By Mike Latronic – In today’s world, most human hands are busy scrolling a phone screen or hovering over a computer keyboard. Surfer-musician David Elecciri most often spends his energy with his hands strumming a guitar or duck diving on the rail of a surfboard. As the lead guitarist for the legendary reggae band Steel Pulse, David’s connection to rhythm goes far beyond music. It’s a way of life—an unbroken line between stage and shoreline, between sound waves, ocean waves, melodic vibrations and the currents of the sea.
David grew up in San Clemente, California, where his first surf sessions at San Onofre taught him about glide, balance, and energy. He’s now a regular fixture at Trestles, T-Street and other locales and sees no separation between those early lessons and the music that now carries him across the world. To him, surfing and music are parallel languages: both demand timing, patience, improvisation, and the ability to surrender to forces larger than yourself. On stage, he feels the vibration of thousands moving to a beat; in the water, he feels the pull of the tide and wind. Different settings, same frequency.
This blend of influences shows up in his songwriting as much as his surfing. His recent release, “Pulling Up for the Champions,” is born out of his homegrown surf tribe in San Clemente—friends and fellow surfers whose passion, drive, and authentic stoke inspired him to put their spirit into song. These “friends” just so happen to be some of the greatest athletes to ever lay on a surfboard. The track is both a celebration of their victories and a reminder of the deeper joy of showing up for each other. It’s music as community, a rhythm that mirrors the lineup and friendship itself.
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For David, authenticity is everything. I had the good fortune of gathering insights, hanging out and traveling with him for several weeks at a time a half dozen times in the past few years. Where others chase static, he chases flow. His hands prefer strings to screens, waves to wires. Surfing and music aren’t separate chapters of his life; they are one continuous groove, looping endlessly between water and sound, tides and concert dates. And in both arenas—whether dropping into a head-high set at Trestles or stepping into the spotlight with Steel Pulse—the feeling is the same: rhythm, energy, connection.
It’s that connection that defines David. His friends call him” David Electric,” for good reason. Not just as a musician, not just as a surfer, but as someone who sees life itself as one long wave to catch, one endless song to play.
ML: What is it about surfing that’s so interesting to you?
Or is surfing interesting?
DE: Surfing is a a way of life that I’ve known
since I was pretty much born. My parents, my family, both sides of our family surf. We’re surfers. So the ocean-that was our life growing up.
ML: Where did your first experiences with the ocean take place?
DE: We grew up in San Clement, California, and San Onofre was where I learned how to surf.
I just remember the first time actually surfing by myself on my board. I was eight years old.
And paddling into my own waves out there in San-O, little one-footers, two-footers,
and just getting up and all by myself and standing and felt that glide, that
ride, and you’re looking down, and the water’s so clear.
ML: It’s a special feeling for sure, how would you explain surfing
to somebody?
DE: It’s just the best feeling on the planet other than music and the vibes, it’s the greatest feeling. You’re gliding on top of water, you know, this magnificent source of
energy, the most powerful source of energy on our planet. And you get to ride it.
ML: Talking about energy, it seems like you’re very connected to rhythm and energy. You write about it, you sing about it, you play music around it. How does rhythm translate in the ocean? Or does it?
DE: Obviously yeah. The timing, the togetherness of you and that energy coming together and being in sync throughout the music, throughout your ride in the surf. There’s a certain rhythm, there’s a certain frequency, a vibration that you sync up with and you can really feel and connect. Once you get that connection, there’s no feeling like it. Whether you’re on stage in front of thousands of people or if it’s just you solely on a wave, The rhythm, the frequency, the vibration is very much the same. You have sound waves, you have ocean waves. It’s all kinds of waves.
ML: How important is rhythm and is that something that connects us as humans?
DE: Rhythm is all in us. Everyone has rhythm in them. Music is a source of energy, the syncing of life in itself. So yes, rhythm is very important in everyone’s life.
And everybody’s got it, it’s how you connect with certain things using that rhythm. So absolutely, rhythm is everything in our life I believe.
ML: Can a good surf session have an influence on a good song and vice versa?
DE: Absolutely, I would think it’s probably my biggest inspiration in writing for myself, connecting with the ocean, the most powerful source of energy we have on this planet. And, you know, putting that into my music, they are definitely cohesive. The rhythm of life really is what I call it. When you’re gliding on the ocean in sync with the ocean and with music, when you’re playing your songs and you’re in sync in tune with what you’re doing and the inspiration that it draws from. Absolutely.
ML: You’re touring with Steel Pulse. Tell me a little bit about that history and then tell me a little bit about some of your original work.
DE Music has been my life for as long as I can remember. I started right out of the mama’s womb crying and all the way to the big stage. Now I get to play alongside my heroes growing up Steel Pulse David Hinds and Selwyn Brown and it’s still surreal to this day. It’s an incredible feeling. There’s no feeling like it, just like surfing, there’s no feeling like it.
That energy, the vibration that you get from the music and that you get from the ocean is very similar
ML: Tell me about your new song “Pulling Up for the Champions.”
DE: It’s inspired by our home crew and friends who have been winning surf contests, the champions. And we’re all there for them. We’re all pulling up for them and we want them just to succeed and just be as best as they can possibly be and watching that go down. It’s really inspired that song and what all goes into being a champion.
ML: Tell me a little bit about the evolution of your friendships and relationship with the San Clemente crew.
DE: Yeah the relationship just comes from being a local boy myself. I was a young kid growing up in San Clemente and had roots with good friends that were surfers like the McPhillips and the Beschens and my father being a coach and teacher at San Clement High School really put me within that community of surfing. My dad was a surfer and just grew up with all the surfers that were in our town at the time. Guys like Chris Ward and a few others just happened to be my best friends. It’s been really special, and I just feel really blessed to be there and actually be there for them, rooting them on.
ML: What’s next for you?
DE: Well I just dislocated my shoulder getting shacked then obliterated at Punta Roca last month so just rest and recovery and all positive. People asked me was it worth it I’m like yes absolutely and anything that we do there’s sacrifices that we must make and we know sometimes there could be some consequences and we live for that and no matter what it takes to do that and that’s what we do. It’s a part of our life. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger in the end and the music will always keep going on just like these waves, endless waves. Surfing is my life. Music is my life. And there’s no stopping.
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