Christian Beamish, crossing from Santa Rosa to Santa Cruz Island aboard CORMORANT.
New Smyrna Beach, FL – The Florida Surf Film Festival welcomes Christian Beamish to the Features Jury. Christian was born in Laguna Beach, California in the late 60’s and grew up in neighboring Newport Beach. Through the mid-70’s and 80’s, Christian was shaped by two distinct ethos of the Southern California beach culture: the “classic” waterman culture akin to legends such as Pat Curren, Buzzy Trent, and Peter Cole; and the “progressive” movement coming out of Australia and Hawaii and embodied by the likes of Rabbit, Cheyene, and MR.
He began shaping surfboards while attending college in Santa Cruz in the mid-90’s focusing on low-rocker wider outlines and really exploring the high performance aspects of various single fin shapes. After earning an M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, Christian went to work as the Associate Editor at The Surfer’s Journal.
While working at The Journal, Christian began experimenting with keel fin shapes and built an 18-foot Shetland Isle beach boat in his garage; a boat he would later journey down the Pacific Baja coast on under power of sail and oar in search of adventure and surf.
Christian now lives in Carpinteria, California, with his wife, Natasha, daughter, Josephine, and son, Miles. He continues to shape surfboards, write magazine articles, and work on his 27-foot coastal cruising sailboat – Spirit Level.
The Florida Surf Film Festival’s mission is to invigorate Florida surf culture through film appreciation and artistic expression by exhibiting contemporary films from filmmakers far and wide.
Atlantic Center for the Arts is a nonprofit 501 (c)(3), interdisciplinary artists-in-residence community and arts education facility dedicated to promoting artistic excellence by providing talented artists an opportunity to work and collaborate with some of the world’s most distinguished contemporary artists in the fields of music composition and the visual, literary and performing arts. Community interaction is coordinated through on-site and outreach presentations, workshops and exhibitions.