KATHY MILLAR
Living Assistant
Walking into Becker Surf & Sport Shop, one can usually find store employees chatting with long-time customers and greeting newcomers with self-assured smiles in the Malibu Colony location. Tuesday night, Daniel Colella was doing just that among the store racks, neatly loaded with men’s and women’s surf and skate equipment as well as with trendy clothing that match those lifestyles.
Colella, a 21-year-old from Woodland Hills, said he works at Becker’s because of the pleasing atmosphere
“I work with a bunch of my friends, so we all get along,” Colella said. “We have a positive vibe around here, and we try to keep it that way.”
Colella helps supervise other employees, assists customers and organizes merchandise such as the sunglasses and shoes. During his full-time hours at the store, he meets a lot of students who go to Pepperdine, and many types of interesting people.
“Celebrities come in here a lot, and people who just live here. The local guys who surf in Malibu. Everyone who comes in here is pretty nice and relaxed,” Colella said. He added, “Eventually, everyone gets to start to know you. They’re like, ‘You’re the big guy with the Mohawk from Becker’s.’ It’s cool that some people come in everyday to say hi.”
Outside of his work, Colella has many hobbies that include outdoor sports and the visual arts.
“I surf, paint, snowboard, bodyboard and I started getting into downhill skateboarding,” Colella said.
He started surfing about a year and a half ago with friends, to learn more about his job. Colella surfs in the area around Los Angeles County, all the way up to the Ventura area. He usually uses his shortboard for Zuma and Countyline beaches, while he prefers to use his longboard at the beaches in Malibu and Leo Carillo. Colella has a tattoo of waves on his arms, which is reflective of his passion for the ocean.
Colella has been bodyboarding for around eight years, and one story that stands out to Colella from his bodyboarding adventures is when he and a fellow employee went to the North Shore in Hawaii for a week and a half. While bodyboarding in a river mouth one day, he found a standing wave.
“The water rushes in, and the water rushes out, and it kind of collides and makes a nice little wave,” Colella said. “It was my first time doing it, so I go on with my bodyboard, and the wave was really fast as it gained momentum. It took me over, and I went though a huge washing machine, and I went down that day. I drifted out about halfway through the bay. That was a really gnarly story.”
In the future, Colella said he wants to continue to surf and paint. “I love to paint,” Colella said, and he described how he has been recently working with charcoal and acrylics. A testament to the personalized atmosphere at Becker’s is the display of one of Colella’s paintings above some surfboards. The painting is a colorful and expressive piece that shows abstract drippings of acrylic paint with a skillful rendering of a cartoon-like character.
Colella describes his personal philosophy as, “Be happy. Enjoy the surf, you know, and be respectful about people around you. Be open-minded about things.”
03-16-2006
