Well I met Keppler (Schleppy) in Mexico when I was about 13, which was a little over 4 years ago. I was on a regular surf trip I make south from TX into Mex. I went down with some friends of mine and was staying at a condo in Punta Mita, when Schleppy arrived with some surfers, including: Alex Gray, Raymond Reichle, Justin Wiegand, Justin Munyon, and Mexican surfer Kalle Carranza.
It was an eye-opener for me, seeing all these guys killing it then, and just
getting the chance to surf with them, and be around them, as well to try and shoot with Keppler.
John and I have kept in touch ever since then, and this last spring he happened to be in Hawaii at the same time I was there for my birthday, for about 3 days. We got to shoot one
of the days, the waves werent too bad, but nothing great either.

But just to have the chance to shoot with a photographer such as Kep, in
real waves, was amazing to me, coming from Texas, the land of SLOP!

Kep definitely gave me some positive feedback on my surfing, which motivated me to go back out for some more, even though the waves were not at all what I was hoping them to be. I'm glad I met a good ol' mate such as Kep. He's a real easy person to just keep in touch with, chat, hang, shoot, or even play an intense game of "SCRABBLE,∑ (you name it), Kep's the man for the job.

Thanks Kep!

Nathan Floyd