How Civic Couch’s Brad Jacobson became one of the South Bay’s go-to surf shooters
“If there’s a pumping barrel breaking in the South Bay, most likely Brad is shooting it,” said Chris Wells.
The sun rises above Manhattan Beach Boulevard. In his modest home, photographer Brad Jacobson is tuning up his coffee before checking the swell charts and surf reports. All this is done as he makes his five-year-old daughter breakfast and prepares her for school.
Jacobson, the force behind “Civic Couch,” a popular local surf and lifestyle photography website, answers the phone while gathering his daughter’s books.
“The bars look good at the Avenues,” comes a bark from his cell.
Jacobson escorts his daughter to the family SUV. It’s just another morning, another balancing act, and a prelude to another day at the waves for a photographer who has been making his mark as the guy who is always there. He has become almost elemental on local beaches — sun, sand, water, wave and Jacobson.
Pro surfer Chris Wells says Jacobson is increasingly in demand.
“I remember one particular morning where I was jokingly rattling his cage for putting me on hold, “ Wells recalls. “I kept being put on hold as the best surfers from all over the South Bay and their crews, Burnout, Breakwall, Manhattan Pier, Porto, the Jetty, were calling Brad to tell him it was pumping and to track him down — a testimony to who he has become.”
For someone who’s associated with capturing the local spitting tubes and has been adopted so well by the local surf community, it’s hard to believe Jacobson first experiences in the ocean were at Virginia Beach.
“I grew up surfing the jetty at 2nd Street and making the trek out to Hatteras,” Jacobson says. “My dad had me on a boogie board at five years old, and then I got my first surfboard at 7.”
By his teenage years, Jacobson was surfing in Eastern Surfing Association contests up and down the coast. Right before getting his driver’s license, Jacobson moved with his family to Riverside.
“Although living inland, I’d surf Oceanside, Carlsbad, or Newport,” he says. “I started competing on the weekends.”
After high school, Jacobson enrolled at Santa Barbara Community College.
“Santa Barbara is one of the most beautiful places in the world,” he says. “I surfed almost every break and love watching the lines come in at the point at Deveraux.
After transferring to University of California Santa Barbara, Jacobson was engulfed in the happening party scene of Isla Vista. This was in the 1990s, before various alcohol incidents led to restrictions and a more lax atmosphere prevailed campus-wide.
“I got caught up in the bar scene and surfed way too much,” he says. “My grades began to suck and I moved back to Riverside.”
Jacobson took a job and tried to settle for the Inland Empire lifestyle.
“I started working for Enterprise rental, got married, and bought a house in Victorville,” he says.
The landlocked life didn’t pan out for Jacobson. His marriage was failing and feeling rooted wasn’t working.
“Divorce is great, everybody should do it once,” he says, laughing. “It let’s you realize who you are again.”
Jacobson packed his things and headed out to Hermosa Beach to surf, work, and cruise the local night life.
“I had a bro who lived in Manhattan Beach,” he says. “I’ve always loved the area.”
Beach volleyball is a quintessential part of the South Bay lifestyle, and Jacobson quickly picked up a passion for the game, which set him up for the next passions in his life.
“I was on the courts and came down from a spike locking my back,” he recalls. “I had to crawl off the court bulging a disk in my neck from an injury that happened from a car accident when I was 16.”
While rehabbing his back he met, Kathleen Paralusz, who nursed him back to help. She eventually would become his wife. His back problems, however, would linger, necessitating less welcome changes.
“After my injury, it was difficult to keep the nose of my board from out of the water,” he says. “I tried longboarding. I loved it, but it wasn’t the same for me as shortboarding. Volleyball also wasn’t in the picture.”
In the early 2000s, Jacobson married his courtside savior. After the couple had a daughter in 2009, they decided that he’d take on the role of stay-at-home dad. He loved fatherhood, but the change in lifestyle also left a bit of a void.
“I’m a very creative person and it’s hard for me to sit in one spot,” he says. “I started feeling this craziness.”
Jacobson had always carried a camera with him throughout his life and loved to shoot for fun.
“I talked it over with my wife and we agreed photography would be a great creative outlet,” he remembers. “I went ahead and purchased a real lens and camera.”
At the first Jimmy Miller Surf and Turf, a contest that combines surfing and volleyball, Jacobson was partnered local surfer Mark Silva and former professional surfer Chris Wells, a Bud Light tour veteran who in the early 1990s was on the cusp of joining the World Championship Tour but just came short.
“Wells got the high scores in surfing and we won the event,” Jacobson says. “It happened to also be my introduction back into the surf world.”
The timing was perfect. Wells was eager to get back into the surf scene while Jacobson wanted to perfect the craft of his photography. Jacobson met Wells at Torrance Beach for his first photo shoot.
“Brad was like, ‘Hey man, I have this camera and I want to shoot you,’ ” Wells recalls. “The first shoot was radical. For most photographers it takes years to learn how to shoot surfers. Brad had a knack for it right away.”
The relationship between Wells and Jacobson became a best friendship. In the last four years, the duo’s successes in the local surf scene are a product of being continually inspired by each other.
“Chris Wells is the nicest surfer I have ever met,” Jacobson says. “The guy is the same age as I and we grew up in the same power era; carves and barrels before airs. If there’s a barrel breaking in the South Bay, there’s a good chance Wellzy is in it.”
The daily routine of chasing the best waves around the South Bay fit perfect with his stay-at-home dad duties and re-torched his stoke.
“Through the lens,” Jacobson says, “I feel like I am surfing with that person.”
As he became more familiar and comfortable with the lens, Jacobson started experimenting with angles to give personality to the landscape of the photo instead of just the individuality of the surfer.
“The thing that makes Brad unique is his angles,” Wells says. “There’s a lot of thought behind his shots and the angles he takes.”
He began capturing a lot of pull-back shots and bringing in the surrounding areas in what would become signatures of a Jacobson shot.
“I never oversaturated the color I see,” he says. “My style is to bring in all the elements of the beach. Shooting straight on is boring.”
At the same time, Jacobson understands the responsibility of not making a surf spot easily identifiable.
“There are spots that have a certain beauty that don’t reveal the location,” he says. “I will not shoot a spot unless I am invited by the locals, out of respect.”
Through the years, his arsenal has increased to include a lot more hard drive space, another camera or two and — his pride and joy — a water housing.
“By getting a water housing, I feel like I got involved in the actual sport,” Jacobson says. “I have a blast shooting from the impact zone. You have to be sitting way inside and take more of beating than an actual surfer. I have much respect for water photographers who shoot and swim in big wave spots and barrels like Puerto Escondido.”
He has deep respect for the local history of surf photography. He credits Ricky Lesser as his major inspiration.
“I learned a lot from Lesser,” Jacobson says. “He taught me a lot with the technical side of the camera. He’s a phenomenal photographer.”
The chances of making a full-time career as a professional surf photographer — one of the more competitive fields in all of photography — are pretty slim. Lately, Jacobson has branched out to shoot other subjects, such as business, fashion, and food. But he knows what the surf photographer lifestyle has brought him.
“You know what? As a photographer I know more about the ocean than I ever did as a surfer,” Jacobson says. “If there’s swell, I know where to go. And I’m having way more fun.”
