Woodrow Pack Landfair is an an American road storyteller whose unplanned 48 state motorcycle adventure eventually led him to El Porto, and to owning El Porto Surf Shop and Player's Liquor. Now on a quest to surf all of Earth's coastal nations, he lives in El Porto and enjoys surfing and writing every day. 

Born Stanley Wood Landfair II in Richmond, Virginia, Pack is a graduate of the University of Texas where he studied creative writing under poet and novelist Zulfikar Ghose while on full academic scholarship from the United States Navy ROTC.

Pack was the only walk-on member of the 2005 College World Series Champion baseball team. From 2003-2005 he was teammates with 13 soon-to-be major leaguers - under head coach Augie Garrido, the winningest baseball coach in NCAA history.

 

In addition to a national championship ring - and a Bachelors Degree in English Literature - Pack earned Midshipman of the Month, Student-Athlete of the Month, Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll, three varsity letters, three Big XII Championship rings, served on the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, made three trips to the College World Series in Omaha, and was twice voted Teammate Of The Year by his teammates.

In 2006, after a back injury ended his future in the Navy, Pack sold his national championship ring and nearly all of his possessions to buy a used motorcycle and begin an indefinite 48 state odyssey, working manual labor gigs across the country. 

In homage to his hero, traveling laborer/ singer/ storyteller Woody Guthrie, he began performing stories from the road at open mics across the country under the name "Woodrow", legally changing it in 2009. Those adventures and years of searching became the subject of his first book, the semi-autobiographical novel Land Of The Free (Harbinger Book Group, 2014).

Prior to the novel's publication, Pack served one year writing articles under the name "Patrick Woodrow" - as Associate Editor for Prop 65 Clearinghouse, a legal journal in San Francisco. He spent one year as a Brand Ambassador for Zico Coconut Water, and two years on the production staff of New York City’s world renowned Shakespeare In The Park and The Public Theater.

Still working to get his first novel published - Pack was hired as a producer, ghostwriter and stunt double for the global superstar Ronald McDonald. Trained at"Hamburger U" at the famous Oak Brook, Illinois McDonald's headquarters, Pack learned business from the restaurant corporation and their franchisees - while writing speeches, jokes, songs, stage shows and magic tricks in the production of Ronald's appearances around the globe. After seven joyful years working for one of the world's most recognized and beloved public figures, Pack resigned to found his own company focused on his personal passions, identity, and philosophy. 

The 2014 release of Land of the Free, took Pack on a coast-to-coast tour revisiting stops from his motorcycle trip nearly a decade earlier. 

Coinciding with a nationwide wave of marijuana legalization, friends of the road ran word-of-mouth storytelling events in states where marijuana had been recently legalized - but was still not available for sale. Autographed copies frequently sold for a steep premium - with gifts. In some states, door-to-door delivery of Land of the Free was said to have continued for years. In ways never foreseen, Land of the Free sold en masse. 

In 2017, taking a break while searching Central Texas for a coffee shop to buy as a small live music venue, Pack flew to Los Angeles to go surfing - winding up in El Porto for the first time. Recognizing El Porto Surf Shop as having the potential to become a local and global community hub - and scratching his own lifelong itch to live at the beach and surf everyday - he purchased the business with a handshake deal on the spot. Over the next seven years, he would more than quadruple the business to take the entire property - including Player's Liquor, the attached convenience store.

Pack's intention as a business owner is to remain artistically free and authentic - while being the best leader, student, and teacher he can to his employees, neighbors and visitors, in order to genuinely and enthusiastically provide valuable goods and service to individuals and community - for the betterment of himself and all involved. His goals are to surf, write, travel, grow, connect and to keep spreading positive vibes, running soulful independent endeavors until the day he dies.

His most recent book, Road Journals: 48 States. One Ride, (Harbinger Book Group, May 2026) is the original 57 week journal of his 2006-2007 motorcycle trip - and his most personal work to date. The publication is a prequal to Surf Journals, Vol 1. which chronicles the first 19 countries of his ongoingquest to surf every coastal nation on earth, while building El Porto Surf Shop into a world renowned flagship location. Surf Journals is available in bookstores everywhere Spring 2027. See Woodrow Pack Landfair (Packman Surfs The World) live on tour - with guitar, harmonica, stories and songs - in a coastal town near you.