I loved going surfing down on Venice Beach. I'd go out with a board under my arm and think, 'I can't do that in Cranhill.'
For me, the idea of being a successful actor is hanging out with my dogs and my boy, down in Venice beach, and going, "I don't have to audition today. I've got a little respite here."
I grew up in Imperial Beach, surfing and going to the beach - my son plays baseball at the park.
The situation in the film is like me going out to Venice Beach and talking to a homeless guy on the boardwalk, and 13 years later he's the president.
The balance and patience factors are much more critical in surfing than they are in snowboarding ... if you're out surfing serious waves and you wipe out, you don't land on soft snow. It's usually either very sharp coral, or you get raked across the beach gravel and sand while you're tumbling underwater.
Sometimes, when I break my hands, I kind of go too far behind my body, and what that will do, wherever my right arm's going to go, my left arm's going to go.
I don't want to be in my car all day. I love getting up in the morning in Venice and walking my dogs down to the cafe to get my tea, and then perhaps going to a bookstore and sitting and reading, then walking to the beach.
Sometimes I wish I had every different sort of board that I could just bring out for this surf when I feeling like surfing this board. I love riding old single fins and twin fins.
Dee Dee Ramone was the one who would go to Rockaway Beach, and he wrote that great song about it. He was the beach boy; he loved getting a tan and stuff, and he would ride the bus down Woodhaven Boulevard to Rockaway.
I've been surfing several times, and I'm terrible at it. But what I found was that you're usually waiting on the board, hanging out, watching the waves come in. And one that you think is a big wave is not actually one.
Fads get hot in California. A good idea can come from Des Moines, but it's not going to be anything there. Then it'll hit Venice Beach or Westwood and go all around the country, back to Des Moines.
I think sharks are beautiful creatures, and I don't think we should stop going in the ocean because of them. You drive down the road and you get in an accident, but most people end up driving down the road again. Surfing is you're going into their home and it's just a natural part of life.
I'm always in Malibu, and I'm a big fan of surfing and stuff. I love the beach. Someday I will live on the beach.
Please, all you MCs out there, all you fans out there, don't think Big gonna make a record dissing 2Pac or the West Coast because it's not going down like that. I cant even see me wasting my time or my talent to disrespect another black man.
I live three blocks away from the beach, so every day I walk down to the beach to run or go swimming. Hiking is a big one for me - so long as it's something where I'm not thinking about working out, like in a contrived class or the gym.
I grew up in the Midwest, quite far from any ocean or any beach, a million miles. I think for kids who grew up where I did, the idea of California, surfing and beach life was so exotic and glamorous.