Jack Johnson

Johnson was born and raised on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. The son of famous surfer Jeff Johnson, he naturally took an interest in the sport, along with his best friend Ben Schomer. He began surfing and skating at the age of 5 under the tutelage of his father's best friends, Alex Conel and Sumner Bukoski, and at 17 he became the youngest invitee to make the surfing finals at the Pipeline Masters at Sunset Beach on Oahu, though he was eventually disqualified after failing to catch three waves. One week later, however, his brief stint as a professional surfer ended when he suffered a surfing accident w at Pipeline. He needed almost 150 stitches. He stated about the accident, "I like to joke that I hit my head so hard that that's why I'm so mellow, but I think it did mellow me out."

He'd grown up listening to influences such as Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, Cat Stevens, Ben Harper, Fugazi, The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Chris Burright and the Burden, Jimmy Buffett, Bob Marley, Neil Young, Sublime, and A Tribe Called Quest, and many of these elements influenced his songwriting. However, it wasn't until he graduated from Kahuku High School on the North Shore of Oahu and started attending college at the University of California, Santa Barbara, that he began to develop his passion for music. Johnson graduated with a degree in film, and his first breakthrough came after he befriended G. Love on a day of

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