Official website for Shannon McIntyre, Artist, Professional Surfer, On Surfari and Family Adventure TV show host and producer. Purchase prints, art, order original paintings and learn about Shannon's latest adventures and creative surf projects.
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Super happy to be apart of this insane amazing coffee table book of Surf Art called "SURF STORY" by Rob Havassy

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Foam Magazine
_Foam Magazine, WELCOME ONSURFARI winter 2007
This interview almost never happened. At the end of August, Shannon Payne-McIntyre sent out a Myspace bulletin from Indonesia pointing her friends towards her blog. She wrote about being three months pregnant, teaching surfing to a group of Afulu village girls and learning to work with cement to build platforms around wells so local women could fetch water more easily. She closed musing on the beauty of the Hinako Islands, the great waves she was scoring and her “great times with good new friends and epic memories!” And then she disappeared.After weeks of unreturned Myspace messages, posts, e-mails and phone calls-I got word from Shannon. She had been on outer Indonesian islands and on a boat trip and was back on Bali. Then she disappeared again. Days later, she resurfaced. Foam was rushing to press when Shannon called from San Diego. She was jet-lagged and exhausted yet ready to shed light on her Indonesian adventures.Shannon Payne-McIntyre is a 33-year-old artist, surfer, vagabond and mama. She grew up in Santee, an inland town in San Diego County. An area, she describes, as having been full of “monster trucks and tumbleweeds.” At 16, she began to surf and landed a job at Sea World so she would have an excuse to make the 40-minute drive to the beach.At 18, she moved to San Diego to attend Point Loma University where she majored in art and scored great waves. She also met Shayne McIntyre at a surfer’s bible study. “He was a La Jolla guy,” Shannon said. “One night they had a band, a disco band. People were slam dancing. He claims that I knocked him over but I don’t remember that. I remember seeing him there and thinking he was kind of intimidating. I thought that guy’s kind of cute but he looks kind of scary at the same time. He was with a football player guy that shoved one of my friends.” Their paths crossed again a few months later at a rave and they re-connected. “On our first date we surfed Wind n’ Sea and just became best friends after that,” Shannon said. Shayne taught Shannon how to shape boards and as her senior art project she painted some of her creations and orders started pouring in. The gig was successful but hard work and didn’t allow for as much travel or surfing as she would have liked. Four or five years passed, she and Shayne were married and she was struggling to get ahead. Shayne’s mom was a flight attendant and she hooked Shannon up with an interview at American Airlines and Shannon was hired as a flight attendant. It was the perfect job for a surfer and her and Shayne were able to fly around the world for free but everything changed when 9/11 happened. The airlines didn’t need as many flight attendants so Shannon took a two-year leave of absence but retained her travel benefits. She was able to focus on her art and take surf trips with Shayne. American Airlines flies all over the world and so did Shayne and Shannon. From India to Russia to Oman, they were jet setters of the surf set. Shayne had a video camera and they began to film their travels and pretend they had their own surf/travel TV show. They would film each other surfing and then run up to the camera saying “Welcome on Surfari!” They came home and Shayne made a trailer and sold the series to Fuel TV. Fuel licenses the show to National Geographic International and as a result, the couple is recognized all over the world by fans of the show. “At about the time my leave of absence was up I became pregnant and then milked my maternity leave,” Shannon said. After that, she never went back. The McIntyre’s have produced three years of On Surfari. “Shayne is more business and organized and I am more artistic and go with the flow,” Shannon said. “I kind of think of myself as creative director/co-producer, picking out music (created by Chad Farran) and making sure we get the cultural shots. Surfing is a thread throughout the show but we try to make it appeal to non-surfers as well. We include a lot of cultural things about each country we go to.” After each trip, Shayne gets home and hits the edit bay, taking two to three weeks in post-production before turning the episode in to air. Not surprisingly, through their travels they found a new place to call home. After 15 years of living in a killer ocean-view studio in Point Loma, they decided to base themselves abroad. “Southern California is not the cheapest place to live,” Shannon said. “I was about to turn 30, I was pregnant, and I wanted to own a house somewhere. We had a job where we shot for National Geographic International. I hadn’t heard much about Puerto Rico. We went there and just fell in love with the place and the people. It’s a U.S. territory so you don’t have to have a passport. Homes are really affordable, by the beach and waves are really good. We like the tropics.” The McIntyre’s may call Puerto Rico home, but they roam the world when adventure calls, typically traveling four to six months each year. Their latest trip to Indonesia was a grand adventure. They were there filming On Surfari and helping out with several different organizations. For the first two weeks, they were in the Hinako Islands on the Indo Jiwa boat with Christian Surfers filming for a DVD that will accompany The Surfer’s Bible. The tour with the boat is called Holidays With Purpose. The group toured and surfed the outer islands of Nias and in the days between surfing, worked with local villages. “My favorite day was teaching surfing to kids that were traumatized by the Tsunami,” Shannon said. “All the kids from those villages had experienced the Tsunami so a lot of the kids were afraid of the ocean. The boat captain said he hadn’t seen a lot of those kids smile in a long time so we went and did the whole surfing thing. He said it was the first time he saw those kids smiling and having fun in a long time so it was really rewarding in that way.” Holidays With Purpose and LEAP (local empowerment assistance project) were created by Australians Ruby and Channa Senaratne. Profits from the Holidays With Purpose boat trips are funneled back into the local community and the boat trip is less expensive than most. “It was really one of the coolest trips I’ve been on,” Shannon said. “For anybody that wants to go on a boat trip in Indonesia, It’s so much more rewarding. Some days the surf isn’t totally epic and then what are you gonna do? Just sit on the boat and hang out? Instead of doing that you get to interact with the villages and hang out on land and help the people.” After two weeks on the boat she met up with her parents in Bali before heading out to Sumba.“Sumba is an amazing place that puts you back in time,” Shannon said. “There is an organization there called the Sumba Foundation that is dedicated to stopping malaria and bettering the health and lives of the local people. We visited several clinics and villages and watched exciting traditional events and we enjoyed the surf everywhere we went.” Shannon said that the Sumba Foundation runs three to four clinics that take blood samples from people, study the blood under a microscope and find out in one hour if the person has Malaria. She learned that for 20 cents (10 cents for children), a person can be administered a Chinese herb that makes them feel better within 24 hours. Yet people are dying of Malaria in Indonesia due to lack of money and access to such treatment. The Sumba foundation aims to eradicate Malaria, known as the “poor man’s disease, in the area. Being three months pregnant with a three-year-old in tow and surfing reefs off of Indonesian islands is pretty hardcore but Shannon is an adventurous soul. Further, it was also not the first time she had been in the Hinako Islands. Before Shayne and Shannon were married, they were already surf nomads and it was on a trip to the Hinako Islands that their future as husband and wife was sealed. “This past trip was the first time I’ve been back to the Hinako Islands since he proposed to me there,” Shannon said. “He carved me a little wooden coconut shell ring. We were in a little lagoon area. He said ‘I have something for you.’ There was a little blue piece of coral and I lifted it up and there was the little coconut shell that he had carved. It was cool ‘cause we were the only two on the island because everybody from the island went to another island for church or something. So it was a really big deal.” It was quite a trip. Days before the proposal, the couple was lost at sea for three days on a small fishing boat/surf charter. A sail and mast was constructed out of a rain tarp and a floorboard and the boat eventually found its way back to Nias. Shannon and Shayne are open to whatever opens up to them. They take each adventure as it reveals itself. Just before Indo, they had a wedding to attend in Washington. They went all Kerouac-style and hit the road, stopping at surf shops up and down the coast, opening new accounts for Shannon’s art and meeting new people. They enjoyed discovering hidden beach towns through California up into Oregon and ending in Washington. She sells 11X14 prints of her colorful, playful, travel and surf-oriented original art pieces to shops at affordable prices and is carried in over 120 locations. Shannon’s lifestyle may seem like a dream to some but she encourages other girls to get out there and see the world. “Before Shayne and I had sponsors or jobs traveling he was a bus boy and I worked at a flower shop and we would still do a lot of traveling,” Shannon said. “We would work consistently for three or four months and then save every penny towards traveling.” Her advice is to save your money, go where the dollar is strong and have no fear. “There are beautiful people everywhere you go,” Shannon said. She feels it is important to follow your dreams, wherever they come from and wherever they may lead….

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_"Arabia Unveiled" 
Wahine Magazine vol. 6, #3 summer 2000
by Shannon McIntyre
"Why Oman?" My husband Shayne and I have a favorite game: we close our eyes, spin the globe while randomly pointing a finger, and wherever it lands, that is where our next adventure will take us. Our fingers must have landed on Oman several times, and despite graphic images of the Gulf War and terrorist attacks embedded in my brain, we decided to risk it. We began researching Oman in the Internet, where we found a photo of an Omani woman fully veiled in black, with only her eyes showing through her burqua mask, betraying her fear. I thought she was the picture of oppression and sadness. My preconceptions of the lives of Middle Eastern women caused me to feel bitter and uneasy, so I started reading "Maverick Guide to Oman" to better familiarize myself with the culture and gain the confidence to physically explore it. Oman is on the coast of the Arabian Sea, just South of Iran and bordering Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemen. It's ruler, Sultan Qabus, has been working to modernize the country since he came to power in the early 1970s. As a result, Oman is more tolerant than most Middle Eastern countries when it comes to the rights of women. Indeed, many women work alongside men and hold positions such as police officers and politicians. Still, it seemed rather strict that the first question on our visa applications was, "What religion do you practice?" Yet we found that Omanis practice a branch of Islam called Ibadism noted for its sincerity, kindness, humility and tolerance.

My next concern about traveling to Oman was of course: will there be waves? After all, there has never been a documented "surf report" of the region, and we could get skunked (no waves). Plus, what was I going to wear? Would my Southern California beach wardrobe be seen as appropriate enough, in a country that insists females be shrouded and veiled? The plane ride was a grueling 23 hours, and I ended up with bruises on my hips from squirming in my seat. We arrived in Abu Dhabi (the place that Garfield always sent Odi) at 8:28pm for a 30-minute layover. It was humid, dank, difficult to breathe, and the architecture seemed right out of "Star Wars." I marveled at the ornate tile wall and great pillars. Most of the men wore long white robes called dish-dashas and turbans on their heads. We were smack in the Middle East, and I felt totally...foreign. Them my heart stopped a beat. I was compelled to stare, but respectfully looked away when I saw for the first time a woman covered head to toe in a black shroud, her eyes dimmed behind a mesh screen. She floated gracefully behind her husband - a big man dressed in white whose red and white head covering featured a black braided headband. I couldn't decide whether to make eye contact and smile at these strangers, or walk with my head down, a few steps behind Shayne. Suddenly, I was conscious of walking a few steps ahead of Shayne. I slowed down to wait for him.

We arrived in Muscat, Oman an hour later and our surfboards were waiting! Customs asked to see what was inside our board bag. Shayne pulled out a surf magazine to help illustrate for them what can be done on these strange, long white objects. Then a customs officer opened my bag and saw the half-naked Wonder Woman I had painted on my board. He giggled, and a few others came over to check it out. Uh-oh; I had worried about this. Oman strictly prohibits any type of pornography. Would my fleshy painting be insulting to them? The officers just laughed, while Shayne pointed at me and said "It's hers." I began feeling impatient to get to the coast and begin our search for waves. Our plan was to drive directly to the most exposed points along the coast.

After three days of traveling across bumpy dirt roads, passing herds of wild camels traversing endless stretches of the most barren, lifeless desert on the face of the earth, we finally saw the ocean. From a distance we could see the whitewater and we began to hoot and holler! Ras Madrakah is a small isolated fishing village with a few shacks, myriad goats, and a population of around 200. Dressed in traditional Bedouin clothing, the locals welcomed us with smiles. The women shyly hid their faces with on e hand while waving with the other. We pulled up on the beach. There was a playful break with a windswell kicking. Two boys from the village met us on the beach and invited us to their home for coffee. Knowing it would be offensive to deny them, we put off our surf to join them. I'm so glad we did, because we had the most beautiful cultural experience of our trip. Their home consisted of plywood walls and roof with a sleeping carpet inside. That was it! There were two mats on the ground. The men sat on one and I sat with two sisters on the other. The girls were dressed in golden yellow dish-dashas and were wearing burqua veils. One had a traditional tattoo on her chin that looked like a sideways division symbol. I was enchanted by their beautiful, smiling brown eyes. Trying to be respectful in my long sleeve shirt and skirt, I wore my sarong over my head and used my hands to communicate. We smiled and giggled together, having only faint clues of what the other was saying. Then one of the sisters got up and brought me a burqua veil of gold metallic fabric that she had made by hand. She proudly tied it to my face and said it was a gift to me. I felt extremely honored, even somewhat exotic and mysterious behind my new veil.

Omanis believe beauty is enhanced by leaving much to the imagination. Girls choose to wear the veil in Oman and do not view it as oppressive - instead it is a symbol of deference to their elders, as well as a form of modesty. The mask is just as normal to them as wearing lipstick is to a Western female, and also serves as protection fro the sun and vigorous sand storms. I turned to the guys to show them my new look. One elder in a turban with a long with beard gave me the thumbs up and said, "looks goot." We finished our dates and chi, feeling totally blessed by their hospitality. Every place we went in Oman we were greeted with "Salaam al ay Kum," which means "peace by upon you." During our first surf, some village boys came to watch, and I could hear them cheering from the cliffs. I caught the first wave of the trip. I am probably on of the first women to ever surf Oman, if not the first. I named the wave "Burqua," because it was hidden behind a jagged headland like the face veils I had by then grown so fond of.
The waves were just a little overhead, not perfect form, a little chunky, but super fun anyhow. The water was about 80 degrees and it felt like soft, warm butter. We decided we could find better surf, so it became the routine of our trip to explore the coast, surf random isolated points, and beachbreaks for a day or two, then move on. We drove 7 to 10 hours a day, blasting the air-con to protect us from the sweltering heat. There is so much potential for surf in Oman - so much to explore. I felt like a true nomad, moving from place to place, tenting on beaches nearly empty, except for the tracks of departed sea turtles. Another break we surfed in the South bordered the country of Yemen. It reminded me of a big day at Blacks.

The locals thought we were crazy for going into the turbulent waters, especially warning us about the "glass" reefs. The waves were very consistent. The paddle out was indeed exhausting, but well worth the effort once outside. It featured big drops with punchy sections. From the lineup, we could hear "allah-aalllaa allakkalla" amplified from the village mosque loud speakers as a reminder to pray. People there pray five times a day, while life in the nearby sea is a bustle, brimming with turtle, dolphin and shark society. Thanks be to Allah that there was plenty of other food in the sea. The last part of our trip, we ventured to an outer island where we found perfect right point waves lining up every couple of miles. Unfortunately, they were only a foot or two. If only we were smaller. We found one spot that was overhead with deep blue water that reminded us of Trestles. We rode the waves about 50 yards and got in about five turns.

When I came in from a surf, a lady and her daughters came up to me. I let the little girls check out my board - they were so curious. Maybe when I return in a few years, I'll have some local surf sisters to come back to. We camped on that turtle beach for about three nights. On the way back we tried to cross the Wahiba sand dunes in our rented Land Cruiser. After two hours of driving through the sand and over the beach and dunes, we got stuck. Every direction we looked, all we saw were endless rolls of sand and not another soul. It was dusk, so to avoid getting lost in the desert, we decided to follow our tracks back, but not before an attempt at sand surfing! We used Shayne's snapped board and dropped in to some 50-foot faces. The sand rumbled like an avalanche as we slid down, and I had scary visions of it turning into quicksand and swallowing us up. We made it out of the dunes, but were not yet out of trouble. It was dark and we wanted to make it to a hotel before morning. Shayne was cruising through a ghost town when out of the darkness, "THUMP!!" A camel sideswiped us. It limped off, but within seconds about 30 young men surrounded the car. We had no clue what any of them were saying to us in Arabic, except one guy who told us to wait, then he left the scene. I thought he either went to get the police or to see if the camel was okay. When he returned and said it was alright to leave, we shook every hand that was sticking into the car, bid them a humble "ShuKran" (thank you) then bolted.
Boarding the airplane to go home, I was sad to leave. Oman is pierced into my memory: from sand surfing in the great Wahiba dunes to shopping for frankincense in the local market to visiting ancient ruins to the excitement of surfing virgin breaks. My view of the Middle East changed completely along my journey. I will no longer so readily absorb stereotypes fed to me on the nightly news. The Arabian people of Oman are the kindest, friendliest people I have ever met. I fell in love with the culture, land and sea, and am already making plans to return. (Unfortunately after the recent Terrorist events, I do not know how Americans are now viewed in Oman, and don't know if I'll ever be able to return)
©2003 Shannonsurf.com
 


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