What is your full name? If you could change it, what would it be?
My name is Brian Sward. What’s in a name? It´s just a name but it is my name. So no, wouldn´t change it.
Where did you grow up and where would have been your ideal place to grow up?
I grew up in Ocean Beach. It´s a little hippy beach town in San Diego, California close the Mexican border. It was the perfect place to be a frothy sand covered beach grom, I wouldn´t want to have grown up anywhere else.
What part of your work do you love and hate the most?
At work I love the people and having the opportunity to communicate with them in Spanish, French and English. I hate manufacture defects.
Which movie inspires you and which movie puts you to sleep?
No movie in particular comes to mind but I enjoy any movie that mentally transports me in into the film. The kind that makes you so emotionally involved that you forget where you are physically until you have left the theater. Horror movies don´t put me to sleep but they do give me nightmares. Not a fan.
Tell us a delicious meal you would die for and food that makes you puke?
Take me to the pizza street vendors in Napoli and let me eat myself into a food coma per favore! I don´t mind eating stinky tofu, snake soup or chicken sashimi but it´s physically impossible for me to eat old mushy bananas, bleh!
What about music that makes you dance and music that hurts your ears?
Chromeo is the jam. I also gravitate towards older tunes like Otis Redding and other music that my father played in the car when I was young. As for deep house techno, that stuff is for the birds.
Where are your favourite and hated surf spots?
Drop me in any line up in the world with quality people a wave with a bit of power and I´ll be stoked. No matter how good the wave is, any surf spot controlled by discontent local grouches with a narrow world views are places that I normally avoid. I think the worst localism that I experienced was just across the river from home in OB. At the time I was in high school surfing with the standard black wetsuit, white board, no leash and respect. Irate crusty local disagreed that I had should be catching a wave theres. He charged at me to attack and I narrowly got away. From down the beach I later I saw that same guy spear the nose of his board through some other less fortunate fellow’s board.
What do you like about surfers and what do you hate about them?
Like I mentioned, I think surfers that are egocentric make the sport worse off. It´s better to be humble and share the stoke.
Brian is wearing the Checkered Shirt
If you could move anywhere in the world where would it be and where would you never go that everyone else loves?
I´ve always liked the idea of moving to Tahiti. It seems like a tropical French island life that I would enjoy. And where would I never go that everyone else loves? As long as the place has an ocean with good community of people, why not. Hossegor was a place that I lived for a year. In the stormy winter time unless you were born there is a bit of a social desert.
What do you do in your spare time and to waste your time?
Recently, my wife and I did a big renovation project so we enjoy spending time at home doing other home improvement work as well as cooking such as poke bowls, tajins and whatever else Gordon Ramsey is currently frothing about. As for spare time traveling before covid, we loved the low cost euro flights to new destinations like Greece, Morocco and Ireland for example. Surfing is of course is mixed in the daily spare time. As for a waste of time, Instagram is at the top of the list. I spend too much time on it and it adds little to no value to my day. Another waste of time is the eternal surf check. You know when you think the “grass is always greener on the other side” or in this case it’s the wave is always better at the next surf spot. 99% of the time it never is. My wife helped me come up with the idea of the 3 spot surf check max rule. Check spot 1, check spot 2 and the 3rd spot you have to get in the water and have fun because a good surfer surfs well in all conditions. 