Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David Pu’u. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

David, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?

Since I was a professional surfer for almost 2 decades and a board builder in the Surf Industry for even longer, everyone assumed me to be a “Surf Photographer” when my name began to appear on surf magazine mastheads and images in those publications .

It was really the opposite circumstance.

When I left the surf industry I was a Commercial Photographer whose work was assigned to Corbis Images (Now Getty). I was also doing back to back motion pictures and learning the various departments from Locations to Production Stills, to Gaffing and being a Director of Photography.

But my ocean and surfing work was all over the world and everyone thought that was what I really was. A Surf Photographer.

The reality was that at the time of my transition out of the Surf Industry, I had walked in on a burglary in one of my retail stores and after fighting for my life resigned to playing dead when I realized it would be the only way for me to escape. It worked.

In the same time frame I was in the middle of a divorce, had two young sons to support, and was either closing or selling all my business concerns.

I had a pretty severe traumatic brain stem injury from being struck multiple times with a pipe.

So what I did to recover, was swim out pre dawn into the surf with a camera. This served to heal my trauma and created a leading edge library of Ocean work that went into all the publications via the editors who all knew me from my surfing career.

But that imagery was really shot in pursuit of healing, as well as coping with a massive number of life changes.

Fortunately everything worked out, and I became pretty successful. I really attribute it to my relationship with a merciful God who really showed me how much he loves us all in this process which I describe here.

It is pretty amazing where He, and the Ocean and the Arts have taken me. It is a much deeper and bigger story than I can share here.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Typically we are a product of our personal development and history. Generally speaking this can refer back many generations into a person (and cultures) history.

Being of Hawaiian descent and growing up in a Hawaiian family I was introduced to the water quite early and was in the ocean as soon as our family moved adjacent to it. (at about the age of four). By seven I was in a competitive swimming program. My relationship-love for water and the Ocean grew along with my understanding of that environment. I evolved into a waterman as I grew.

Scholastically my background was in the Arts, Literature, and Sciences. By College it leaned towards Business studies, as an addition to my Ocean and other athletic pursuits (Competitive cycling, swimming, waterpolo)

My Hawaiian Father, who had witnessed the destruction of Pearl Harbor from the family home as a child had wound up being in the Army and was deployed to Japan and then Indo-China (Later named Vietnam) during the Korean War. He and a team mapped and photographed the region, creating Military intelligence for that eventual war.

By the age of eleven my Father had loaned me his Army issue Nikon, and I learned the basic ins and outs of Photography. I was shooting a lot of ocean subject matter. It did fascinate me.

This experience and family related history and a trip to meet our Hawaiian family when I was quite young, cemented my ID. It firmed up who I would become later in life. I see all of it quite clearly now, as I reminisce.

By the time I was 21 I had already run three very complex businesses and competed heavily in Swimming, Surfing, the Olympic Development Cycling program, and more. It was at that point when I turned professional in surfing and began to develop myself as a business, and to do brand representation through work in Media. I have a long history in Media work in Journalism, Photography and as an on air personality, as a result.

All of this history, cumulatively would serve me well, later in life as a Brand Development Specialist, Photographer and Cinematographer.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspects of being involved in the Arts is communicating the beauty, complexity and intelligence innate to my subject matter on both individual and global levels.

Life can be hard on people, but if my work helps to give encouragement and appropriate direction to a person and ultimately a culture, that is extremely rewarding. It matters deeply to me.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Well, there are a couple obvious ones.

First time was when my parents made me stay in High School when I was set on graduating a year early and going to College for Pre Med studies and then Medical school. That changed the entire arc of my life, obviously.

The second was leaving the Surf Industry concurrent with a divorce, taking my two sons, and building my present career. There is far too much to be said about that to write here. Suffice it to say that I am extremely grateful for the friendships and opportunities presented to me in an extremely dangerous and difficult time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.davidpuu.com, www.bettybelts.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidpuu/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidpuu
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/davidfpuu
• Other: https://vimeo.com/user3013888

Image Credits
Jeanette Ortiz, Donna von Hoesslin, Hans Rathje, Dan Malloy, Asia Mahey Carpenter