LeRoy Grannis grew up living beachfront. He was in the water from the young age of 5, swimming and body surfing with his father. Once he was bored with swimming, Grannis made himself a wood bellyboard which he would ride at his mother's house in Florida.
He moved onto a kneeboard in 1931, it was a 6' x 2' made from a piece of pine. After growing accustomed to the kneeboard, Grannis started borrowing stand up surfboards from friends in Hermosa. Once he started surfing he was hooked, joining the Palos Verdes Surf Club.
As Grannis grew older, it became a challenge from him to balance surfing, working and family life. He was a student at UCLA for a short period, but had to drop out during the depression because he lacked the money for tuition. After quitting school, Grannis took random jobs such as a carpenter, junkyward worker and a brief period at Standard Oil.
Grannis later found himself a job with Pacific Bell through some surfer friends of his that worked there. With a consistent job, he was able to develop his photography skills, which would eventually lead to a new career.
LeRoy has his first taste of success with photos being published in Doc Ball's book California Surfriders. He was becoming more involved with the surfing coming, surfing in contests in his free time and assisting the United States Surfing Association.
Leroy was working too hard at his job and eventually found himself with an ulcer. His doctor recommended that he take a break in order to recuperate. Durring LeRoy's time away from work he began photographing more and ended up getting his work published in magazines such as Surfer, Reef, and Surfing Illustrated.
Grannis is credited with being one of the most important photographers of his time period because of the vast amount of photographs he took documenting the surf culture. He also stood out from the crowd because he invented a contraption that would allow him to change film in his camera while staying out in the water.
10 years of Grannis life was spent photographing the world's best surfers surfing the best waves in Hawaii in California. He had great influence and later became the photo editor of Surfing Illustrated and founded International Surfing.
Grannis was inducted into the Internation Surfing Hall of Fame as the best photographer in 1966. In 2002 he was awarded a lifetime achievement award. Surfer's Journal also did a feature article on him in an ode to master photographers.
Grannis now has a limited edition book title Birth of Culture and his photos have also been featured in the recent film Riding Giants.
Title: A Visit to the Shaper Artist: Leroy Grannis
Title: Surfing in the 60's Artist: Leroy Grannis - 17943
He moved onto a kneeboard in 1931, it was a 6' x 2' made from a piece of pine. After growing accustomed to the kneeboard, Grannis started borrowing stand up surfboards from friends in Hermosa. Once he started surfing he was hooked, joining the Palos Verdes Surf Club.
As Grannis grew older, it became a challenge from him to balance surfing, working and family life. He was a student at UCLA for a short period, but had to drop out during the depression because he lacked the money for tuition. After quitting school, Grannis took random jobs such as a carpenter, junkyward worker and a brief period at Standard Oil.
Grannis later found himself a job with Pacific Bell through some surfer friends of his that worked there. With a consistent job, he was able to develop his photography skills, which would eventually lead to a new career.
LeRoy has his first taste of success with photos being published in Doc Ball's book California Surfriders. He was becoming more involved with the surfing coming, surfing in contests in his free time and assisting the United States Surfing Association.
Leroy was working too hard at his job and eventually found himself with an ulcer. His doctor recommended that he take a break in order to recuperate. Durring LeRoy's time away from work he began photographing more and ended up getting his work published in magazines such as Surfer, Reef, and Surfing Illustrated.
Grannis is credited with being one of the most important photographers of his time period because of the vast amount of photographs he took documenting the surf culture. He also stood out from the crowd because he invented a contraption that would allow him to change film in his camera while staying out in the water.
10 years of Grannis life was spent photographing the world's best surfers surfing the best waves in Hawaii in California. He had great influence and later became the photo editor of Surfing Illustrated and founded International Surfing.
Grannis was inducted into the Internation Surfing Hall of Fame as the best photographer in 1966. In 2002 he was awarded a lifetime achievement award. Surfer's Journal also did a feature article on him in an ode to master photographers.
Grannis now has a limited edition book title Birth of Culture and his photos have also been featured in the recent film Riding Giants.
Title: A Visit to the Shaper Artist: Leroy Grannis
Title: Surfing in the 60's Artist: Leroy Grannis - 17943
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