“Beach town. Slum. Paradise. Gross. These are just a few ways Isla Vista has been described. Maybe they are all correct. The nearly two square mile radius is home to over 27 thousand people averaging 21 years of age. Only two percent of the residents are over 35. In recent years, EDM and pop songs tend to drown out the sound of wildlife and waves. However, Isla Vista wasn’t always this way—it too has lived many lives.” - The Lineup

It began with a simple curiosity about what lies beneath our alluring college town, Isla Vista. We wanted to know more about those who’ve called it home for greater than four formative college years. So together we combined our passions for photography and storytelling to explore the lives of Isla Vista’s longstanding surfers. Three years later, after many interviews, design concepts, photoshoots, and first drafts, we’ve created a 96-page coffee table book displaying Isla Vista’s deep-rooted culture and coastline.

The book includes personal accounts of Isla Vistans throughout the decades that detail the social and environmental changes on the coast. Stories from 74-year-old painter and surfer Hank Pitcher to 26-year-old IV born and raised Bela Lafferty fill the pages and illustrate a surfer’s keen observations of the changing environment and the remarkable characters living in IV.