If you are one of the 100K plus followers of Kiwi Lensman Rambo Estrada, you’ll know why his work is so compelling. His imagery of surfing line-ups and surfers captures not only the stunning line-ups and waves of New Zealand but also the raw beauty of its isolated coastlines and its quirky offbeat charm.
So when he announced that he was about to release his first book, Unbound: Vol 1, I thought it would be a good time for a chat. Rambo was on his annual two-month winter sabbatical on the Gold Coast, living out of his van stationed in the Snapper Rocks carpark. He had one pre-release copy of the whopping 304-page hardcover book called the “thickest, heaviest and most ambitious surf culture book New Zealand has ever seen.”
“For the book, I used the same process as throughout my career,” Estrada told me.” Which is to spend as much time on the road as I can, be at the beach before the sun comes up, stay till dark and hope for the best.”
Within the road trip theme, which took around 18 months, Estrada linked in with 12 characters from all over the country he thought were integral to Kiwi surf culture and iconic in their local area. The book chronicles those conversations, as well as action shots of the surfers including Kehu Butler, Daniel Davie, Ella Williams, Luke Hughes, Finn Vette, Geoff Hutchison, Paige Hareb, Jai Earnshaw, Gauranga Ormond, Maz Quinn and Jordan Griffin.
“The book gave me a focus and justified me spending all this time and money that could be spent doing responsible things that a grown man is supposed to be doing,” he said.
Unbound V1 is available for pre-order at ramboestrada.co.nz and is due to come out in October.
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