TOP TO BOTTOM ;OL[YHPSLYWHYRH[,SL]H[VY7VPU[ WHPU[LKK\YPUN^PU[LY  e;;OPZ^HZ[OL]PL^MYVTT`[YHPSLYVU[OLIS\Ɉ (Y[!9PJOHYK>VVSJV[[ +H]L:LVHUL TLHUK;LYQL/HHRVUZLULKP[PUN Subjekt: Haakonsen H[[OL[YHPSLYK\YPUN[OLZ\TTLYVM d;5V[PJL [OLWHPYVMU\UJO\JRZPU;LYQL»ZYPNO[OHUK·HNVVKZ[YLZZ YLSPL]LYK\YPUNIYLHR[PTL 7OV[V!>VVSJV[[*VSSLJ[PVU TRAILER LIFE The trailers at Elevator Point were there for decades before I moved to Newport in 1979. During high school I spent a lot of time there in the summer surfing and hanging out. It was a special place. I was living in Newport in a little apartment where we made The Garden (1994) and there was a party down in Laguna at a friend’s house one night. I spent the night there and the next day, while I was driving back home, I said to myself, “I need a change.” I was thinking about my life and I looked over and I was right at the trailer park. I pulled in and there was a trailer for rent. I thought, “You know what? I want to live here.” It was 1995—I was 29 years old. I got a nine-month lease and ended up spending the next 11 years living in the park. I would be there today if it was still around. It was the most amazing place to live in Orange County—you’re out in the wilderness in the middle of suburbia. Everything about it was clean and alive. There’s still a natural spring that runs to the beach. There are open hills and animals and fun little waves. I moved around in a few trailers until my landlord offered me one on the corner, on the bluff overlooking the ocean. They finally kicked us out because they tore down the trailer park to build a state park facility in 2005. There was a season that Guch (Bryan Iguchi) and Jamie Lynn had a trailer below me. I had a room for Terje Haakonsen in my second trailer for when he came to town. We made Subjekt: Haakonsen (1996) in there with Dave Seoane. We’d run down and surf and come back to edit. We could go at our own pace. If we wanted to work all night, we’d sleep in, get breakfast, surf, edit, come up with more ideas. Troy and I made a surf film based around Bruce Irons, Magna Plasm (1998) in there. The trailer was eclectic, stuff all over the walls, and a high-end Hollywood film crew came in, set up lights and shot high-speed cameras. The trailer became the DNA of the movie. There were single-and double-wides, maybe 1,000 square feet max, nothing fancy. The neighbors were cool—everybody was there for the outdoors. It was the right environment for me from a creative stand-point. When I was on the trade show circuit for six weeks I would come home to the trailer and recharge, get back to normal. It was a Shangri-La. I still go there to clear my head and make big decisions. I sprinkled my grandma’s ashes there. 076 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal frequency 17.4: Page 78
