By Ashley Brooks
New Smyrna Beach, FL – Imagine your biggest daily dilemma upon waking up being, “Do I shoot or do I surf today?” This is the life surf photographer and Ocean Beach local Paige Laverty has carved out for herself. A world traveller and adventure seeker, Paige has spent the last 20 years trekking across the globe, living abroad for stints in both Italy and Buenos Aires, backpacking through over 40 counties, and spending 5 years living in The Big Apple before moving to San Francisco to learn to surf. After just one lesson in Stinson Beach, Paige knew she was hooked and that life would need to change in order to accommodate this new found love of surfing. She ditched her high paying 9-5 job in favor of flexible gigs like driving for Lyft/Uber and babysitting to have ultimate freedom to surf or shoot photos whenever the waves were good. She is now a regular in the Ocean Beach lineup, both as a surfer and photographer, being one of the few females swimming out to shoot from the water. Her shots of Mavericks have been bought and published by Surfing Magazine as well as Surfline, and just this year she was commissioned for a Mentawai boat trip as a staff photographer. Paige is living the quintessential surfer’s dream, planning her days and travels based on the ocean swells. Come meet Paige and see her work at the New Smyrna Beach FSFF Nov. 10th and 11th at the Atlantic Center for the Arts where her photography will be both on display and available for purchase.