Sara Taylor never really identified as a “Roxy Girl” despite being a literal Roxy girl in high school. Well, she rode for them anyway.

Sara is from Huntington Beach and always ripped. She knew Ed Templeton and would attend parties at my house and we both had an avid appreciation for Mario’s, our local Mexican food spot that’s hidden in a strip mall.

Years later, in 2021, Sara sent me a video she made for Stussy called “Gum Crush.” My reaction was this:

I find Sara’s anti-hero vid especially sick. Not only is she not selling you a bikini top from her longboard in Waikiki, but she’s punching boards, doing airs, getting pitted and shit is being lit on fire. And the vid has a nice creative approach applied by filmmaker Charlie McHarg.

The two followed “Gum Crush” with “Beach Blvd” and Stussy kept backing Sara and letting her and creative filmmaker Charlie McHarg make sick videos. Which is smart. Since then, Sara and Charlie have continued being so far ahead of the curve that they might actually be lapping us now. Charlie (for me at least) basically originated glitch culture and may or may not be on the Kardashian’s speed dial.

“Charlie’s work is featured in more pitch decks than anyone on earth.” Sara told me of the creative powerhouse. She’s right, I’ve had Red Bull execs ask me how they can copy her. The two also worked on the collaboration with Nike x Stussy that featured Sara charging in Tahiti — and the vid was a refreshing take on big brand collaborations and Sara was charging.

We’re hoping for much more from this camp, and they want to bring some pals, so who's in? More hope for what a “freesurfer” can be.—Travis Ferré

Inherent Bummer: You're living up in Oak View, CA now, near Ojai. How's that compared to Huntington Beach?

Sara Taylor: I love it because it kind of has a northern California feel, but it's still close enough to LA and all that, and lots of fun surfing. It's just a slower pace too. My neighbors have donkeys and chickens and horses, pigs and goats. Winter is good, summer's bad wave-wise. I surf by myself probably like 98% of the time, which is cool. I like it. Sometimes I run into the “Chapter 11” crew and if they're out, you know it's probably the best spot around. I assume there’s a pretty good text thread on how all the spots are.

Let's rewind. How did you first get into surfing?

I started skating before I surfed. My parents don't surf and back then it was even still kind of looked down upon in a way. It was a lot different than it is now. I think I started surfing when I was about 10-ish and loved it, but wasn't allowed to go as much as I wanted to because my mom was a little overprotective — which I totally get. But I needed to be with someone or in front of a lifeguard tower. To this day she still texts me when there's a big swell coming and the news is like, there's going to be strong rip currents. It’s cute.

I didn't really go daily until I was 14, which is kind of late. There's kids that are mini shredders — there's 12-year-olds that are better than me. I kind of love that my parents were so out of touch with it too. The opposite of the pushy parent.

You did the whole Huntington Beach surf team thing in high school?

Yeah, so it was surf PE. Three or four days a week we were at the pier at 6:00 AM. I was on the team with Taylor Pai, Kyle Kennelly, Chris Waring from Seal Beach … Quinn McCrystal. That was the dream — to be a pro surfer — but at the time, I didn’t really know what that meant outside of just following the contest circuit.

After high school, you were riding for Roxy but also working various jobs. What was that hustle like?

I was on flow so I wasn't making any money, so I always worked. I had a job and I'd find these jobs that were flexible or temporary that would allow me to keep surfing and do a little bit of travel. I've done everything from making pizzas to pumpkin patch to Christmas tree lots … of course surf lessons.

But then I fell into the production world and that was a lot more money and such a flexible schedule. My rent in Long Beach was less than a thousand dollars a month and production was a day rate, so I could work maybe five days a month to cover my bills. Then I could take off for three weeks or whatever.

How did you get into production work?

I had a skater friend who had such an obscure schedule and was always doing cool stuff. I was like, “How do you do this?” And she was like, "Oh, production." I started doing set design assisting and actually really liked it. I like when work is completely separate from surfing. Not everything in my life has to be about surfing. So yeah, a lot of years I was a set design assistant — I'd go to prop houses in LA and help set up mostly fashion photography shoots.

How did those video projects with Charlie [McHarg] happen?

I was always surfing, but I wanted to make a video part. I wasn't seeing a lot of that happening from the women or anything. And I love surfing, I like filming surfing, so I just thought it would be kind of cool to do that. That was around the time where I met Charlie, and we started filming not really even knowing what would come of it or where it would go.

During that time I got picked up by Stussy, so then Stussy put out the first full video that we did. I think we showed them little stuff that we had done, and that was kind of like an organic intro. They picked up the movie and then ended up sponsoring me.

Those videos —"Gum Crush" and "Beach Blvd" — felt so different from what was happening in women's surfing at the time. Was that conscious?

I didn't know what it would do, but that's just what me and Charlie wanted to do. It's just staying genuine and I didn't care if anyone would like it or not. It's just like that is me and how I want things to look and not compromising to what the stereotypical surf girl aesthetic is. It's just not me, so I'm not going to do it that way. And it's more like a skate video approach I guess, which I think is cooler.

"Gum Crush" was filmed mostly in southern California on a handy cam while Charlie was working full time at Supreme and I was working as much as I possibly could in freelance production. It's not all about big expensive boat trips. Not everyone can afford that. I definitely couldn't.

I was heavily subconsciously inspired by Marine Layer Productions and maybe women's surf videos pre-social media. Bill Ballard made a lot of cool stuff. And Lisa Andersen in some Quiksilver edits was really cool — kind of like Elissa Steamer in Toy Machine type feel, not specifically a "women's edit" which I think is nicer and progressive, inclusive without being segregated.

Charlie's aesthetic was so ahead of its time — that glitch culture, anti-tech vibe that's everywhere now.

Charlie is a creative genius and yeah, she's always a few steps ahead. Her style has been emulated and all her stuff is on so many commercial decks now. I think us chatting together and working on a computer together, I like that combination and we do work really well together. I love analyzing videos, whether it's surf videos or fashion stuff. There's a lot where people waste time on slow-mo no matter how crazy your clip is and I never really liked that much. Sound design is really important too.

Charlie McHarg

You mentioned Ed Templeton as an influence. How has being around that art scene affected your approach?

Ed's amazing. He's always been supportive and progressive even before it was cool to be that. Being around that scene definitely opened my eyes to different ways of approaching creative work.

Having a background being on set and doing set design in the fashion world has been helpful. I love seeing well-done fashion ads. Rei Kawakubo and Cynthia Lu are big inspirations of mine. I love well-executed creative direction.

What's your relationship with Stussy like now?

They're so supportive. I'm really grateful and love working with them. It's a really good group of people and we're on the same page. We're not the typical surf company. It's bigger than that — music, art, creatives, skate, streetwear. It started as a surf company, but it's so much bigger than that.

Beyond being a sponsored surfer, I love pitching ideas. I really like creative direction and art direction. I help a little bit with the design team. Stussy's working on some surf accessories that'll come out next year.

Any upcoming projects?

I just got back from a trip to Nicaragua. That was super fun. I think I'm going to France at the end of the month for fashion week — literally five minutes before you called, I got off the phone with friends there. One of my best friends is Rick Owens' main photographer and has been working alongside him for 20 years. I've actually never been to Paris, so I’m excited to go join them.

I'm trying to do a Stussy trip to Japan in the fall. And I have a couple ideas that I probably can't talk about yet, but I’m excited about. I'm getting a little more into creative direction and trying to find maybe a couple more surfers, whether that's going somewhere on a trip and working with locals and making a fun edit with them. I want it to feel organic and nice.

I'm putting out "Beach Boulevard" behind the scenes and also a director's cut from the Nike Tahiti edit we did too.

How do you feel about the current state of the surf industry?

The surf industry is scaring me. It sounds like from my industry friends, there's so many layoffs. Companies are broke, so then the people that are remaining are doing five people's jobs with bizarre creative directors. It seems like it's imploding, but maybe it'll be a good factory reset.

At the end of the day, if we could just find joy catching a wave, that's what really matters.

What excites you about surfing right now?

I'm really just into surfing right now, which feels good. I'm excited to do some projects and finish this edit and travel. I'm a bit checked out — I don't really pay that much attention to what's going on in the surf world, which is kind of the best thing you can do for your creative output.

I like what Caity Simmers is doing. I think she's the coolest and she's doing the whole contest thing and winning and crushing it and looking good and stylish. She's also putting out edits because I always thought, why not do both? Why aren't these people doing it? They're at good waves for contests, but then why not make an edit from your freesurfs? So that's really refreshing to see her doing that.

I think I've done a couple of solo things, but I think it's so fun to just have a good group of people. Ideally I would like to do what I'm doing now, but with a fun crew.

Any final thoughts on carving your own path in surfing?

I think it's important to have all looks and all realms. I didn't want to compromise to what the typical aesthetic was — I'm not going to wear floral print and put some awful commercial sound to something. I'm going to have fun B-roll and just do what I want to do. That approach has opened doors I never expected.