John Severson

Hawaii, 1995

I retreated into art, into photography, into surfing.

Matt Warshaw interviewed John Severson in 1995. Quotes from this conversation were used in “Articles of Faith: 35 Years of Surf Magazines,” which ran in the Spring 1996 issue of Surfer’s Journal. 

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What was high school like for you?

I went to Capistrano Union High School. I was editor of the school paper, the Cougar Highlights. But there were only 160 kids at the whole school, so if you had anything going for you at all you could rise to the top. I was a pitcher on the baseball team,...