. But then  -

Kristin:    00:46:50    Was that the yellow and black one?  

Jimmy:    00:46:52    Yeah, it was like a Sunset air with pump  

Kristin:    00:46:54    And in Indo, right? 

Jimmy:    00:46:56    Yeah.  So that was a big deal. And then I did a couple of these Red Bull alum photo contests. So the first one was 2007. I had like one of the category winner photos for that one. They took us to Aspen, Colorado. I saw snow for the first time. That was awesome. That was a great, like one of the best experiences of my life for sure. Cuz now I love snowboarding. I'm addicted to that.  

Kristin:    00:47:22    Is that how you got introduced to snowboarding?  

Jimmy:    00:47:24    Yeah. Yeah. I'd never seen snow before. I was probably on the worst gear ever but <laugh> I just learned it and then I did that again. I did that same one five years later or something and I didn't win but I made the final, they sent me to Hong Kong for that. That was cool. But yeah, I guess there's not really like accomplishments I guess just personal, personal like photo accomplishments. I mean I would just say that the one that sticks out is this. I went to Tahiti with uh, the Florence Brothers and Koa Rothman and we got the this wave, not Chopu, but a different wave a right, like as good as it's ever been. And I got this photo of John John just standing in a gigantic perfect blue barrel that will just freak people out forever. It's just like the most perfect wave. I know. I knew right at that time like I'll never see a better wave than that in my life cuz I've never seen a better wave than that like anywhere. So I have that photo and that's probably like, yeah that's probably just the one that sticks out the most to me is anytime I think of best photo I've taken, I I knew right then I would never get another better photo, a better photo than that.  

Kristin:    00:48:43    Well so even better than Fiji. Cuz you've been to Tabarro, right? 

Jimmy:    00:48:47    Yeah, I've been to Fiji a few times. Um, but yeah, that's great. That's a great wave and everything, but it's actually kind of tough to photograph to make it look like as good as the wave actually is because it's, the reason it's so good is it, it's a point break down a reef that breaks, you know, it could be like a 15 second ride that's perfect the entire way, but just taking one frame of that never really tells like the whole tale of of what it's doing.  

Kristin:    00:49:20    Yeah. But you're doing a lot of video now, right?  

Jimmy:    00:49:24    Well yeah, I do a bunch of video kind of just based off the needs for the job I guess.  

Kristin:    00:49:31    Yeah, that's interesting. So it seems like whenever people have traveled a lot, like their favorite places or favorite times, like aren't necessarily some super glamorous or like exciting destination. It's just like a moment in time, just a time and a place with peop like people that you like and that one frame of that one wave.  

Jimmy:    00:50:00    Yeah, I mean, well when you're talking about like best times, the good times of getting good waves are great, but normally you're so burnt after those days that you're almost like can't even celebrate 'em. You're just like so tired and drained. The most fun times I think are actually the trips where the waves are terrible <laugh> and you, but yeah, you have to be with good people, you have to be with your friends. She usually are, but you know, there's certain people that are, you know, positive and certain people that are more negative. But if you're with the positive ones and you're going through a negative situation, it's just funny to laugh at the shit you get yourself in <laugh> and like just how bad it can really get <laugh>. I mean,  

Kristin:    00:50:46    Yeah. When things go so wrong and it's like Murphy's Law and it can't get any worse and it just keeps getting worse.  

Jimmy:    00:50:53    <laugh>. Yeah, it's just funny. It's, I I've always like been able to laugh at myself and I like laughing at others too, you know, for their blunders. But it's just fun when you're in a shitty situation. Sometimes it's more memorable. You bond in those times.  

Kristin:    00:51:09    Yeah, that's a good point. Like didn't you, um, so you were roommates with Fisher for a couple years in California? The dj?  

Jimmy:    00:51:17    Yeah. No, not a couple years. A couple months. Oh,  

Kristin:    00:51:20    A couple months  

Jimmy:    00:51:20    Because we got kicked out <laugh>.  

Kristin:    00:51:23    That's not surprising. Didn't you guys get skunked on a trip to Mexico?  

Jimmy:    00:51:28    No, we got absolutely the best waves ever in Mexico. We got skunked on a trip to the Philippines.  

Kristin:    00:51:33    Oh, okay. 

Jimmy:    00:51:34    But they actually scored. I had to leave. I had to go. I was actually moving in and we hadn't live together yet, but I was moving into the house that we would eventually live together in on that trip. And so I had to do that and I had to go on another, a swimsuit trip for the Surfing magazine swimsuit issue, which I'm not bummed about. <laugh> to Dominican Republic. So I had to leave right before like a good swell came. They extended their trip, but I, I couldn't stay.  

Kristin:    00:52:01    Oh.  

Jimmy:    00:52:02    But yeah, we've got, we got great waves in Mexico. That's probably the best trip I've ever been on.  

Kristin:    00:52:06    I remember like cracking up at the videos of you guys just like getting really drunk at night cause  --

Jimmy:    00:52:11    We were not getting drunk. I mean we would just have a couple beer, you know, you just have beers after a surf. Especially in Mexico. <laugh> because anything cold will be good. You just want anything, the coldest thing you can put your lips on. So, uh, yeah, Fisher is just funny. He's the funniest person I've ever been around. Um, the fact that he's a DJ now, I don't know anything about that. I mean, he was DJing at our house and he would like, he was messing around with stuff for years, but we never took it seriously. <laugh>. I mean, I don't think, I mean, I don't know who did, but whatever it is, he's just, he's so charismatic and so funny that he can pretty much just like stand up in a room and like yell something and everyone will just start dying laughing and like, I mean he does, he is the center of attention. So it doesn't surprise me to see him blow up.  

Kristin:    00:53:10    He's like exactly like his social media. Like that's like,  

Jimmy:    00:53:13    Well that is authentically him for sure. <laugh>, he he's every bit of that weird.  

Kristin:    00:53:19    That's so funny. Oh, is there any weird that you've haven't been that you wanna go?  

Jimmy:    00:53:25    I mean I like going anywhere new. If there's a new place that I haven't been to, I would love to go check it out. So some of the Van's duct tape contests have taken me to those places cuz they do a new location every time. Yeah, I mean I have, I've been to so many places, like repeatedly. I haven't been to like a lot of other, I haven't been to a lot of places, just the same places over and over again it seems like. So <laugh> any new new destination I like to go to. Like even, uh, we went to China to this Hainan island in China. That was actually when I didn't want to go to, I was like, I don't want to go over there. The waves aren't gonna be good. And  

Kristin:    00:54:09    Oh, it was for a contest, right?  

Jimmy:    00:54:10    Yeah for the Van's duct tape. And China's just not like a place you just dream of going to. But that was a amazing trip too actually. They have a cool surf scene there and they have couple fun waves and it's actually, we stayed in a really nice hotel and the whole crew hung out the whole time because no one knew anyone. No one knew the language and it like brought everyone together more than ever. So it was, uh, that ended up being a really fun trip. But yeah, I, you always appreciate things more as you get older and you appreciate definitely new places.  

Kristin:    00:54:49    Is that when you went to Japan too?  

Jimmy:    00:54:51    Yeah, Japan. I've never been there and that was kind of surprised cuz that place has great waves. Yeah. But we didn't get great waves when I was there.  

Kristin:    00:54:59    So do you, like, you have such a positive attitude about everything and you've always been so hard working. Like, do you worry at all about, you know, this pandemic or the future because you've already been hit with so many things, like even in your own career having like your magazine, you know, the magazine that you worked for shut down the whole magazine industry going out of business. Do you think that that people should just keep reinventing themselves and like just roll with the punches? Is that part of life?  

Jimmy:    00:55:32    Yeah, obviously you have to do that, but I've always kind of just tried to live off such little money and save everything that I could to give myself a buffer, knowing that potentially there's gonna be a time where just money just doesn't come in and so I, I need to prepare for that and I have, but ultimately I, I just don't need that much to be happy. So I don't need to like live in like really nice place. I don't need to have all this stuff. I just, as long as I can surf, you know, spend time with my daughter, um, hopefully snowboard sometimes, which costs a little bit more money, <laugh>. But I've built out my car to make it less money. Um, yeah. I don't need much. I just, so yeah, obviously there's a worry of during these times, but it's not like it's all gonna be fine as long as they don't shut us down for surfing anymore.  

Kristin:    00:56:32    <laugh>. Yeah. Do you think that traveling has given you that perspective? Because you've been to so many places, you've, you have friends from so many countries around the world and you've seen such a range of happiness and poverty levels.  

Jimmy:    00:56:47    Yeah. You - that traveling gives you the best perspective ever. Um, I want to bring my daughter to places so she can see that too. So she can know what, you know, what it's like, how we have it as really good and some people don't have it that good. But yeah, you can still be happy with almost nothing. And the other thing about traveling is it just teaches you to just be patient. Like, there's nothing, sometimes you, it's just every, it's outta your control and you just have to just sit there and and ride it out <laugh>. And so, I mean, I think that's a huge lesson I learned early on. I don't try to like force anything or, or freak out and scream at people. I just like, okay, this is how it's gonna be sometimes. Okay, we'll just roll with it.  

Kristin:    00:57:34    Yeah. Yeah. I feel the same way.  

Jimmy:    00:57:37    That's, that's how I feel about this whole thing is I'm just gonna roll with it and yeah, I'm not traveling, I'm not making as much money or whatever, but it's life has almost like never been better in a way. 

Kristin:    00:57:49    Yeah. You're getting more quality time with your daughter and  

Jimmy:    00:57:51    I've never surfed this much, not since I was a little kid.  

Kristin:    00:57:54    Wow.  

Jimmy:    00:57:55    So that's fun.  

Kristin:    00:57:57    Yeah. Okay, let's do a quick lightning round. Okay. What, uh, camera do you shoot with or cameras? 

Jimmy:    00:58:04    I  use a Cannon one DX Mark two.  

Kristin:    00:58:08    What is your favorite surf trip or favorite surf destination?  

Jimmy:    00:58:13    I would always say just anywhere in the Caribbean.  

Kristin:    00:58:16    What's your favorite non-surf destination you've been to?  

Jimmy:    00:58:21    Somewhere in the mountains, snowboarding, so wherever the snow is good.  

Kristin:    00:58:27    Um, do you have any hacks for finding cheap flights or any like kind of travel hacks? Cuz you plan a lot of trips for people?

Jimmy:    00:58:35    Uh, I, no, there's no like, secret to the flights, but I mean, I use, I kind of cross reference things, but I guess I would just always say, use the best credit card that's gonna give you the best points.  

Kristin:    00:58:50    Agree. Do you have any jet lag hacks when you're doing those 48 hour flights around the world?  

Jimmy:    00:58:57    I plan ahead for, I'll just look at the times of the flights and the time at home, and a lot of times I'll try to stay up maybe even like a whole night at the destination I'm in, which will make me sleep on the plane to get me back on that schedule. But it's definitely not scientific, it's just more, it's just drink a lot of beers some nights and stay up <laugh>.  

Kristin:    00:59:25    Um, how do you stay motivated to work at home?  

Jimmy:    00:59:30    Oh, that's hard. I think just finding the time when there's certain times of the day I'll be motivated and certain times I just won't. So, so, and it's different every day, so whenever I get in the zone and start firing on all cylinders, I just try to stick with that and ride, ride that as long as I can  

Kristin:    00:59:53    Until you run out of flow.

Jimmy:    00:59:54    Yeah. And then I'll get, you know, distracted and do something else.  

Kristin:    00:59:58    Take a break. What is one photography tip that all amateur photographers should know? Or like any non photographers for taking better travel photos?  

Jimmy:    01:00:08    Like using a phone or using a -

Kristin:    01:00:10    Yeah, like using an iPhone.  

Jimmy:    01:00:12    That's a tough one, I guess. I don't know. <laugh>, the best thing you could do is probably just get like one of those apps, like Snapseed or something to edit your photos with. So they don't look all the same flatness of a regular iPhone photo.  

Kristin:    01:00:29    What is that little camera that you take around?  

Jimmy:    01:00:32    That's EOS M100 or something.  

Kristin:    01:00:36    Okay. I wanna get one of those.  

Jimmy:    01:00:38    Uh, it's all right. It's- 

Kristin:    01:00:40    Okay.  

Jimmy:    01:00:41    Or you just get a film camera. Just get a little film camera and be really selective about the photos you take. Only take like, try to take one, maybe take one roll for the whole trip and try to like space out 36 photos.  

Kristin:    01:00:54    Oh, that's a cool idea.  

Jimmy:    01:00:56    Then you, it will, what it'll make you do is not take bullshit and take like a photo of everything. It's like you try to capture like actual good photos and you value that one click.  

Kristin:    01:01:07    Yeah, I'm gonna do that because like sometimes yeah, having endless amounts of images on your digital camera or your iPhone or like on your car, your SD card, it's like you just don't think about it as much anymore. And then you sometimes never even look back or I never looked is more, looked back at the photos.

Jimmy: Less is more.

Kristin: Yeah, less is more. Do you have any words of advice to people who are, like, they have things that they've wanted to do, like maybe for work and their career that they've wanted to pursue, but they've just been uncertain about it and so they're kind of staying in a job or in a situation that they don't like, but they're just kind of like waiting for the right time. What would you say to, to people that haven't really started like living life on their own terms yet?  

Jimmy:    01:01:56    I think you gotta do whatever makes you happy. Like you don't need to be tied to something that doesn't make you happy. You can get away from it if you really want to. If you kind of start making excuses for yourself, just like what's the worst case scenario? I mean, the worst case scenario is probably not gonna happen, but, you know, just, I would just say be realistic, but go for it.  

Kristin:    01:02:20    Nice. And what's next for you? Do you have any goals or things that you haven't achieved yet or any plans or any ideas of things you wanna do in like the next five to 10 years?  

Jimmy:    01:02:34    I mean, I kind of feel like I, I've gotten this body of work now. I have a lot of lineup, photos of a lot of the best waves around the world, which I really enjoy looking at like the best waves on their best days. I hope to just keep expanding on that. And then I also, I've been working on like a personal series of slow shutter speed wave stuff that's over the past, mostly in Hawaii over the past like six or so years. And I just want to kind of keep working on that and maybe eventually it'll become something but  

Kristin:    01:03:09    Make like a book or sell them online  

Jimmy:    01:03:11    Or I don't even care about that. I, it's, it's not money really, it's just more just personal, like having a series of photos that's cohesive and um, you know, stops people to admire 'em.  

Kristin:    01:03:26    That's cool. I love your pictures. And where can people see your pictures or if they wanna follow you online? What's the best place? 

Jimmy:    01:03:32    I  really just only, I just have an Instagram, Jimmicane, uh, I don't even have a website. I've never had a website, which is stupid.  

Kristin:    01:03:38    I own your domain, by the way.  

Jimmy:    01:03:40    Yeah. I just, yeah, I should have a website. I just never,  

Kristin:    01:03:44    We'll make it happen

Jimmy:    01:03:45    I   just never put it together. Too many, too much time spent editing other people's photos and not even, and not kind of neglecting my own.  

Kristin:    01:03:52    And how did you get the nickname Jimmicane?  

Jimmy:    01:03:55    Uh, Ryan Ripco my friend here in St. Augustine, he just thought I would come into his house every Friday with all my stuff and stay there during the weekends. And he said every time I came through a house, came through the house, it was like a hurricane rip through it <laugh>. And uh, he just heard calling me Jim again. <laugh>  

Kristin:    01:04:18    <laugh>. Can we expect any more? That's bullshit articles coming out. No, that's over?  

Jimmy:    01:04:24    There are no negative articles from me. I will. It's not worth writing negative things, even if you mean well, it's not taken the right  

Kristin:    01:04:32    Way. Yeah, true. Well, thanks Jimmy for coming on Badass Digital Nomads and, uh, sharing your crazy travel stories with us and love you.  

Jimmy:    01:04:43    Okay, love you too. We'll see you later.  

Kristin:    01:04:45    Bye. I hope you enjoyed this interview with my brother. You can follow his work again on Instagram at @Jimmicane. And thank you for listening. Let me know what other bad asses you wanna hear from by filling out the podcast survey linked in the show notes. And make sure to leave a review wherever you listen from. See you next week.