HOW I STOPPED WORRYING AND DROPPED IN ON SURF ART

by Corky Carroll

​This wordily wandering is in response to a ton of questions, mostly on social media, asking me if I still surf and how I got so deep into painting.  For those of you who don’t know, I have more than less segued from full time surfer and part time artist to the opposite.  I paint all the time.  I still try to surf when it’s right, but not full time like throughout my entire life up to this point.  Here is the story behind this life change for me.
 
As most of you know, I have surfed my entire life and have been lucky enough to have been able to do it on a daily basis from the time I was a young kid to just recently.  I have done art, off and on since I was in high school and liked watercolors.  But never all that seriously.  In the 1980’s I got into doing airbrush paintings that were pretty cool.  I sold them through a gallery in Dana Point Harbor and they did well.  I had a little spot in the back warehouse at SURFER magazine where I could do these.  I was working there at the time.  When I left, I didn’t have a place to do them anymore, so I stopped.  
 
In the early 2000’s I built a house on the beach on mainland Mexico and started a business taking in surfing guests.  One of these was an artist who did acrylics.  When he left, he gave me a small acrylic set and I tried out a few canvases to see how I liked it.  It was fun and I started doing a few simple ones.  I put them on the wall, and people started asking to buy them.  It became a side hobby to go along with the surfing and music (am still doing some gigs there in the local area.).  

​In the fall, just before Covid hit, I got diagnosed with a-Fib. This led to a number of surgeries and a pacemaker. Also a tremendous drop in energy level. I started to get very out of breath when I surfed and my heart rate would get very high. Then Covid hit and I wound up spending about six months in the house, not surfing, and doing nothing but gaining weight. When I finally got back in the water I found I was only good for about one or two waves at a time before I started to get light headed and dizzy.  So, that is where my surfing is at the moment.  A wave or two when the conditions are good. 
 
This is where the art kicked in.  With time on my hands, I started painting more and more.  I have this thing that has always driven my friends nuts, I tend to focus on one thing super intensely.  At the expense of everything else going on.  It is like that with the art.  I am totally consumed with it and it is keeping my “stoke” alive.  My thought is if I can’t ride waves then I can still paint them.  And I do, lots of them.  About a year ago, after weighing the pros and cons with my beautiful wife Raquel, I decided to totally dedicate myself to making art my new full-time career.  I mostly do what you would call “surf” or “tropical” paintings.  A lot of waves and palm trees.  And, when it’s right I still am able to paddle out and catch my wave or two.  This is keeping me very happy and motivated. 

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Click painting above to enter Gallery

​A lot of days, if the conditions aren’t suitable for me to go in the water, I will hang out and watch the surf and friends out there doing it.  Then go back to the house and  paint the rest of the day.  I always check the surf, it’s a lifetime habit, and I always stay attached to what’s going on in the surfing world thru my surf company, BLUE MANGO SURF, which I own with my partner Joel Saltzman.
 
If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you will notice that I really do a lot of paintings.  This is because I love doing them so much that I can bury myself into it for hours and hours every day.  A lot of times I have more than one going at a time, a great way to not waste paint.  If I can convey the “feel” of what I am painting, like how a wave looks to me in my mind or a certain scene, onto the canvas then it gives me the same “rush” as coming out of a raging barrel in surfing.  I am far from a master painter, not even close.  But if one of my paintings on a wall someplace puts a smile on somebodies face when they see it then I have accomplished what I set out to do.  Each one is personal; they are all my children and I love them.  
 
So, I hope that answers the questions on how I phased from surf to surf art and have kept the stoke intact.  If you want to see some of the paintings go to www.bluemangosurf.com.  Or check me out on Facebook.  Thanks.