I grew up in Orange County, California, all over the beaches of San Clemente and that area.

From the age of 16 on, I brought my guitar everywhere. I just fell in love with learning the guitar, and I wanted to learn songs and chords, and that led to wanting to start a band, and to wanting to do our first show.

[Jack Johnson] really helped me make the record, put it out, and then let me tour with him for two years. He really helped me out.

Before I actually got a hard surfboard at the age of 10, like a real board, I was always just trying to stand up on boogie boards or rafts or whatever I had, trying to emulate the people that I saw surfing the waves out there.

I started surfing at the age of 10, and then turned professional at the age of 16, which was right around the same time I took up the guitar. So, the surfing came first.

That was like the best start I could've had, the best way I could've started in the music scene. I owe [Jack Johnson] a lot for the beginning of my career and setting me off on the right path, and that's the coolest thing that ever could've happened.

Nobody in my family ever surfed, but they would always bring me to the beach.