Switchfoot has raised more than $1 million over the past decade for various San Diego children’s charities with its Bro-Am surf contest, beach concert and auction.

Yet, while Saturday’s 11th annual edition of the Bro-Am will draw thousands of people for a day of free music and organized water activities at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, the members of this Grammy Award-winning San Diego rock band want to do more. Without playing or singing a note, they are poised to begin making a year-round impact.

“Today, we are at Bro-Am Studios in Encinitas, where we are set to launch a positive place for the next generation. It’s a performance space and a pay-what-you-can music school, right here in our hometown,” said Switchfoot leader Jon Foreman, chatting in the intimate studio on a recent early summer afternoon.

× Live from the 4th: Jon Foreman


Located just off Pacific Coast Highway, Bro-Am Studios is directly across from San Diego County’s largest surf shop, Hansen’s, which has 16,000 square feet of retail space. By comparison, the main room in Switchfoot’s fledgling music school and performance space measures just 20 feet by 28 feet.

Equipped with a small stage and an upright Baldwin piano, it will be used for group lessons four days a week. An even smaller room, which stands opposite the adjacent courtyard, will host one-on-one lessons. A vintage silver Airstream trailer, used by a Switchfoot friend as his office, is tucked against the courtyard’s wooden fence. So is an outdoor shower, installed for the band’s members to use after surfing across the street at Swami’s.

Initial plans call for guitar and piano instruction for kids, 8 to 18. Friends, hand-picked by the band, will serve as teachers. Violin lessons may be added, if there is sufficient demand. Lessons will be held most weekday afternoons, in order to avoid conflicting with students’ class schedules at area schools.

× Live from the 4th: Jon Foreman performs


Foreman, 38, and the other four members of Switchfoot have devoted more than half their lives to music. The band, which celebrates its 20th anniversary next year, regards Bro-Am Studios as an extension of its annual Bro-Am surf event and multi-band concert, which concludes each year with a performance by Switchfoot.

Singing out for at-risk kids

“The Switchfoot Bro-Am is a surf contest and a concert on the beach, in our hometown, that has raised money primarily for homeless and at-risk youth,” said Foreman, as he sat on the edge of the Bro-Am Studios stage.

“We figured surfing and rock ’n’ roll were the two things that kind of kept us out of trouble when we were kids, (so) let’s try and pass that forward. And this school is, I guess, a logical extension of that. We got to thinking: ‘The Bro-Am happens one day a year. What if we had a physical location we could bring people to, and have that (Bro-Am concept) lived out, 365 days of the year?’ ”


Foreman and his 36-year-old brother, Tim, who is Switchfoot’s bassist, both got their start playing music in Encinitas as teens. One of their bands, Chin-Up, laid the foundation for Switchfoot. The siblings attended UC San Diego, where they were members of the school’s surf team, before deciding to focus on music full-time.

Both brothers are married. Both have children. A desire to reach out to less-fortunate kids inspired them to launch Bro-Am. The pairing of music and surfing to help kids in need was an eminently logical move for the band’s members, three of whom are avid surfers. The group’s most stirring songs address matters of faith and love, adversity and redemption, which are also underlying themes for Bro-Am.

“We just wanted to throw a party for these kids that don’t get celebrated,” Foreman recalled. “We wanted to cheer them on, and say: ‘Your story matters. You’re important.’ And we wanted to give them more than just money; we wanted to give them the idea that their community cares about them.”

The first Bro-Am drew only a few hundred people. Last year’s edition attracted about 6,000, over the course of 10 or so hours.


The annual event is, Foreman proudly notes, family-friendly, alcohol-free and has a completely solar-powered main stage. He credits surfing legend Rob Machado, a Switchfoot friend who used to coach Foreman’s youth soccer team, as an altruistic inspiration for the event. Machado, also an Encinitas resident, now oversees the Bro-Am’s Rob Machado Bro Junior event.

‘Everyone needs a hand’

Foreman, who rode his skateboard to this interview at Bro-Am Studios, has an easy laugh. But he is unmistakably earnest. His compassion for helping others appears to be deeply rooted in his spiritual beliefs.

“I think everyone needs a hand, from time to time,” he said. “We find ourselves in those places in life, (even) as an adult... But, then you think back to your experience in high school, or junior high, and you think how lost you can feel in the shuffle, like you’re slipping through the cracks. For me, that was my experience in high school. I didn’t really feel like I ever fit in. I had some really good friends by the end of high school, but there were moments where I definitely didn’t belong.


“And then you add puberty to that, (and) you add the idea that, for (some of) these kids, they don’t know where they’re sleeping at night. So, for me, that’s where I began to think (about) all the people in our community that we could help out... And, many times, these (kids) are the true victims of decisions that weren’t made by them, but, rather, by their parents. So why not give to them? Why not support them (and) give them opportunities to take a different path? That’s what we’re hoping to do.”

The idea to start a music school has been incubating for some time. It took root about the time last year’s Bro-Am was held.

“We have kind of tested it out (and) had a few little events, here and there, and we’re just about ready to start opening the doors for music lessons. By the time this year’s Bro-Am happens, we will already be in motion with lessons here,” Foreman said.

His Bro-Am performance Saturday with Switchfoot is the third date on the band’s summer tour, which concludes Aug. 29 at East Tennessee State University. Foreman begins a solo tour in late August to promote “The Wonderlands,” a 24-song collection that he is releasing in a series of four EPs this year, each with four songs. The second will be released digitally on July 17.


Help fill a void

Bro-Am Studios will, Foreman hopes, help fill a growing void, especially at a time when funding for music and arts in public schools continues to plummet.

“The goal is to be able to supplement music lessons (when the) school system doesn’t have the funds to do that anymore...” he said.

“Music still matters. It’s still important. And, then, the question is: ‘What do we do about it?’ This (school) is a response to that. This is saying: ‘Well, one thing we can do is provide pay-what-you-can music education for families, right here in our hometown.’


“And, then, at night, we want to provide a positive place for kids to hang out (and) play their first show, right here. I think there’s something incredible about the first time you play in front of people. You see a spark in a child’s eyes, you see them light up. They walk off the stage (feeling) different from when they walked on.”

But are pay-as-you can music lessons needed in an area as affluent as Encinitas?

“Yeah, that’s one of the main reasons why we started this,” Foreman replied. “Because it’s a shocker to learn 30 percent of the folks that live in and around this area live at or below the (national) poverty level. ... Those are the people we want to make sure we’re saving slots for to be able to be here. And, whether or not they can afford it, that’s who we want to support.”

The blonde-haired musician smiled when asked to complete the following sentence: “Teach a girl or boy to play guitar, and ...”


“And,” he said, “you’ve given them a tool that will give them a lifetime of joy. Music for me has been more than just an individual pursuit; it’s been a vehicle, a way to examine the world, a planet unto itself, that I can go to and look back at our own planet with fresh eyes. I feel like music, in many ways, is a scaffolding for the soul that allows you to reach new places you can’t go without it.”

11th annual Switchfoot Bro-Am Concert and Surf Contest

With: Switchfoot, NEEDTOBREATHE, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors, and Colony House

When: Saturday, July 11 (the surf contest is 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.; the concert is from noon to 5 p.m.)

Where: Moonlight Beach, 400 B St., Encinitas


Admission: Free

Online: switchfoot.com/c/bro-am (This website also provides information about the Bro-Am Studios music school and Wednesday’s private Bro-Am auction, for which tickets are $185 each, or $260 for a VIP ticket, which includes a meet-and-greet reception with Switchfoot.)