Painting a Huge Surf Mural for HBO at Venice Beach!

So HBO reached out to me and asked if I could design and paint a custom mural for their new season of their critically acclaimed documentary series 100 Foot Wave. Right here at Venice Beach. I loved the idea, we joined forces, and after I created a design that they loved, we were ready to ride the wave. Looking like a beauty. Let's rock it. This group of daredevil big wave surfers, who were initially led by the fearless Garrett McNamara, came from around the globe to seek out the most massive waves imaginable. Risking life and limb for a glory-filled ride. Fueled with inspiration, I was ready to give it my all on this beautiful Friday morning. Eager to tackle this wall and make some magic. That is, until I ran into one major hurdle. This is as far as my lift is gonna go. And this is my oh s*** moment. Yeah, whoops. So I got the wrong boom lift. I can't use it. I can't get to the other side of the wall. This articulated 60 footer doesn't go far enough. So I'm gonna need like a 60 foot straight boom. Today is Friday and a lot of deliveries don't deliver over the weekend. So I've been calling on the phone a bunch of different delivery services. I think I'm gonna have to do is just do what I can with this one. Do the first half on the left there and then next week get a different boom lift to do the right half. Which sucks, but try and do the best I can. That's all I can do. So let's just do the, let's just start painting and figure it out. So let's do it. After trying to figure out how to handle this boom lift situation for the entire first half of Friday and managing to take responsibility and figure out a solution. It was finally time to get some paint on the wall. Gonna get about halfway here. That's what I'm working with. We're gonna make this side look amazing this weekend. And then on Monday, the other lift comes. Just have to play it in two parts here. But I've been through worse. We can do it. Just got to get over that first hurdle and keep going. So time to rock it out. Painting murals is pretty easy for the most part. The logistics are what make them unique. And each one always comes with its own set of challenges. But every project I do, I get a tiny bit better at project management. And I'm always learning things the hard way. Okay, well, I've never really painted a wave like this before. So it's gonna be interesting experiments. I got all my spray paint here. So just gonna dive right in, as they would say. I built up this big crashing wave one layer at a time. Using my reference drawing and a bit of my imagination to fill out this cascading wall of water. The good thing was, it was pretty arbitrary. And didn't need to be perfect for it to look good. Just had to understand the basic principles of how the wave worked and go from there. So I got that top part of the wave lined up there looking pretty nice. So now I'm gonna have this turquoise extra sexy kind of bottom of the wave coming up here. I'll make it like a different tone and different color to make it nice and popping at the bottom here. I got some practice with the top. So now we just gotta do it again at the bottom and make it look extra powerful. After a long stressful first day, the wave was taking shape. As the sun set behind the ocean. And I went home to get some rest for a busy weekend ahead. Ah, the mornings are so peaceful here at Venice Beach. I love it. I'm ready to keep rocking this mural. So let's get up there and hit the wave. Don't forget your sunscreen. Yeah, pina coladas is a real deal, man. So what do you got here? Pina coladas? Yeah, smoothies and pina coladas. Yeah. Ooh, I might be back for one of those later. But right now it's time to make this wave come to life. I'm gonna add a little bit more lightness into this teal here to make it really pop and extra little highlight points to really make this thing shine. I think I had about seven or eight different layers of turquoise and teal built up to make this wave feel alive and energized. Oh yeah, baby. I like it a lot. I think I'm gonna work on these panels now. I'm gonna do a big portrait and like a surfer guy and another smaller surfer guy there. So let's get to work. One thing that struck me about this show was the determination of these surfers and their willpower to go after these monster waves for what seems like even just for fun. I wanted to convey that with Garrett's eyes staring off into the sea, dreaming up his next big wave. And as I finished up the eyes, I went down for a quick break to see how it looked from the ground. And that's when the serendipity of this project took an unexpected uncanny turn. When a tall long-haired man walked up to me and asked what the mural was about, he looked at me with a giant grin on his face and exclaimed, Yeah, that's my brother-in-law you painted up there. So you're doing a good job, man. I recognize his eyes. That's good. Yeah, I just, I actually just finished painting him. What? A little piece of a mural. Are those Garrett's eyes? Here we go. It's looking good so far. There's a long way to go, but your lines look good already. And this one has like a dreamy effect to it. Yeah. CJ lives in Hawaii and was visiting LA for the weekend and just so happened to walk by and see the mural at that moment while I was on the ground looking at it. And I didn't expect things to take an even wilder turn right after this. Dude, check this wave out. The thing starts jacking up taller and taller. Yeah, it's like an avalanche coming at you. I'm getting swallowed right there. I'm flying going 50 miles an hour in flat water. That's CJ right there getting swallowed by the massive wave. Oh my god. And look, here's the photo frozen from that moment. They made it the key art actually for season two for the show. That's, they sent me the key art. I was like, that looks familiar. Yep. That's you. Yeah. Yo, that's sick. I could not believe this dude right here was part of the show I've been painting. Just totally out of the blue. And to share the actual story of that key art image right in front of me is really special. I love this dude. This trip's been filled with synchronicity. And I told him whenever I go to visit Hawaii for the first time, I can teach him how to paint murals and he can teach me how to surf. Yo, I can't believe I just met the guy who was in this show. He was really cool. CJ, I got the stamp of approval from the actual guy in the show. So let's keep making it happen. I was really buzzing off that awesome encounter and had a new vigor to make this mural as badass as possible. I was feeling good, making good progress, soaking up the Saturday evening atmosphere. That is, until I looked up at Garrett's face one more time. Oh man, those seagulls that were sitting up there, they just ---- all over my mural. Oh man, right over the eyeball. Come on, don't do me dirty like that. Hey, don't you dare poop on my mural. I see you. Don't think you can get away with this. Oh, bastard. Some of these details were getting mighty small. And when you use a brush with aerosol, it dries out the hairs pretty instantly. So I decided to do a bit of finger painting to get the job done. And it worked surprisingly well. Well, now I can add a professional finger painter to my bag of tricks. Nice. This side of the wall was really taking shape. I usually save white for the very last step in the mural. But since I could only reach this far, I figured I would keep going and finish as much as I could while I can. OK, coming out pretty spicy here. Now I got to add 100 foot wave letters in each little box here and paint right over this stuff I've already done. So I don't want to mess it up. And I've been just kind of meditating on it for a bit. We'll do our best. Let's go. But before we tackle all that, there's something that I think will give me a little boost. The best in the West right here, right? I don't think you're ever going to have some ---- like this. Oh, ----. Smoothies and piña coladas, guys. All right. Thank you, bro. OK. Now I'm ready. Let's do this. Oh, yeah, bro. This is what I need. After that tasty treat hit the spot and savoring every last piece of that pineapple, it was time to get to work. I probably could have made a stencil or something for these. But after some quick measurements and just freehanding it, I was surfing on some good vibes and in the flow. All right. I'm gonna add a little more flair and some white highlights in there just to make it all blend together. After a busy weekend and finishing the last details of the first half, I sat down to take a peek and take a bit of a stroll down memory lane. So I remember back in 2015 when I moved across the country to Los Angeles here, I was sleeping in my car for the first six months of living here. And for that first month or so, I would come here to Venice Beach to take a shower once a week on Fridays at these public showers. And now I turn around and I'm painting a huge mural right here on the boardwalk for HBO. That's pretty cool. All right. Check it out. The other boom lift arrived this morning. So now we can actually finish the entire wall here. Get that big giant wave filled in there on the right side. Make it look swell. So let's do it. See if we can reach the top corner. That's the farthest point we got to go. Crossing our fingers here. Just made it. Look at that. All right. We are ready to go. Let's paint. It felt really good to have a proper lift to be able to reach everything finally. And the second half started to come together quickly. All right. One of the last little things we got here is this lighthouse in Nazare, Portugal, where they have like a little lighthouse plateau area for people to actually come and watch the big surfers do their thing. So let's knock that in there. With the lighthouse building laid in, all the pieces were finally coming together. Now I just needed one more day to finish every last detail. As I started putting on the finishing strokes and details of this big mural, I thought about what makes someone do something that seems crazy to many, but a necessity for few. And I think what makes these humans special is that willpower for achievement. That desire to push themselves further. Whether it's a hundred foot wave or a hundred foot wall, that feeling, setting your sights past your fears and proving to yourself that it is possible is one of the most powerful feelings we can give ourselves. All it takes is a vision, a bit of courage, and a community of supporters to help us reach our fullest potential. And with that, the final strokes are in place. And this hundred foot wave is finally finished. All right, we did it. Came out pretty swell if I do say so myself. It was really cool to paint this giant wave on this huge wall. Make sure to check out season two of hundred foot wave only on HBO Max starting April 16th. Stay tuned here for more cool stuff on the way. Thanks for watching. Cheers.