Hey everybody! My name is Tony Cruz (@tonycruz) and I’m a co-director for the #thatvanagainproject. I’m a husband to Megan and dad to my two boys, Lucas and Ethan. I’m an avid surfer and a huge fan of VW vans and buses. And now a co-owner of a '72 Kombi named Seagull. My love for vans started as a child when neighbors would cruise up the street. There was no doubt when they were coming because it was the loudest, yet slowest car on the block. I was always intrigued by its look, which was nothing like my parents Astro van. HA.
My love for surfing didn’t start out as a kid, but actually as a teenager graduating from high school. I spent that graduating summer going to the beach with a friend and his family. It was then that I caught the surfing bug and many years later I still get super excited about spending time in the water.
Back in 2014, I started shooting photos of vans and buses on my way home from the beach and posted then with the hashtag #thatvanagain. The photos had a specific look, a side profile shot of a van in the lower third with a lot of negative space above. This led to numerous opportunities to talk to van/bus owners who had pretty cool stories on how they got their van, where they’ve traveled on surf trips with it, etc. This led to where I’m at today - working with two good buddies of mine, Scott Erickson (@scottgregerick) & Brett Kirkpatrick (@brettkirk), we work together in production at @Linkedin and now on this project. Our backgrounds and stories are unique, but what we do have in common is, we love surfing, VW vans and telling stories. This is where and how our project about telling unique stories of VW vans life thru surf culture began. It made sense to us because our passions collided and opportunities presented themselves to begin production with this project. So, here we are today two years later and this project has been what the three of us describe as pushing a train in sandals while watching the waves. At times it has been slow moving and other times full throttle. So, I’m excited for us to start sharing some of the short vignettes we’ve completed.