[1.7] 12 About 12: Chris Burkard
Living in his car, swimming in water just above freezing, and making the unknown outdoors feel approachable
Hi!
This β12 about 12β series is simply 12 facts about 12 people who have managed to make a life of travel. Each story is broken down into four parts:
Origin: how did they start traveling?
Grind: what did they sacrifice?
Breakthrough: when did they go big?
Scale: what are they making of it now?
At the end of each email, I compress my takeaways from the traveler into one thing to remember.
Have an amazing week!
~ Atom
#7
Meet Chris Burkard, accomplished cold water explorer, photographer, and filmmaker. πΊπΈπΊπΈπΊπΈ
Chris Burkard has the kind of colorful portfolio that makes you want to take up photography (and makes you believe it will be easy). Yet hidden beneath each beautiful photograph is a landscape of pain and a palette of failures. Indeed, to achieve the global presence and influence he now commands, Chris spent 4 years living in his car, a night in a Russian jail, and 30 days bedridden from a massive staph infection among many spectacular misadventures. His mission is to βinspire humans to consider their relationship with nature while promoting the preservation of wild places everywhere.β
Origins
Chris was born by the ocean in California to a single mother and a family of limited means. Although his family never traveled, his early life was dominated by water sports such as body surfing, bodyboarding, and surfing.
Chris was already into art as a high school student, but it was not until he enrolled at Cuesta Junior College in 2004 that he discovered photography. For the 18-year-old boy, it was an epiphany to create while out exploring nature.
Later that same year, he bought his first camera for $65 from a Goodwill auction. It was only after shooting and developing an entire roll of film did he realized the camera didnβt work. He borrowed his girlfriendβs momβs camera to continue shooting.
Grind
By the time Chris turned 19 he decided to quit his job at a magazine store, forego college, and live from his car to become a professional surf photographer (to his familyβs massive disappointment). His early years were spent either shooting surfers at the local beach and selling them the same photos as soon as they got back on shore or taking on any assignment that came his way ranging from weddings to portraits and interior store photos.
In 2006, Chris got an internship with Michael Fatali, a large-format landscape photographer
In 2007, he landed his second internship with Transworld Surf magazine. Chris endured 5+ hours of commute every week for four months until he was offered a full-time position as an assistant photo editor.
Breakthrough
A year into racking up stamps in his passport and collecting a steady paycheck to shoot the best surfers, Chris found himself no more fulfilled than when he started out. βI was selling this sense of adventure, but I was going to places where there would be a high-rise hotel and fine dining,β Chris recalled to Outside Magazine. βI didnβt know what I was looking for. I had to go find it.β
So in between magazine assignments, Chris would put in his own money to visit off-the-beaten-path destinations around Canada, Alaska, and Iceland. He even began seeking commercial clients beyond his usual editorial assignments to sustain these personal projects.
Chrisβ big break came in 2008 when he received a $5,000 grant to create a book about California. The California Surf Project was published in 2009 and would become of the most successful surf books of all time.
In 2011, following a reef cut turned massive staph infection that left him bedridden for 30 days, Chris made the pivotal decision to turn away from mainstream, warm water surf photography to fully commit to cold water exploration.
Scale
In 2015, Chris gave his TED talk on βThe joy of surfing in ice-cold water.β In 2017, Chris was named one of Forbesβ Top 10 Travel Influencers.
In 2018, Chris joined Icelandβs WOW Cyclothon, an 850-mile race circumnavigating the island country (he currently holds the record at 52 hours, 36 minutes, and 19 seconds) while in 2020, Chris returned for a nine-day bikepacking East-West traverse of Iceland, which he documented in the film A Line in the Sand. As of this year, Chris has been to Iceland over 50+ times pursuing the coldest surfs and promoting the countryβs raw, untamed nature.
THE ONE THING
Learn to hold back.
βIt's ridiculous how much I can focus and work, but the only way I can do that is when I have time to refill that well of inspiration. I say it's a well because you're constantly taking buckets out of itβ¦ for your friend, for this call, for a podcast, for this job, for this ride around Iceland. Right. That thing is dry.
I'm not going to wait to be thrust into a jail cell. I'm not. I'm gonna allow for that reflection from that trip. What did I learn from it?
Ultimately, give yourself a little grace, because you just spent three or four months training and doing this and doing that. You gave everything you had and now it's time to rebuild. So there's a constant cycle of giving and rebuilding⦠I need to get in touch with why I did what I did. I need to process it so that I can parlay that into the next experience.
Does that mean staying an extra day in your location to have a day to chill out after the 60-person crew leaves? Is it better for me to have a day to chill out so that I come home a more grounded person?β
β Chris Burkard
There are so many things I learned from Chris while getting to know his story, but this idea of holding back to deepen the quality of the experience was the most unique and profound for me.
In this lens, you will notice Chris found his breakthrough, not in moments of action and adventure, but in moments of stillness and inactivity. It was because he realized working at a magazine store would not make him a photographer that he decided to quit and pursue an internship with an actual landscape photographer. It was because he felt the dullness of his routine as a surf photographer that he chose to pursue personal projects which led to The California Surf Project. And finally, it was because he was bedridden that he committed to his mission of promoting the unknown outdoors through cold water exploration which led to a TED talk and being honored by Forbes.
It was precisely the case for me too when I took a month-long break back in August to reflect on why I always returned home from trips so exhausted and empty that I discovered slow travel and the potential of traveling with intention, time, and curiosity.
What needs emphasis here is that reflection not only deepens your appreciation for what you just experienced but also heightens the quality of what you will experience. The challenge Chris leaves with us is to find this stillness intentionally; letβs not wait for the universe to throw us into the hospital or a Russian jail cell to reflect.
If you want more from Chris I highly recommend checking out his TED talk where he dives into pain as a path to joy, his websiteβs FAQ page where he gives tips for emerging photographers, and his interview with Rich Roll where he goes deep into many of the stories Iβve mentioned on this newsletter.
It will be equally worth your time to check out his portfolio and his film UNNUR.
Other sources: INTERVIEW: CHRIS BURKARD, How Iceland Revived This Surf Photographerβs Sense of Adventure, How Chris Burkard Built A Creative Company Based On His Photography