Jim Russi- The Longboard Magazine Years/Behind The Lens.

The Longboardarian Podcast

As a young man in my early 20's in Puerto Rico (1990's), before the advent of social media and the internet, I was a passionate and fever-laden longboarder. My only access to longboarding content were VHS videos at my local surf shop and the arrival of Longboard Magazine every three months. That magazine was a bible to me.
My excitement in setting up and conducting an interview with the man that had such strong involvement with the mag that influenced the course of my life was...... indescribable.
I am confident to say that many of you, especially of my generation and older individuals of our community, were fans of LM.
Jim Russi was born and raised in Southern California. He learned to surf at a young age (1960's) in the Manhattan Beach area of Los Angeles County. He became interested in photography in middle school and that interest became a passion/profession that took him around the world. He graduated from The Brooks Institute of Photography. In 1978 he took a one week vacation, post graduation, to Oahu, Hawaii. He arrived from that vacation forty years later. A proud resident of Hawaii for forty years, his contributions to surfing photography and his local surf community have brought him countless blessings and strong friendships in the surf world.
His surf photography has been published in most if not all of the top surfing magazines in the world. Cover shots, two page spreads, single full page, you name it! His work has been printed and seen!
In the early 90's he was approached by Longboard Magazine founder Guy Motil and was offered the job of Senior Photographer. He was instrumental in that capacity and contributed to the growth and fan base of the magazine. He traveled around the world with some of the top longboarding talents of the time, bringing to the longboard community the photos and stories of those adventures.
In the late 90's Jim teamed up with Roxy and created a series of highly successful advertising campaigns that may have impacted the popularity of women's surfing especially with longboarding. Some of those ads included the surfing talents of Kassia Meador, Daize Shayne, Kelia Moniz and many others.
Jim is a family man, that now lives in Ventura, CA. He is semi retired, raising his two teenage sons, surfing and attending another one of his passions, horses.
I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.
nos vemos en el agua,
Tupi Cabrera
Topics:
His Beginings
Longboard Magazine
Tyler Hatzikian Logs Massive Tavarua
Working with Teenage Joel Tudor in Puerto Escondido
Localism
Surf Culture
The Roxy Campaign
How to Surf Malibu
Listeners Questions
The Ten Rapid Fire Segment
Shoutouts and more!
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