Ella Boyd interviewed surf photographer Shirley Rogers in 2024, not long after Rogers moved to Huntington Beach, California.

It’s pretty well-known that you enjoy a big night out. 

Well, you know, it was my era. I’m old school. I’m from the Woodstock and hippie days. I’m still a hippie, you know.

I’ve been coming to Huntington since the end of 2018, back and forth. I have a friend who lives here, and I finally got off the fence, packed everything, and last November I gave up my apartment in Waikiki and moved over here for good.

 profile from a few years back was amazing. Your shots in there are all time. There’s some really iconic stuff.

That was film, babe. I had to pay for the film, pay for developing, and wait a week just to see what I had. 

I like film. I shot some film at Padang last summer. But you all had it so different because you had to anticipate what was going to happen and stay in focus the whole time, whereas we just fire and hope for the best.

Dude. We’d walk in from the road, the main road. It was a 45-minute walk across the fields, carrying the equipment, from the road to Uluwatu. And the only way to get to Padang back then was from Uluwatu, so you had to walk along this narrow little trail with your back against the cliff; it was maybe two feet wide and you literally had to walk with your back against the wall and scoot along that edge. It was spooky. It was a big deal to go to those places back in those days. There was nobody out there, sometimes.

Do you remember your first time at Uluwatu? 

I went with Fast Eddie [Rothman], and I’m sitting there up on the cliff, and there was no one else in the water. I mean, no one. It was high tide, and he got washed in by a huge set and just slammed the cliff. He climbed halfway up and was holding onto his board. I thought he was dead. It was like, “my God, what am I gonna do? It’ll take me two hours to get back to Denpasar to get help.” I'm freaking, then all of a sudden I look back down there and see him paddle back out.

What else do you remember about that trip? 

These local farmer guys were coming up and talking to me, or trying to talk to me. We couldn’t really communicate very well, but I remember walking across the field and someone yelled, “Hello, what is your name?” And I go, “My name is Shirley. What is your name?” “My name is Ketut.” Two years later, I came back and I’m crossing the field again, and the guy yells out, “Hello, Shirley! How are you?” I’m like, “Aw, he remembered my name.” It was so nice. 

You spent a lot of time with Jeff Hakman and his girlfriend back in the day, right? 

Jeff was my next-door neighbor in Pupukea. I introduced him to my best friend Joey, and the two of them hooked up, so we were like the Three Musketeers. One afternoon I went over there and they go, “Hey Shirley, we’re going to Australia tonight. Wanna come?” And I go, “Yeah!” Then Jeff holds up these trunks and goes, “These are called boardshorts, they call ’em boardshorts in Australia.” Those were the first Quiksilvers I ever saw. And then Jeff goes, “I’m gonna go get the rights to make and sell these in the United States, from this guy in Torquay, his name’s Alan Green.” So we jumped on a plane that night and flew in and stayed on the Gold Coast with Dickie Hoole. From there we went down to Melbourne and they cut us loose in the Golden Breed Warehouse, which was the top surfwear brand back in the day. Jeff used to be with Golden Breed, he was their big star. So we went and grabbed whatever we wanted. From there, we went to Bells Beach and stayed at Alan Green’s house, who had just started making Quiksilver. Brian Singer, the Rip Curl guy, he was there in Torquay as well, so we also stayed at Brian’s house. They were all nuts back then. Those guys are crazy. It was so much fun, that whole trip. People had food fights in restaurants and shit. I mean, it was nuts. 

Was that the year that Jeff won at Bells? 

That’s right. I couldn't believe it. Jeff won. He was the first American to win Bells! Afterward there was this big official Bells contest dinner at a nice restaurant. Everybody was there. They served lobster, and somebody threw a lobster leg across the room. Next thing I knew it was whole lobsters, just flying through the air. Then full plates! I mean, all hell broke loose. And the crazy part, it wasn’t just us surfers in the restaurant, there were other people in there, like families and shit. And there were people hiding under tables. It was just insane. Plates, lobsters, salad, flying from one end of the restaurant to the other. So finally everything kinda settles down. And guess what they did next? They serve dessert! Lemon meringue pie! What were they thinking? It all went nuts again. Somebody said the cops were coming so finally we just ran outside. I remember looking back and the waiters and busboys and everybody, they were standing at the doors, holding them shut, just lined up to block us from coming back inside!

Everyone was there. Gerry Lopez, Mark Richards . . . 

I think Ian Cairns is the one who started everything. Now that I remember, actually, it didn’t start with lobster, it started with little breadrolls, those little baguettes. Then it went to lobster. 

I can’t picture Jeff Hakman, for some reason, involved with all that. 

Oh, no. Jeff’s a good guy, but he was game for anything. I remember that same trip, on the Gold Coast, we stayed up at the top of the hill overlooking Kirra; you could see Greenmount, Snapper, Kirra, it was like being up high on the North Shore and seeing Pipe and Sunset. So there was this long sloping hill and we were all surfing down the grass on flattened cardboard boxes. Jeff started that; he was super fun. I was dating Michael Peterson at the time. 

Michael was pretty strange. He was pretty awesome. But he was also schizophrenic. Like, actually heard voices in his head and shit. But I didn’t know any of this until way later. Up until Jeff won, Michael just owned the Bells contest, I think he won like four in a row or something. Jeff and Joey, me and Michael, the four of us were hanging out that year. It was super fun.

Dated? I lived with him for seven years. I was 21 when we met. Moved in a year or so later. Didn‘t  get out til I was 29. Seven years of tribulation, I call it. Do you know what the Hui is?

The first Hui meeting happened in my kitchen. I was in the other room,  listening with a glass pressed against the wall. I could hear every word. It was the first meeting, it was Squiddy and all the boys, Squiddy Sanchez. The meeting was about beating up PT [Peter Townend] and Ian. PT was one of my best friends. I was horrified. So I immediately went down to his house afterward and told him, “you're gonna get beat up.”

He was one of my best friends when I was in my twenties, yeah. All these guys were my friends.

When you say “friends,” do you mean like surf buddies or  . . . ?

Just hanging out, partying with ’em, going out drinking and stuff. This was before I met Eddie. I had no idea who Eddie was. I actually thought he was a nice guy when I met him. [Laughs]. When I was 21, I was dumb. He was like the second guy I’d ever gone out with seriously. 

I was working at Turtle Bay, which was then called the Kuilima, and after work we’d all go to the bar. He kept showing up at the bar and asking me if I wanted lines and stuff. I’d say, “Sure, okay.” I’d leave my purse there on the bar so I could go get a bump from him and go, “I left my purse, I gotta go back.” He just kept ambushing me! He was on his absolute best behavior. I didn’t know who he was. He was living on the Big Island at that time. He tricked me into thinking he was a nice guy. But I ended up being a captive. That was pretty rough.

I got him to go to North Shore Calvary Church, I remember that. And Eddie is Jewish. But he was dangerous. I had to stop him from all the shit he wanted to do. 

You lived on the North Shore for a long time, but you weren’t born there, right? 

My dad was in the military, and we moved to Hawaii when I was 16. We lived on the base, I went to school at Ewa Beach, at James Campbell High, and as soon as I graduated I moved with my boyfriend to the North Shore; we got a house up in Pupukea. 

I started surfing when I was in high school but I found that motocross was more fun for me and I was better at it. With surfing, also, after a certain point I got tired cutting my feet on the reef. Having bruises on your legs and cuts on your feet wasn’t attractive. I’d wear short dresses and ankle-strap high heels and I didn't want my legs all bruised up. With motocross, I did that for over 10 years and never got hurt. I rode virtually every day. 

Yeah, on the North Shore. I was the only girl up there. I used to race against the guys. And kick their asses.

Had badass bikes and I was in really good shape.

How long did you stay on the North Shore? 

Until the late eighties. Then I moved into Town, into Waikiki, and oh my God, I went out. I went out every night for five years. I had VIP cards to every club, and there were a shitload of them back then. There were at least 10 high-end clubs that had VIP rooms. Everybody went out back then. That was the late eighties. We rode around in limos and drank champagne and played backgammon. Then the recession hit and everything closed down. It was awful. Then Covid hit, and everything 

 shut down, because I was there for two months last year from September and October. There was literally nowhere to go.

You had to have a card to get into certain rooms and stuff. You had to know people, and look a certain way, to get one. And I knew everyone, and I’m fun! Plus I had the wardrobe for it! I still do, in fact. I'm going to the Emmy party in Hollywood this weekend! 

That sounds fun. Must be nice living in Southern California!

I’m calling from Northern California. But I spent half of last year in Indonesia.

Oh, I love it there. We used to go for months at a time. That's when you really get into the lifestyle. When I first went to Bali it was still lanterns and dirt floors. And that was in Kuta Beach! There was no electricity.

You went to Grajagan, really early on. What was that like? 

The first time, we had to sail there from Bali. I mean, it was a game preserve. There was nothing for 30 miles. We went in a sailboat, five of us. I was the only girl. The jungle was so thick at G-land; you had maybe 50 feet between the sand and the jungle, and we slept in the trees because tigers were walking around. I’d see their paw prints in the sand, the size of dinner plates. 

I show up, I’ve got a blow-up air mattress, sheets, a mosquito net; I’m not gonna rough it, right? Then I find out there’s no drinking water! They were getting water from a pond five miles down the beach. Just this little river and it’s murky with scum floating on it, and branches, and it’s brown water. I had to boil it and strain it through Speedos to get the bug wings and leaves out of it. I’d put it in a canteen so we wouldn’t have to look at it. We’re talking brown water. We drank that for two weeks. One day, I asked the camp boys to take me to the pond. It was backed up with sand and it was maybe two feet deep. There was scum floating on the top of it. And I’m looking at it, and I see big giant paw prints all around the sides of the pond. I look again and just go, “What the hell is 

” I grab a stick and I pull a human skull out of the water. I’m like, “Holy shit, why oh why did I come and look at this?” Whatever got him, I think a tiger, carried the rest of his bones off. But you can’t chew up a skull, right? So there was a skull in the water. Anyway, that was G-land. It was great but it was also spooky. I slept with a spear gun next to my bed, and I had the top floor of the double-decker treehouse and I’d pile all kinds of stuff on the entry hole so nothing could get up to where I was. Branches and suitcases and shit.

Who else were you with on that trip to G-land?

It was me and Eddie. We went several times. Gerry Lopez went on one of the trips. Tom Carroll was there on one. Peter McCabe. I have to think harder about it. But there were only ever a few of us.

What was the heaviest thing that ever happened to you there? 

The first time we went, the boat capsized as we were coming back into the village. I broke my arm in the water.

Three months before I went, I had a premonition I was going to get hurt, and that my camera equipment was gonna get damaged. I'm telling you, for three months, I could not shake this feeling. I went and got an army surplus waterproof bag to put my cameras and lenses in. I had a brand new 1200 Century lens, and I made a case for it with a PVC pipe where it was lined with foam, then I put it inside that tube and screwed lids on the ends. Even that wasn't enough. We got to Bali, and I rented a motocycle, rode into Densapar and bought one of those 55-gallon trash cans with a locking lid so I could put all my equipment into that, which I then sealed with duct tape. 

But no matter what I did, nothing took the dread away. I knew something was gonna happen, but I couldn't see the outcome. So there we were, coming back from G-land, and I'm sitting there in the middle of the boat, looking at the land going, “Shirley, you asshole. Nothing happened. What an idiot.” Three months I'd been in Indonesia, and no problem, right?

And at that moment, we caught a wave, went over the falls sideways, I got pitched in the water and boat came over on top of me. I'm underneath the boat, and I see the mast snap off underwater in front of my face. I'm thinking, “Okay, here it is. This is what I was dreading.” It was really heavy; I was stuck down there at first, I thought I was gonna die. Then I popped up and heard Eddie screaming, “Get away from the boat! Get away from the boat!” We're still fully in the impact zone, right? All these big heavy planks from the deck of the boat are floating everywhere and the bow is aiming right at me. Eddie's still screaming, there's another wave coming, so I dive underwater, cover my head, and one of those giant planks hits my arm and breaks it. But here's the good thing—when I popped up, there was my trash can, floating on top of the water. Had I not done that, all of my stuff, my Nikon camera, my lenses, my motor drive, everything, would've sunk to the bottom.

That’s a lot of expensive camera equipment to be hauling around Indonesia.

Oh my god. I was in my twenties. My car was worth less than my camera gear!  

Let’s talk about that. I want to know more about your photography. Did you buy your own gear, or did it belong to one of the magazines? 

I bought every piece of it, one at a time, and I had nothing but top-of-the-line shit. On the way home from Bali, I would always stop in Hong Kong for two days and go shopping for lenses and all the things I needed. But yeah, I paid for every piece of that equipment, every single piece of it. 

What was it like in terms of shooting film? What kind of skill level did you need?

Well, first of all, SURFER Magazine would only accept 25 ISO film speed, and everything had to be crystal sharp. So that's really hard, right there, because you have be able to pan and focus at the same time. Plus, back then, before digital, we couldn't manipulate the images and clean shit up. You got it right when you hit the shutter or you didn't. If you scored five good shots off a roll of 36, you're doing good. And we had to buy our own film and pay for developing, too. Or I did, anyway. The magazines only paid when the shot got printed. Luckily, I got a lot of stuff printed. 

Did anybody help you, any of the established photographers? 

I picked Dan Merkel's brain, yeah, and all the top guys. We were on the same beaches all over the world, all the time.

It sounds like it was a little more of a community between the photographers back then.

I don't know. Not really. Some guys were nicer than others, put it that way. But I was the only girl. And I was relentless. They didn't have much choice [laughs]. Plus, when you're standing there for hours, of course you wanna talk to somebody. What can I say? I'm fun to talk to! 

I guessing some where pretty stoked you were there.

Well, you know, I was pretty hot back then.

[Laughs] Oh yeah, no, I’ve seen you. And you modeled a bit too, right? You were in some films?

I’m super curious about how you got into surf photography to begin with.

I was bored. Back on the North Shore in those days, I'm talking '70s, there was honestly nothing to do. I mean, nothing. Our job as women was to go to the beach from nine to five [laughs]. Me and my girlfriends, all the chicks on the North Shore, we'd all go lay on the beach at Waimea Bay. Which was fine, for a while. But there's only so much gossip and so many 

 mags you can read before you get really, really bored. So I just started taking my camera down there. And after a while, people were going, “Oh, you got some good shots.”

Where did you get your first shot published?  

I think it was in SURFER. But I ended up working mainly with 

 because I was friends with the Flame [photo editor Larry Moore], and he helped me a lot. Colonel Al Benson, Becky Benson's dad, was one of my favorites. He was a sweet old guy and a good photographer. I'd set up next to him and he was always happy to help. Dan Merkel was always grumpy, but I got along with him fine. Jeff Divine was one of my buddies. All of them are my friends. They still are.

Jeff is a super sweet guy, and you should have seen him in the day. He was gorgeous! He had long, streaked hair from the sun. Such a babe.

It sounds like you got a fair bit of attention. No one was hitting on you?

They were all like my brothers, and I was just one of the guys. 

Was surf photography ever a full-time job for you? Or was it kind of like it is today where everyone has some other job and does photography kind of on the side? A lot of my friends are landscapers or whatever, but surf photography is their passion.

Back then I worked at Turtle Bay Resort, except then it was called Kuilima. Everybody just called it the Kui. Or Kui-lingus [laughs]. All of us ended up working there part-time; that was just about the only place to work on the North Shore back then. And after work, oh my god, we partied so hard there. It was unbelievable. 

It was way more part of the culture back then.

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