such as Nick’s was still unsponsored and surfing crappy
one-foot beach breaks. The people wanted to see more.
A couple of weeks later, we released a follow-up video
entitled “Homegrown 2.” This time every surf website
showcased the clips. The controversy continued.
Out of nowhere, I received a Twitter message from
Kelly Slater: “Nick Rozsa is the best unsponsored surfer
in the world.” That blew our mind, and everyone
started paying attention.
With the opportunity on the table, we took
full advantage and committed any time we could
to getting work done wherever the local beaches
provided. There were multiple obstacles, however. With
Nick having zero income and myself working full-time,
it was difficult to arrange our sessions. We both made
sacrifices to make the most of what was available.
New Year's Day 2012
I woke up to a phone call from a random number I had
never seen before. To this day I still can’t believe the
caller happened to be King Kelly himself. He wanted to
come up and surf. I was blown away. It didn’t seem real.
I ended up shooting Kelly that whole week. A couple
of days later, we dropped another webisode entitled
“Homegrown 3 featuring Kelly Slater,” one of our most
played videos to date.
Reef contacted Nick offering him a second opportunity
to give surfing professionally another shot. On a roll with
something to prove, a couple of weeks later we dropped
another webisode entitled “Homegrown 4.” It was safe to
say Nick was back on the map.
Luck being in our favor, we stayed dedicated to
getting clips while scoring a consistent run of swell in
Mexico. That trip eventually led to our final webisode of
the Homegrown series, “Homegrown 5.”
We wanted to do something different with this
video, however. Since Nick was nearly homeless just
a few month prior, he wanted to give back to the
community. Nick grew up in the Ventura area that
happens to be riddled with salty, crusty, bearded,
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