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W O R D S + P H O T O S B Y C H R I S PA PA L E O
France in the fall. Enough said.
Ventura 2009
Nick Rozsa, 21, is fresh off a Mexican fantasy trip,
nailing his first mag cover, multiple sponsors, winning
contests and by all means living the life. One would
think Rozsa was always on a flawless path to success,
but in all reality, it was the complete opposite.
2007
This is the year I met Nick in the water. I was new to
the art of surfing and quickly became obsessed with
every aspect of being in the ocean. I had lost interest
in school, work, team sports, you name it. All I wanted
was to be in the water. I grew up in Simi Valley, a small
middle-class town of inland Ventura County, nearly one
hour from the coast. A nightmare for a surf enthusiast.
Thankfully, not long after meeting Nick—we had
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DEEP SURF MAGAZINE April 2014
mutual friends and randomly became roommates—we
rented a rad little condo near some fun beach breaks in
Ventura. Nick happened to be working on his part for the
Reef movie at the time and needed some footage from
home. I was just getting into filming and had no clue
what I was doing. He asked me if I would try shooting
some surfing. I always aspired to be a filmmaker but
never really had the skills, let alone the connections to
actually have success in the industry. We made a couple
edits that seemed cool at the time, but nobody really
paid much attention.
Fast-forward about two years
Nick ended up moving down south to Carlsbad. Not
having much direction in life, he fully lost interest in
surfing contests. He focused more on having a good
time than his career. Nick started getting heavy into the
party scene. Big nights at home quickly turned into all
nighters in Australia, which eventually led to a threemonth bender in Bali. While in Bali he literally surfed
twice over a three-month span.
One night Nick went so big he wound up in the
hospital. Some would say he officially hit rock bottom.
Somehow, he still wasn’t convinced he was on the
wrong path. The wake-up calls were coming however.
The first being from his longtime sponsor Reef informing
Nick he was being cut from the program. The second call
came a couple weeks later from his girlfriend letting him
know she was pregnant. Now without a job and zero
income, Nick was stuck.
To make ends meet he worked alongside his dad
doing construction. Nick quickly realized how good he