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The History of Rockaway Studios

I discovered Rockaway Beach the same day as my first commercial photo shoot after Graduating from the Art Institute. I grew up in the East Bay, and "The Beach" always meant "Santa Cruz" to this landlocked suburbanite.

 

During my time at The Art Intiture of Fort Lauderdale I was lucky enough to share housing in the dorm "Granada Hall". Granada Hall was a converted motel one block from "The Strip" on Fort Lauderdakle beach. Today that area is amass of super high rise Condominiums with a narrow band of Sand and ocean accross the street, but in the 1980s it was a pulsating, gyrating mass of post adolescent hormones and alcohol, particularly during the Spring Break period when college kids would land by the thousands with $20 in thier pocket and looking for a party. The Strip was a mile long river of bars, live music venues, bikini stores, liquor stores, junk food vendors and barkers selling time shares or stolen surfboards.

Once I moved back to California after graduating, I started pounding the phones looking for free lance work. I literally opened the San Francisco phone book and started "Smiling and Dialing". My first day, I found a company manufacting store fixtures in a place called "Pacifica". I literally had never heard of it but dutifully took down directions and made the drive the following day.

Funny side note - the job was some 4x5 Vvew camera work and although I had bought a horrible old Calumet Model 1 View Camera, I had no tripod for it. So the job paid just enough to cover purchasing the tripod needed to do the job. I still have that massive Bogen tripod, and it still sees work regularly.

The last leg of the drive to the job took me south on US1. I passed a funky looking little bar named "Winters" and recalled stories of my dad raising hell at someplace with the same name...could it be? A mile or so later I saw the sign for "Rockaway Beach" and of course I immediately thought of the Ramones and said "Hey Ho, Lets Go!" I turned down the short road and ended up in a parking lot overlooking the ocean, with some pretty impressive surf pounding a cute tiny cove.

I shot the job, and drove back the next day to explore this new discovery. I ended up making it to "Rockaway" whenever I could. While I had boogie boarded in College, Rockaway Beach taught me how to do it properly, with respect for the power of the earth and surf. It rapidly became my favorite place on earth. In short, it felt like home.

I came to love Rockaway so much, when I married my college girlfriend, we honeymooned there, Spluging on a room at the Best Western (Now the Lighthouse). The morning after the ceremony I strolled around the neighborhood around the beach, looking for something picturesque. Honestly, Rockaway at that time was mostly just a sort of run down collection of small house/cabins, until I made it all the

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