Before Jack Johnson perfected his casual rock star ways, he was a champion surfer on the professional route. The sport was second nature to the young Hawaiian native, who began chasing waves as a toddler and, by the age of 17, had become an outstanding athlete on the Pipeline. However, Johnson was also testing other creative outlets -- specifically film and music -- and a serious surfing accident convinced him to devote more time to those landlocked hobbies.
It was during his college years in the continental U.S. that Johnson began writing the relaxed, acoustic-based songs that would later turn him into a star.