Dave Gregerson: Doing what comes naturally
Kyle Jacks races the Rat's Beach backwash by David Rosenfeld
Photos by Dave Gregerson
After a 15-hour day in Hawaii shooting the Pipeline Masters for the Associated Press, a few years back, Dave Gregerson found his gas tank had been siphoned.
It had already been a challenging day. Just getting the mandatory podium shot of the winner had meant jostling for position with 50 other photographers, all fighting to get the winner to make eye contact with their lenses.
“You have to get the guy to look straight at you,” Gregerson said. “So I have this thing, I yell ‘Your zipper’s down.’ When he realizes he doesn’t have a zipper he looks at me and I get the shot.”
The gag is typical for a man known to friends as a fun-loving jokester.
Gregerson has spent the past 18 winter seasons in Hawaii photographing the world’s best surfers. When he’s not in Hawaii, he photographs South Bay’s pros like Alex Gray and Holly Beck, as well as the high school surf contests.
“There are of a lot of photographers who are good,” said John Joseph, an Hermosa Beach Surfing Walk of Fame inductee and long-time friend of Gregerson. “But as a surfer himself, he can anticipate where guys are taking off and if they’re in the right spot. He’s become one of the top guys in the industry.”
Gregerson is also a renowned ceramic tile muralist whose work appears globally in places public and private, from swimming pools for a Saudi Arabian prince to murals of Ronald McDonald for the McDonalds restaurants.
The Palos Verdes Beach Club exhibits his surfing photos in the workout room and his murals adorn the fountain and Jacuzzi. The club is known for its zero-edge, cliffside lap pool that appears to flow into the ocean. Gregerson estimates he’s swam thousands of miles in the club’s pool, going back to the days when it was filled with saltwater.
PV's Alex Grey establishing his island credibility at backdoor pipeline.
Living the dream
One night in a Hawaiian hotel room, Gregerson dreamed God told him to wear a gold cross. Initially, he refused, complaining of its weight. The dream recurred throughout the night and by morning Gregerson had relented.
When he woke up a ray of sunshine illuminated a glass table where he’d left a surfing magazine he’d been reading the previous evening. “On the table next to the magazine,” he says, pausing to reach inside his shirt, “was this gold cross.”
He hasn’t taken it off since. He said the experience strengthened his already strong faith in God. It also helped open his eyes to the true blessings in his life. “So many things have happened that I don’t know how to explain,” he said. “I just happen to be there and happen to be talking to someone.”
After years selling photos of surfers to sponsors for use in magazine ads, Gregerson was beginning to think breaking into the editorial side of surf photography would remain an elusive goal in a field crowded with ambitious, young photographers. Then, at the Pipeline Masters in Hawaii four years ago, Sandra Olson, publisher of Women’s Surf Style Magazine (WSSM), sat down in the sand, at his feet. A mutual friend, whom he’d met just days earlier, introduced them and Gregerson has been shooting for the magazine ever since.
“He has one of the best camera lenses I’ve ever seen,” Olson said of Gregerson’s Canon 400 mm telephoto lens, which together with his Canon Mark 3 camera cost $17,000. “He captures the actual water drops flying through the air.”
Joseph doesn’t claim to have any photographic ability but he occasionally carries a tripod or a camera case for his old friend on trips to Hawaii. One day, Gregerson handed Joseph a camera to take a picture of Kelly Slater, the world’s most famous surfer.
“I assumed the telephoto lens was still on,” Joseph said. “So I just put the camera up to my eye and started walking toward Kelly. But the camera had a short lens and I walked right into Slater and almost broke his nose.”
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Alex Gray stalls to let the lip catch up at Backdoor Pipeline.
turning the favor
Gregerson has used his position with WSSM to help promote up-and-coming female surfers in a sport where prize money and attention by most surf magazines strongly favors men.
“The men’s market is over-saturated,” Olson said. “Ninety percent of the marketing is targeted toward women, but in the major surfing magazines, you see hardly any photos of a female, and rarely is she surfing. They are more like eye candy. Dave saw the opportunity to get some of the up and coming surfers some exposure.”
In the world of professional surfing, getting noticed opens up a world of hazards, especially for young women. Some photographers charge up to $800 for photos surfers want to use to promote themselves, Olson said. Others simply want to meet the girls. Gregerson sponsors several riders and features a different female surfer in his own ad in each issue of the magazine.
“Dave has been very generous in helping female surfers get great photos of themselves to use in promotions,” Olson said.
Last year, Gregerson shot a cover photo of 15-year-old Virginia Beach surfer Bree Kleintop. “I called her at her home and said, ‘I got you in the magazine, in fact I got you on the cover.’ Then I just heard this screaming all over the house,” Gregerson said.
When he’s not working, Gregerson volunteers for Providence TrinityCare Hospice Foundation — Los Angeles and Orange counties’ only hospice program for children. His photos are used in their newsletters and marketing materials. He started a fundraiser with photos of the children’s artwork, which are used as greeting cards.
Gregerson helps lighten the mood, said Barbara Roberts, the foundation’s executive director. “He’s fun. He’s got a very good sense of humor. And the photography he’s done for us is fabulous and we don’t have to pay for any of it.”
Stand up paddler Ikaika Kalama clears path the crowd at Pipeline, Hawaii.
The natural
As a teenager, Gregerson designed and built scale models of furniture for a neighbor in the furniture design business. The neighbor shipped the models to China, where the full size furniture was made.
After earning a B.A. in art in the late 1960s, he went to work for South Bay architect Edward Beall. Beall was beginning to incorporate ceramic tiles in his designs. Gregerson didn’t know a thing about ceramics when Beall put him to work designing the tiles.
“A lot of things that I do I don’t really know how to do, but I don’t let it stop me,” Gregerson said. “It was like that with like with ceramics and photography. I didn’t have a clue when I started, and that’s kind of a neat thing because I don’t know what you’re not supposed to do. So I can just go ahead and do it.”
He started his own custom tile business in his garage with the help Jill, his wife of 38 years, and their two sons. Now, he works out of a 1,000 square-foot studio in at the Torrance airport. In the early years, when big-name clients insisted on visiting his studio, he would recruit fellow artists from neighboring studios to make it look like he had a crew of workers, with the understanding that he would return the favor.
“It’s been killer,” Gregerson said. “I’ve never worked a day in my life because I’ve loved everything I’ve done.” B
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France's Marie Curran at Rocky Point, Hawaii.
Dave Gregerson at one of his favorite shooting locations, Torrance Beach.
Dave Gregerson with one of his ceramic murals at the Palos Verdes Country Club.