2023 Surf Art Calendar
October
“Solimar Sunset”
By: Amanda Brock
STORY BEHIND THE IMAGE
Solimar Beach (Ventura), November 2020. We had the pleasure of meeting up with Tony and his daughter Emilie that day. When the surf is low, there’s still fun to be had. This image catches an impromptu stickball battle, Emilie about to take Meyer out of the sandbox on this pitch. The setting sun mimicking Dodger stadium at night, only this place was all ours that day. Solimar holds a special place in our hearts, thanks to our mutual college roommate Ryan Osborne and his family, who opened their home to us for the last 27 years. Countless surf sessions and fire side ramblings recounting the days exploits were commonplace. Continuing the tradition with our children gets me emotional and filled with gratitude. To the next 27 years and beyond. #SlackStreet.
PERSONAL CONNECTION
I originally met Chad Brock in college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where we were SAE Fraternity brothers, roommates on Slack Street and have been great friends ever since. In my senior year at Cal Poly I was the head talent booker for the ASI Concert committee that brought national touring artists such as Third Eye Blind and Sugar Ray to the campus through the MTV Campus invasion tour and Chad was my right-hand man. He was a year behind me in school, so after I graduated he took over the position and then went on to work in the entertainment business at the William Morris Agency (WME) in their Motion Picture Talent department. After college, I was living in San Diego, and he and our friends were living in Manhattan Beach at the time and he helped me get a job in the music department at WME, paving the way for me to move to Los Angeles and change my life forever. For all this time, he has been one of my closest friends with too many great memories to fit onto a single page.
His wife Amanda (the featured artist) took the picture of us as we played with the kids on the beach, so this month’s image is a tribute to the whole Brock family, who are like family to me.
ARTIST BIO
Chad Brock is the Managing Principal for Lee & Associates Central California, whose territory covers Bakersfield to Fresno, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara. His wife Amanda and their two children, Meyer (10) and Hazel (9), live in Bakersfield, CA. They are fortunate to have open access to his parents’ house in the Channel Islands Harbor and take full advantage. The Brock’s feel they have an obligation to their children instill love and stewardship of the ocean. “As we all should.”
