B A L A NC E RV C A’S BAL ANCE LI N E FEATU RES EVERYW EAR TRUNKS– EASY TO W E A R I N E V E RY E N V I R O N M E N T. A B AL ANCE OF FUN CTI O N AN D FASHI O N .
R V C A . C O M
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# R V C AT R U N K S
C O L I N M O R A N
T H E B A L A N C E O F O P P O S I T E S
MIKEY WRIGHT : THE CRYPT SCALLOP BOARDSHORT
Tide. SimpliďŹ ed. Welcome the Base Tide.
Watch things get weird on the North Shore. See the short ďŹ lm on nixon.com/theWEIRD.
BOOM! The Mammoth winter is back. January set new records – snowiest month in history – and we hit 400” in Feb, setting us up for a long, sweet season ahead. Keep your gear out, because we aren’t even close to calling it quits. We’ll be shredding through July 4th again, if not longer. Oh, it’s on.
ATHLETE: GREG BRETZ
Leo Fioravanti
p: Laurent Pujol
p: Mark Welsh Leo Fioravanti
Pursue your thrill. The Founder with ChromaPop.™
The experience is everything.™
randoms • 18 product • 20 marina capdevila • 22 luke mack • 30 elly liyana • 32 mariana santos • 34 super taste • 36 janet echleman • 38 volcom pipe pro 2017 • 40 tino razo “party in the back” • 44
the art of jason woodside • 48 hawaii pk files • 54 fried chicken • 60 rise above • 64 the bonzer • 66 boardriders club clash • 68 the northern • 70 so stressed • 72 music reviews • 74 groms • 76 artist • jason woodside
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# A N Y W E A R S W I M
Editor-in-Chief nick kalionzes nick@blisssmag.com
Editor
joey marshall joey@blisssmag.com
Creative DirectoR mark paul deren : madsteez madsteez@madsteez.com
assistant editor delon isaacs delon@blisssmag.com
EDITOR AT LARGE liz rice mcCray liz@blisssmag.com
SNOW EDITOR jon francis jon@blisssmag.com
MUSIC EDITOR max ritter max@blisssmag.com
advertising ads@blisssmag.com nick vandekamp vandekamp@blisssmag.com
contributing Photographers Jason Kenworthy, Dominic Petruzzi, Daniel Russo, Toby Ogden, Tom Carey, Brian Beilmann, Jack Coleman, Andrew Mapstone, Adam Moran, Dave Nelson, Pat Eichstaedt, Julien Lecorps, Ryan Boyes, Zach Hooper, Tim Peare, Michael Lallande, Bob Plumb, Peter Morning, Bryce Kanights, Arto Sarri, Anthony Acosta, Cameron Strand, Brian Fick, Deville Nunns, Gage Thompson, Derek Bahn, Tom Cozad, Bruce Beach, Robbie Crawford, Ryan Donahue, Joe Foster, Sean Sullivan, Delon Isaacs
contributors Willie Marshall, Daniel Russo, Jason Arnold, Greg Escalante, Nathan Spoor, Tom Carey, Travis Millard, David Choe, Kai Garcia, Mickey Neilsen, Peter Townend, Hamilton Endo, Tawnya Schultz, Mike Murciano, Geoff Shively, Casey Holland, Steve Stratton, Robbie Sell, Andrew Miller, Pat Towersey, Raul Montoya, Ian Dodge, Richie Olivares, Eric Meyers, Kelly Shannon, JP Olson, Bruce Beach
BL!SSS Magazine
MARCH 2017
413 31 Street st
Newport Beach, CA 92663 www.blisssmag.com Disclaimer: Although all best efforts are made to avoid the same, we reserve the right to publish unintentional mistakes and/or factual errors which may occur on a monthly basis. No responsibility is assumed by the publishers for unsolicited materials/articles/letters/ advertising and all submissions will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright and/or appropriate licensing purposes subject to Blisss’ right to edit and comment editorially. The views and opinions expressed in this magazine reflect the opinions of their respective authors and are not necessarily those of the publisher or the editorial team. Blisss Magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any advertising matter which may reflect negatively on the integrity of the magazine. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form [print or electronic] without prior written consent from the publisher.
Artist • Jason Woodside If your favorite shop isn’t receiving BL!SSS Magazine please contact info@blisssmag.com
OWEN WRIGHT CLEARED TO COMPETE
CAUGHT UP IN A GOOD THING Recycling is cool, man. You know it, we know it, and Volcom Women’s knows it. Released just a couple week ago, Volcom is proud to introduce its first-ever ocean friendly swim collection composed of 78% ECONYL regenerated yarn that is created by recycling fishnets and other discarded nylons. Get caught up in a good thing and check out the suits at volcom.com, or pick up the latest Sports Illustrated Swim Issue to look at the suits first hand. Your jaw will drop at the collection worn by Georgia May Jagger.
Cheese and rice, about freaking time! Owen Wright, the world tour beast, is finally going to be able to return to competition for the first time in over a year. In December 2015, when he was in the midst of a world title race, the powerful Aussie surfer suffered a severe head injury while surfing Pipeline on Oahu’s North Shore. It forced him to withdraw from the Billabong Pipe Masters, and then later from the entire 2016 season. But now, after more than a year on the sidelines, Wright will finally be putting on a contest jersey and paddling out to compete. Huge respect on all the perseverance Owen, and good luck!
VISSLA + JASON WOODSIDE This month’s featured cover artist just so happened to drop a sweet collaboration with the good ol’ boys at Vissla as well. Full of colorful graphics and shapes, Jason Woodside has become a master at making the ordinary extraordinary. The hardworking New York-based artist has worked with some of the best in the business, and we’re stoked to see his artwork come to life on a range of Vissla tees, boardies, hats and even a wetsuit top. If you like what you see on the cover, be sure to checkout vissla.com and buy some wearable art today.
SOFKY
D’BLANC MADE FOR VISSLA
After getting spanked by the Newport Surf Club in Boardriders Club Competition this last month, the Huntington crew has decided to focus on what they do best, make really nice apparel. Nah, we’re just playing, but we had to throw that in there being a Newport rag, though we do gotta give props to the Sport Of Kings Forever Young [SOKFY] crew for dialing us in with some there latest and greatest. Available at finer retailers, these premium tees and wovens will have you begging for more. Pop in your local shop and ask for them by name.
D Bleezy and Vissla, the PB&J of our cute little surfing world, have introduced two shades this month to represent everything the two powerhouse brands stand for. D’ Blanc made for Vissla is a true celebration of the craftsmanship shared between board building and sunglass design. Inspired by Vissla’s 7 Seas Collection, the sunglass frames were built with a combination of Havana Tortoise Shell and Matte Black accents that are complemented with seven gloss stripes on each temple. Available in two of their best selling frames, the Deep 6 and After Hours. Find them at your local surf shop!
VANS CUSTOMS We know Vans has been doing this for a while now, but we’re pretty new to this whole concept and now we’re freaking hooked. If you head over to www.vans.com customs you literally could spend hours creating your own unique shoe using all the staple templates from the Vans eras, including everything from their authentics, to the slip-ons and the Sk8-Hi’s. You honestly can customize pretty much the entire aspect of each shoe, with multiple materials, solids and patterns making them any way you want. Do you remember in kindergarten when you painted a duck blue and the teacher told you it was wrong? Well screw that teacher; paint your duck and shoes whatever way your little heart desires.
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@805BEER SEE THE DEADEND STORY AND MORE AT 805BEER.COM
RVCA X BARRY MCGEE COLLECTION
DC RECOIL BY BRUCE IRONS
Dropping this month is an all-new RVCA collaboration with one of their most OG ANP artists, Barry McGee. This is a no-brainer collection that we’ll dump hundreds of our hard-earned dollars into because we’re such a big fan of Barry, who was one of our past cover artists in 2012. This collaboration features exclusive Barry McGee prints, designed on everything from knits, hats, board shorts and even wetsuit tops. Shop the collection at ww.rvca.com
Bruce Irons is back on the DC surf team and he’s already releasing a signature sandal, the Recoil. It’s one of the sexiest sandals on the market and features Unlite top sheet for comfort and I-impact technology for durability. Bruce endorses it and so do we. Head on over to dcshoes.com or your local core retailer and get a pair today.
KASSIA + SURF Kassia Meador started Kassia + Surf with the mission to create aquatically functional wetsuits, accessories and lifestyle gear. Her goal is to bring women superior quality goods in the most visually dynamic and eco-conscious way. She only chose the best, most durable neoprene on the market and custom dyed all of the fabric to ensure longer lasting suits with visually dynamic, vibrant colors. So if you wanna look as good as you surf, click on over to kassiasurf.com and grab one of these stylish, yet super functional, wetties today.
VIRGIL’S GOURMET ROOT BEER
DR MARTENS UNITED BY PAISLEY All you really need in life is a good pair of Docs. I mean we all own sneakers, and sandals, and all that jazz, but at least make sure you have one good pair of Docs, you know, for those nice occasions, those sexy occasions. Out this month, Dr. Martens has hit us with an all-new bandana paisley print collection. From a functional accessory to a uniting symbol for subcultures, the rich, storied history of the paisley bandana goes deep, and everyone knows that!
NEW HEADLINE YEAH???When we can’t choose beer, we choose root beer. And when we have to choose root beer, we only choose Virgil’s Gourmet Root Beer. And Virgil must have known this because his latest batch of Special Edition Bavarian Nutmeg Root Beer showed up at our office, each in their nifty little Grolsch-like 16-ounce bottles. And man, we can’t say enough good stuff about it: microbrewed, caffeine and preservative free and made from all-natural ingredients, it really is the best root beer we’ve ever found.
KALA UKULELE The ukulele is the staple instrument in the surf industry. I mean, it goes hand-inhand with beach bonfires and after-surf jam sessions, and it can be traced back hundreds of years in Hawaiian ancestry. It really is a must-have for any surf aficionado, and we’ve come across the best ukulele ever – Kala’s Mehndi Ukulele. Inspired by spiritual mandalas meant to absorb stress and promote balance, there durable, waterresistant ukuleles are made of sturdy plastic and are designed to go anywhere. Perfect for the outdoors, you can take it to the beach, mountains, or woods and it will sound great with no need to worry about damaging it. Visit kalabrand.com for all Ukadelic designs and to find your nearest Kala dealer.
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WWW.SKETCHYTANK.COM
Active Poach - $39.99 activerideshop.com
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Hurley Froth - $50 hurley.com
Patagonia Go To Shirt - $69 patagonia.com
Nixon DDC - $58 nixon.com
Salt Life Coconuts - $56 saltlife.com
Salty Crew Marlin - $54.99 salty-crew.com
Lira Baker - $50 liraclothing.com
Quiksilver Channel Bruz - $52 quiksilver.com
VISSLA Woodside - $64.95 vissla.com
Matix Paradise - $50 matixclothing.com
RVCA Fried - $55 rvca.com
Volcom Maui Palm - $55 volcom.com
Marina Capdevila is an illustrator based in Barcelona. After studying Fine Arts in Barcelona she moved to Rotterdam to study on an Erasmus Program at the Willem de Kooning Academy and work in Wallis&Mosman studio and Studio Piraat as a graphic designer. Back in Barcelona, she started her career as a freelance illustrator working in advertising and developing her personal work in her studio. “What inspires me are the elderly and especially my grandparents,” she says. “We could say that my grandmother is my muse. I am inspired by beauty that doesn’t follow the usual canons. It inspires me to see grandparents sitting on a bench, timeless and lost in a society that they’re already beginning to struggle to understand. What I like to communicate with my artworks is the desire to reach old age with full vitality, joy, still living life to the limit. Living life to the fullest until the end. I’m afraid of aging.” Marina can be found working on advertising projects for brands such as Reebok, Zara, Movistar, Estrella Damm, or on murals in different places such as Miami, Los Angeles, Switzerland, Mexico, Italy, Montreal, London, Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona and more. Check out more of Marina Capdevila’s art at marinacapdevila.com.
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interview • liz rice mccray
This month we had the pleasure of interviewing Detroit-based artist Luke Mack. We stumbled across Luke’s work while cruising www.booooooom.com and we must thank Booooooom for introducing us and featuring interesting and cool artists. Readers, make sure to check out more of Luke’s work on his website, www.lukejmack.com, and on his Instagram, @lukemack9. Luke, will you please introduce yourself to our reader, a little synopsis if you will? I was born and grew up in Rochester Hills, MI in 1991. I started drawing as early as I can remember, and I think I just never stopped. Part of what kept me drawing was being from an artistic family and having my twin sister Shannon to always draw with at home. And of course she is pursuing visual arts to this day as well. Around 13 years old I started skateboarding, and that exposed me to graffiti, different music, and skate graphics, which all influenced what and how I drew. At age 15 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, with my family for two years because General Motors sent my
dad there to work at GM Daewoo for a three-year international assignment. On top of being immersed into a foreign culture, I met a bunch more friends at the international high school all with different backgrounds, where we spent a lot of time skateboarding, drawing, making music, and writing graffiti; and being around a lot of people that valued creativity was definitely something that pushed me to continue to make new work throughout high school and into college. I moved back from Seoul at 17 to go to the College for Creative Studies and studied Automotive Design, where I wasn’t sure if I should study Fine Arts or not. My dad convinced me to try automotive design, so I did and ended up liking it a lot. During CCS I interned at GM in Michigan, Mercedes in California, and Nissan in Tokyo, and I currently have been working at Fiat Chrysler in Auburn Hills for three years. Most days I go to work and then come home and get as much painting in as I can. Wow, what a transition and an amazing experience. Rochester Hills to Seoul must have been a shock at first.
Tell us about growing up in the Detroit City car industry? I never really felt like I could say I’m really from Detroit, because the suburbs 30 minutes north that I grew up in are entirely different from growing up directly in the city. My dad was my connection to the car industry though; he always had a cool car in the garage and would take me to car shows every year growing up, especially since he had been working at General Motors Headquarters as a designer. He would talk about it and would show me the cars that he worked on, as well as the sketches that led up to cars in the past. Later on, once I was 17 and living in Detroit, during my time at CCS, I got more accustomed with the industrial feeling of the city that was built around the automotive industry; it always seemed amazing that beautiful sculptural objects came out of such a raw industrial location. There was a type of contrast that seemed really attractive about it. At 19 I had my first design internship at General Motors over the summer and saw how big of a machine the car industry really was, with the amount of people and resources that it required, and how calculated they had to be when dealing with making new cars that could cost anywhere between $1-$5 billion to make. To this day the car industry is still a trip, but through it has allowed me to see a lot of different places around the world like Italy, Japan, Korea, Germany and the West Coast. From where do you draw inspiration? I draw inspiration from where I imagine my work going in the future, and seeing what I can do to get to that level. Music and the way it can transport the mind inspires me to get a certain feeling in my work, which I feel is a never-ending chase for me. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where inspiration comes from though; I feel like it’s just as fluid as someone’s personality, which is a result of their background, environment, interests, and so many other subtleties. Some of my favorite contemporary artists’ work I like are Telmo Miel, Aryz, Erik Jones, Ian Francis, James Bullough, Jean-Pierre Roy, James Turrell, Drew Merritt, Michael Reeder and Caleb Hahne. Where can people check out more of your art? My website, www.lukejmack.com, and on Instagram, @lukemack9.
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interview • liz rice mccray Hi, perhaps you could describe where you are right now. This way everyone reading along can imagine the setting. I am sitting at my workspace beside the balcony and sunlight is shining in on this very hot day here in Thailand. I just binged watch Travelers on Netflix and now am listening to a track by Novo Amor, “Anchor.” Now that we have a visual, will you please introduce yourself to our reader? I was born in Singapore and moved to Bangkok, Thailand, in 2014. I make different kinds of art – oil painting, watercolour, wedding invitation design and mostly graphite drawings. I graduated with a Bachelor (hons) degree in Fine Arts at the age of 23. I’ve been on the pursuit of making art as a fulltime career since then, and seven years later here I am. Will you give us some insight to your creative process and explain the steps of creating one of your illustrations? I begin to form ideas when I do warm-up sketches for practice. It’s more like a collage of ideas in my head where I mix and match things until I reach the point that I like it. I always start off with research for a facial expression
Buddhism on the practice of consciousness and mindfulness. To see yourself in everything and everyone around you, both the good and bad. On a more intimate level, the landscapes within the portraits reflect the many emotions, secrets, dreams, memories and experiences that we have accumulated throughout life and they grew into these hidden and majestic places inside us. All the trees, rubbles, mountains and waterfalls are metaphors of flaws, heartaches, struggles, love, happiness and all the different emotions we have felt through the years. They can’t exist without the other. Where there is pain there is also forgiveness. Where there is joy there is also longing.The main idea underlying here is that we are who we are today because we are made up of everyone we meet and everything that we experience and see in this life. We have absorbed so much of everything through time that we don’t realize what has grown inside of us and continues to grow ‘til the end. What are you really into right now art or nonart related? I’m very curious about everything and I enjoy learning new things, both art and non-art related.
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that would set the mood for the entire piece. Subconsciously, what I look for would reflect my own mood at that very moment. Most of the time I would realize that only after I’ve completed the piece. In my recent work, “The Sun Still Rises Even Through the Rain,” I start drawing her eyes first because it is the most important part that would set the mood of the piece. At this point, I have yet to decide what kind of landscape would be drawn on her body. Only until I am partially done with her eyes, then I’d research for reference for the landscape scene that would match her expression. It’s like finding the perfect dress that would enhance the depth of her eyes to make her more intense and alive. It’s super interesting that you start with the eyes. My original attraction to your drawings was the eyes to all your subjects. One element of your art that affects me greatly is your recurring themes of nature. Will you tell us about your portraits, the subjects and their inner beauty? I believe that we are not separate from the universe. We are one with everything: the trees, sea, thunderstorms, earthquakes, stars… everything. A concept of spirituality in
Eventually everything is connected and one cannot exist without the other. For a while now, I’ve been interested in the nonlinear perception of time theory. I find it extremely interesting and complex. I enjoy watching sci-fi films so that probably sparked the interest. I assume there is an element of selfportraiture in your work. Is that the case? I believe that all art has an element of selfportraiture. Although the portraits I’ve drawn do not look like me, the essence of who I am – all my experiences, emotions and memories – are in every piece. I created them based on what I know, so subconsciously I made them by using a part of me as the basis of the overall work. In a way, it is a self-portrait underneath and beyond the surface. Where can people check out more of your art? My complete work can be found on my website www.ellyliyana.com. I also often share the process and development of every piece on my blog, ellyliyana.tumblr.com, and at times on my Instagram, @ellyisdrawing.
interview • liz rice mccray This month we had the pleasure of interviewing Portuguese artist Mariana Santos, better known as “Mariana, a miserável” (the miserable one). Make sure to check out more of Mariana Santos art at www.marianaamiseravel. com. First off, thank you Mariana for taking the time to do this interview. Let’s start by describing where you are right now? This way everyone reading along can imagine the setting. I’m at my small, but lovely, apartment, on a noisy street in the center of Porto, where I’ve lived and worked since 2013. My cat is asleep, it’s raining outside and I’m sitting where I spend most of my time, at my desk, surrounded by inspiration and beautiful things. When asked, “What do you do?” how do you answer? One day a senior fellow illustrator asked me, “What do you do in real life?” Later I realized that in the
context of where I live, working exclusively as an illustrator is a bit of a plight, as most of the illustrators have other jobs that pay their bills. At the beginning I had my father’s financial support and it took some time to reach my goal of being self-sufficient while doing what I love. Today, I can say that I’m a fulltime freelance illustrator and also work in illustration’s tangent areas, more artistic or more commercial. Immediately I was attracted to your self-depreciating artist profile. You hooked me with “Mariana, a miserável (the miserable one), is a nonaward winning illustrator. Still unmarried, having to support a cat with expensive tastes.” How did you get the nickname “Mariana, a miserável (the miserable one)” and how expensive can your cat’s tastes be? My cat likes to be treated like a king and that makes me really happy, because I think that
I’m providing him with a good life. Probably the most miserable part of the phrase is “non-award winning illustrator,” but I’m fine with that. The nickname comes from college, where I had a fanzine with a classmate that was called “The Miserable One.” I ended up adapting the name to a drawing blog and soon it became a structural part of my work and even in the way I promote it. Your body of work consists of multiple mediums; will you elaborate about your art and your multifaceted range? I illustrate books, many fanzines and magazines, calendars, big murals, commissioned stuff, commercial work and I also develop and participate in numerous solo and group illustration exhibits. I like to try various things, it’s enriching and I want to be constantly challenging myself. You have touched on it but what fuels your art/ creativity? People, life, heartbreaking stories, soap operas. In the end, misery is my motto and my inspiration.
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If you had to put to words the subjects in your illustrations - what would you say? Love and misery. What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced as an artist, besides being an artist, and what have you learned from it? To stand on my own and to be alone without being lonely. I think it’s all part of the growing up process. Just curious, how many cats does it take to make you a cat lady? Only one cat is enough to make you a cat lady, because you continue to melt with cat GIFs on the Internet and do what you can to help all the homeless cats. Ok very last question, where can people check out more of your art? My website, www.marianaamiseravel.com, Instagram (@ marianamiseravel), facebook.com/marianamiseravel and www.behance.net/marianamiseravel.
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I N N OVATO R S
JASON WOODSIDE
CREATORS
vissla.com
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photographer • dominic petruzzi • @dominicpetruzzi model • shannon dalonzo • @shannon.dalonzo
interview • liz rice mccray World-renowned artist Janet Echelman is known for her impressive, larger-than-life art installations, which are displayed in major cities globally in both permanent and temporary exhibitions. An artist who defies classification, Echelman works with unconventional materials such as fishing net and atomized water particles to create mesmerizing works that are both interactive with light, color, and wind as well as human touch. A recipient of numerous awards, Echelman is a pioneer in the frontier of technological art. Her works are inspired by real natural catastrophes such as the scientific data sets of the 2010 earthquake and tsunami in Chile. We caught up with Janet to ask her a bit about her creative process, the sources of her inspiration, and her vision for the future of her art in an ever-evolving world. Perhaps you could describe where you are right now. This way everyone reading along can imagine the setting. I’m in my Boston studio surrounded by clearstory windows, with colorful string models suspending down from the 16-feet high ceiling. We’ve just finished a meeting with my structural and aeronautical engineers who are working with me on a monumental project for New York City. I know you worked with many other mediums before arriving at the techniques you currently use,
scientists, and architects. It’s a collaborative, iterative process. I feel lucky to be an artist working today, because the custom software design tools and highly-engineered fibers that are 15 times stronger than steel enable me to create monumental and permanent works that I never could have before. Will you tell us a little bit about some of the challenges as well as triumphs that you have experienced while working with your innovative techniques? Finding the vision that completes each site - the right concept, the right aesthetics, proportions, and sequence of color that all speak to the pre-existing site, which is always a challenge. I wish it would get easier, but it hasn’t yet. Each time, I have to search and search, never knowing if that right idea will come. Each time there’s a new problem to solve, and I suppose that is precisely why I love this. It keeps me on my edge, always learning and pushing into that uncomfortable zone. Skies Painted with Unnumbered Sparks, which premiered on the Vancouver waterfront with the TED Conference’s 30th anniversary, was our first project to stretch long distances from pre-existing skyscrapers, which required us to overcome immense practical and technical challenges. Our
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so can you tell me what you find most fulfilling about working with these technological materials? I was a painter for more than a decade, when I traveled to India on a Fulbright to teach painting and present a series of exhibition for the U.S. Embassy. I shipped my paints and tools and waited in a fishing village in South India famous for its sculpture and monuments. The deadline for the shows arrived but my paints did not. Instead of hitting my head against a wall about what wasn’t there, I took another look at what was there. I went for a walk on the beach to clear my head and watched the fishermen bundling their nets into mounds on the sand. I’d seen it every day, but this time I saw it differently - a new approach to sculpture, a way to make volumetric form without heavy solid materials. My first satisfying sculptures were made in collaboration with the fishermen. We hoisted them onto poles to photograph on the beach. I discovered their soft surfaces revealed every ripple of wind in constantly changing patterns and was mesmerized. The idea of creating an expressive gesture is still central to my work. But instead of creating a paint stroke with a brush on a canvas, now I’m making an urban gesture with my sculpture – at the scale of the city. Working at this size means I simply can’t do everything myself. To create these sculptures, my studio works with a wide range of engineers, designers, computer
engineers from Arup told us that at 750 feet it turned out to be the largest pre-stressed rope structure in the world. My original goal was to sculpt at the scale of the city, as a soft counterpoint to hard-edged buildings, while attaching exclusively to pre-existing buildings as if the sculpture were literally laced into the fabric of the city. My first big hurdle was that the kind of computer software tools I needed to do this simply did not exist. Fortunately, a company that builds design tools (Autodesk) believed in my idea from the start, and their engineers dedicated two years to develop the tool we needed. Another hurdle was convincing tall buildings to let me attach to their roofs. Just hoisting more than a ton of fiber sculpture into the air over an active city and a federal port seemed impossible. It was like a dream, as our team worked through the night to gently lift it over bus shelters and trees to alight above water, plaza, and street. It was terrifying attempting something that had never been done before, and until I saw it floating in the sky I could not believe it. I remember the first night, watching its translucent layers gently moving in the wind - one of the most satisfying moments of my life.
You have works displayed in cities all over the world. What is the message that transcends cultural boundaries that you most hope to convey to people through your art? I leave my work open for each person to complete. My hope is that each person becomes aware of their own sensory experience in that moment of discovery, and that leads you to create your own meaning or narrative. You complete the artwork. It’s important to me that the work is out in the public realm where everyone feels entitled to be, frequently over the street. When I installed a sculpture in Sydney, Australia, a man who lived on the street came up pushing a grocery cart. He asked me what the work was and shared with me what he saw in the sculpture. I realized he might never have chosen to enter an art museum, but he felt comfortable to engage with this work located over the public streets. It’s like breathing air. I want my work to be as accessible and free as breathing air. I choose to spend my life sharing art in cities around the world, inviting people to have an experience underneath the sculpture and form a relationship with it, as they notice the interaction with wind and sunlight as it changes in the midst of their daily life. I don’t believe art should be separate from life. Well said, I agree… Some of your recent works allow for people to interact with them via technology or touch. Why do you feel it’s important for people to experience art in this way as opposed to simply viewing it? There’s also something special about impermanence, and knowing the sculpture is ever changing as the public interacts with it, forcing us to live more fully in the present moment. Technology is often blamed for isolating us from one another, and I want to continue to explore how we can use technology in new ways to connect us in physical space. The ability to interact with an artwork brings a new level of engagement. For my recent London sculpture, suspended above the city’s busiest intersection, Oxford Circus, everybody was invited to interact using any kind of cellphone. You didn’t have to download an app either, just accept the local wifi network, and suddenly your browser would invite you into the art. You could select a color and press your thumbprint on a map of the sculpture, and suddenly your fingerprint was projected in colored light onto the surface of the sculpture floating overhead. It was like a mood ring of the city at any given moment, or a portrait of the collective thoughts of the public. And in that moment, the virtual and physical worlds become one. Within your creative style where the sky is literally the limit, what do you envision on the horizon for future undertakings? We have the power to shape our world. Most people in the world are living in cities today, and I think public art can play a vital role in creating meaningful share experiences that bring out our best communal selves.
It seems that the more I work towards this, the farther I want to push the limits. My colleagues and I are constantly asking questions, exploring new territory, and looking towards the living, breathing world around us for inspiration. Will you give us some insight to your creative process and explain the steps of creating one of your installations? Each site is a guiding force for an artwork. When I make the first site visit, I get feel for its space, talk to the people who use it, and spend time uncovering its history and texture to understand what it means to its people. I work with my studio colleagues to brainstorm, sketch, and explore all ideas, without limiting our known constraints or censoring our ideas in the early stages. As the sculpture designs begin to unfold, our studio’s architects, designers and model-makers collaborate with an external team of aeronautical and structural engineers, computer scientists, lighting designers, landscape architects, and city planners to bring my initial sketches into reality. We fabricate our artworks through a combination of hand splicing and knotting together with industrial looms and then install on location. It is a gradual, collaborative, and iterative process from every angle and often takes more than a year to go from idea to the final artwork. What advice would you have for young people seriously pursuing art? I always return to the words of poet Rainer Maria Rilke in ‘Letters to a Young Poet’: “Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now.” When I started making art, my biggest challenge was learning to hear my inner voice and finding a way to notice and pay attention to my own ideas. If you start with yourself and make sure that you fully believe that what you’re doing will create positive change in the world, then you can go out and share your vision with genuine belief. And authenticity is most important. If you can hear and speak with your own authentic voice, you have the most valuable quality, and no one can take it away from you. Finally, what drives you most to create? My dream is to create oases of contemplation and softness amidst the hard-edged cities we have created thus far. I look all around me for inspiration - at the forms of our planet in macro and micro scale, to the patterns of life within it, to the measurement of time, weather patterns, or the paths created by fluid dynamics. I am always in search of inspiration from life, partly as a way of making sense of my own place within this mysterious world we have inherited. Thank you Janet for taking the time to answer our questions. To see more of Janet Echelman art, go to www.echelman.com.
Since the very first Volcom Pipe Pro back in 2009, it sure seems like the swell of the winter always hits during their waiting period, which is awesome for spectators but ten fold for those in the actual event. Talking with competitors, almost all agree that this is the very best event of the entire year – I mean, when else do you get Pipeline perfection with just three other guys in the lineup? And even though this
year’s final was held in lessthan-ideal conditions, day three of the event was once again one of those miracle swells – absolutely perfect sixto eight-foot Pipeline and Backdoor. And not to downplay the rest of the event, but it seemed like every day had something special in store and the constantly changing conditions showed several of the many different faces that Pipeline and Backdoor can have. Day one kicked off with an ultra sandy reef and stormy conditions, causing many competitors to focus their skills at Backdoor and Off The Wall. Tyler Newton
snagged a clean 9-point ride in the Volcom Last Chance Qualifier heat to advance to Round 2. Another standout on the first day of competition was 15-year-old Wyatt McHale with an equally impressive and deep Backdoor drainer, pushing him into the next round and another shot at Pipeline perfection. Day two of the event saw the only 10-point ride by Pipe specialist and event standout Makua Rothman on an absolute Backdoor dream wave in what looked to be an impossible section – the crowd erupted. Spectator favorite and style-master Mason Ho seemed to be in rhythm, as he too found a Backdoor gem and was awarded with a hefty 9.70. If there was only one day of the event to watch it was definitely day three. With absolute flawless conditions all day long, there were so many amazing Backdoor and Pipeline barrels it’s hard to remember them all. Excellent scores were awarded to Bruce Irons (9.67), Makua Rothman (9.5), Miguel Tudela (9.43), Seth Moniz (9.17) and Koa Smith (9.0);
it’s hard to believe that several 10-point rides weren’t awarded in such flawless conditions. Another highlight on the third day of competition was “the wipeout of the event,” involving the collision by Bino Lopes and Joshua Burke, who mistakenly tried crossing one another on their ways to Pipe and Backdoor. Leashes tangled and bodies went airborne as the wave exploded onto the shallow reef. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt. And on to the final day we go… with diminishing conditions and a not-so-stellar forecast on the horizon, the fourth and final day of the event consisted of the last two heats of Round 3, all of Round 4, Quarters, Semis and eventually the Final – a full day, to say the least. I’ll skip the play-by-play, but by the time the Final was about to start it was CT workhorse Adriano De Souza, rookie Griffin Colapinto, underdog Soli Bailey and legendary Bruce Irons all battling it out for the coveted bronze warrior helmet and the top spot on the podium. Starting
sol bailey • photo • bielmann
photo • chase newsom
photo • bielmann
photo • bielmann
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koa smith • photo • carey
koa rothman • photo • carey
mitch coleborn • photo • carey
john florence • photo • bielmann
makua rothman • photo • bielmann
bruce irons • photo • lugo
balaram stack • photo • carey
seth moniz • photo • bielmann
kelly slater • photo • carey
adriano de souza • photo • bielmann
off the heat with a strong paddle battle between Bruce and Adriano for priority, it was Soli who was first to strike with a mid-range 5.67 Backdoor tube. Adriano kept himself in it by scoring a 4.5 with a nice little Pipeline barrel. Soli then backed it up by getting a double barrel at Backdoor, earning the highest score of the heat, a 7.33. His next wave even furthered his lead and earned him a 5.93 for yet another Backdoor barrel. As the final wound down Adriano was the only one capable of stealing the lead, but he would need an excellent score and it was a nervous few minutes to end the heat. There was no doubt that Soli was the in-form man during the final and it was a well-deserved victory. Congrats to all the competitors and big thanks to Volcom, Red Bull and the rest of the team for another stellar event. miguel tudela • photo • bielmann
interview • delon isaacs
In Party In The Back, celebrated skateboarder Tino Razo has documented - and shredded – abandoned backyard swimming pools throughout Southern California. The resulting body of work, showcased for the first time in his recently released book, elevates itself beyond a bunch of thrill-seekers navigating the suburban landscape, juxtaposing renegade sessions by world-class skateboarders with dramatic architectural photographs of a lost American dream. We were fortunate enough to track Tino down and ask a couple questions about the new book!
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Hi Tino, we’re really doing this! We’re talking! This is cool. What are you doing right now this very second? Are you working on the show? Ugh. I just ran outside to do this. I’m working at Supreme right now, been super busy; everything has kind of been a shit show, haha. But it’s all good. And no, I haven’t even started anything for the show really. Been working three straight weeks but I have the day off tomorrow to figure it all out. Hell yeah, Tino! Well shit, I don’t wanna take up too much of your time
so let’s dive right into this… how long have you been working on this book? Um… Feels like it’s been a while but I guess in all, total like four years. So the photos from this book, the pools and all these locations you’ve shot, did these all take place from all over the U.S.? It’s primarily all shot in Southern California, from the Valley, to Los Angeles and Burbank, couple spots in the deserts and Baja. The pools, or bowls, or whatever you call them these days, look pretty desolate. How do you even find half
of these things? Haha. There were so many different ways of finding them. Either it was driving around with friends, looking at satellite views of places on Apple Maps on my phone, messing around with Google Maps, having friends knowing these places or one of my friend’s friends would know something. You find pools and other people find pools, so you kind of share spots with different people. It’s kind of like a collection and trading baseball cards a bit.
When you show up at these locations what are the necessities you need to have to clean out a pool and make it skateable? Brooms, buckets, a lot of old towels, or old t-shirts, anything you can really grab to help dry some of these spots out. That’s pretty basic. I’ll probably bring a plethora of skateboards. And of course beers! What’s the average time it takes to clean one of these bad boys out? It’s all pretty situational, could be hours or it could be a quick one. Sometimes you get there and there will just be little bit of dust to sweep. Sometimes it’s a nightmare and they will be filled with a bunch of wood or water. I’ve done a couple six- to eight-hour preparation on some of these things. That sounds like hell. Do you like the whole process of doing all that or are you just in it for the skating and the photos? I love all the parts of it, man. All the driving, the legwork, the scouring… it makes the pay off all worth it in the end. The book is called Party in the Back, so how did you pick this name for the book? I wrote down just a bunch of names kind of quickly and when I wrote that one down it just kind of stuck. I liked it, thought it was kind of funny.
So are you happy with the book and the whole end result? When’s it come out and where can we buy it? Yeah, I’m super happy with the book. I’m stoked it’s literally as good as I possibly could have made it. Shooting how I shot it and not knowing how to shoot, for what I thought I could do, it’s as good as I could of asked from it. The book is actually out today, February 21st and you can buy through Mexican Summer (mexicansummer.com). Well shit, Tino, I hope everything is a success and your photo shows corresponding with the book launch and everything goes amazing, congrats! Word! Hell yeah and thank you!
Has there been any horror stories shooting for this book? Anyone get arrested or super fucked up? I mean a couple of shitty things happened but nothing happened as crazy as one would expect getting into it. We made it through this whole thing pretty unscathed. Just the fact that we sneak into these things with skateboards really helps the situation. When cops see us it’s pretty harmless; having the skateboards diffuse a lot of the conflicts. Sometimes they’ll come in hot thinking we’re doing something real fucked up, but as soon as they see four dudes in the backyard with a pool with skateboards it’s pretty easy for them to judge what we’re actually doing back there. How many of these spots have you been kicked out of? Shit, maybe only like four or five of them. All the photos you took for this book, is it all film? What photography medium did you use? It’s all film photos. I didn’t have a digital camera at the time so when I started and when the body of work kept developing I just stuck to what I conceptually used. As far as being a skater, and that whole approach, were you just always into this transitional, pooltype skating? I just skated, man. A lot of the skating I do is just dictated by whatever was around, wherever I was living at the time. In this case it, and for sake of the book, was pool skating. I would never call myself a pool skater. I like skating everything.
interview • delon isaacs
My oh-sotalented big sister, I never know what you’re doing. Could you fucking sit still for a second? Where are you at this very moment? What are you working on? Sweet baby bones, I know you miss me… I’m on a layover in Doha, drinking a weird coffee. I’m on my way to Spain to paint in Madrid with some other art dogs. Yeah, I literally can’t sit still; I think I get anxiety, which is sucky. It’s been a wild year and I’m super grateful. A lot of travel and a lot of new buddies. That hang we had with Banjo and the crew in Paris was kinda the best. You’re originally from a pretty weird place in Florida, correct? What was your adolescent life like in the Sunshine State? What kinds of things were you into and how did you kind of break out?
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Yep, St. Augustine. Weird, but good weird for Florida. There’s definitely some weirder/dark zones in FLA that I don’t miss. St. Augustine is a smaller coastal town, super pretty and comfortable. There was a heavy sporty/churchy culture so I was pretty psyched on doing the opposite. I was in the water a lot and rode skateboards. I played in a few punky kinda bands through middle school and high school. Breaking out was a mission. It was watching old NYC skate dog movies that got me all psyched on urban culture and arty things. I remember sneaking into the theater to see “KIDS” when I was 12 and becoming hooked and pretty infatuated with New York City. I ended up getting into the School of Visual Arts and splitting up there shortly after high school. How freakin’ cool was New York in the early ‘00s when you first moved there? How in love with New York were you back then? Do you feel like any of your success is owed to that transition to the Big Apple? Yeah, I moved up when I was 18, on
September 9th, 2001 and watched the Twin Towers come down on the 11th - so fucked. I remember we had psychiatrists coming to my school to talk to the kids making sure we were all good. That part was pretty awful. I guess the positive side of that was it really pulled people together, kinda like the people that were willing to stay after something so gnarly were the ones that really loved it. Maybe a year or two after the dust began to settle and yes, it was a pretty magical place. Politics stilled sucked and we were scared to ride the subway due to anthrax scares, but it felt like the creative subculture was really thriving. It felt like those grimy bars, art, music and skateboarding culture were kinda the rulers of downtown. It seemed like less financial turkeys and corporates were around, as it was still kind of a wreck down there. Also not sure if it was that period in my life, bright lights/big city, but fuck it was radical. Yeah, 100% is owed to bailing the small town life and making the move up, at least for me – not even art related, but just growing as a human and becoming generally more aware.
Do you have the same feelings about NY now? Has anything changed? And is it somewhere you want to continue to be for the next five years? Yeah, unfortunately my feelings have changed a bit. I have four to five core buddies that I hang with; otherwise I’m nailing things in the studio or mostly on the road. So yeah, I don’t go out so much any more… Or maybe I’m just older. With the arty stuff - I feel like that core culture stuff comes in pulses. At the moment it seems on the deflate. A lot of the artists I loved from that early 2000s period have died, got deported or became super stars and just bailed. Otherwise, maybe it’s missing that creative influx, as it’s just too expensive to live as an artist. Artists need to explore their craft and most times have to fail to progress. Unfortunately the financial pressures of the city don’t allow for this. I miss those dark, sketchy bars and weirdo graf kids. Unfortunately, for me it’s just not there. Yeah, hoping to wrap up my time in the city in the next year or so. Keen to settle in closer to a beach for a bit of a cleansing. We’ll see. Okay I need a personal arty question here. Um... How different was your art 10 years ago compared to where it’s at today? And how long ago did you make that realization or gain that comfort where you were like, “Okay this is who I am now, this is my style of work, this is the kind of artist I want to be”? Yeah, my art 10 years ago was very different. It was much more figurative and not so abstract or based on color and movement. I was just getting out of school at SVA and still had some interest in film and clothing so my head was all over the place. I guess there was never really a moment that was like, “this is it, this is me.” It was more “this is fun and let’s keep it rolling.” I guess with painting, it was the most self-sufficient way to create something I was psyched on. With clothing or film there’s just so many moving parts, personalities and money involved that it was hard to be super passionate. If I wanted to paint, I could paint.
Do you enjoy painting murals more than studio projects or vice-versa? How is your method of creating art different when it comes to painting a building or a structure compared to a canvas? It’s always different. I’ll find the studio time is more of a study for the larger wall pieces. Technically the method is much the same, just more paint and a longer measuring tape. The social side of the larger wall stuff is cool. Maybe there’s a kid that gets psyched seeing your wall and decides he wants to start painting… or you stoke someone out on the way to work. Either way, there’s a sense of connection with the community that you wouldn’t get being buried in the studio. Being an introvert like myself, I need all the help I can get. Tell us a little bit about this collaboration you’ve got going with our bro dawgs from Vissla? How did that relationship spark and what kinds of things can we look forward to in the future? And how nice is Keegan Fong’s smile? Ol’ Keegs got the smile. He could be our long-lost little sister! Yeah, the Vissla boys are great; super supportive and a bit of a family vibe there. I made the connection through Hayden after we collaborated on some boards for Craig Anderson. The current collaboration is in the process of being rolled out with some cool pieces. Some boardies, some tees, a Hawaiian shirt and a wetty vest that I’m psyched on. Yeah, some good things coming in the future.
We’re doing a thing at Green Room in Japan this May and just finished another small collection dropping spring ’18. It’s a nice outlet for me as the surf dude world was never really my channel. I grew up pretty passionate about surfing and the water, but I was never really involved in the industry side of things. So creating some stuff with a different headspace has been fun.
You got some sick, tight collaborations under your belt, Jason. What types of things do you take in high consideration before working with a company? Does creating some of these unions scare the poop out of you sometimes?
Stripped back, I guess it’s gotta be cool. I like to keep it simple and ask myself if my mentors do that? Or would I back it if one of my homies teamed up with that brand? For the most part, I have to get along with the people behind the business and it has to be genuine and relatable. Yeah, it is scary, but I also like to switch it up to align with different industries. Going real hard in one realm would be selling yourself short. I don’t know, maybe I do this because I want to learn more. For instance, I’ll work with Saatchi&Saatchi because I respect their place in the design/art world and want to see how it works at such a crazy level. Or I’ll do an event at Colette in Paris because I enjoy working with Sarah and seeing her approach to retail. A lot of the time during my collaborations the actual product becomes a secondary sort of addon compared to relationships I’ve formed. Who are the top five art badasses that you hold in the highest regards?
Man, there’s more than five, but at this moment: Dan Colen, Tauba Auerbach, Tom Sachs, Dash and Margaret. What’s the end-all goal for Woodside with all this art stuff? Are you hustling for Lambos and a mansion in the Keys or something else? What kind of life do you see yourself being the most content with in your later future? Hustling Lambos all day. Nah, my goal is to be happy. At the moment I’m really enjoying painting and the opportunities that keep happening. I think the money stuff finds you if you’re genuinely passionate about what you’re pursuing. In the future I see myself working closer with cities and museums to create more public works. I guess the end result is to inspire people to do something positive.
Last question: How much do you love my hair cut? Do you still bring a photo of me to Supercuts every time you go? I can’t keep up these days, doggie. The photos I bring to Supercuts are usually creepy screen shots from your Insta stories and are kinda blurry. They’ll get it right one day.
Peter King, A.K.A. “PK,” has become a staple in the surf industry. From his professional surfing career back in the day, being band mates with Kelly Slater, his infamous behind-the-scenes Tour Notes and his all-around personality, it’s no surprise that Stab Magazine accused him of being “surfing’s most powerful journalist.” PK is one of those guys that is just really good at everything he does. The following six pages are a collection of images he shot while spending a few weeks on Hawaii’s infamous North Shore, and of course they’re really damn good.
Evan Mock – Lil Steezy doing his thing. The North Shore Banzai Skatepark has given life to a land long since forgotten by those getting their groove on with four wheels. Kids finally have a place to pour out that energy and have a chance to hone an act that can take them beyond these walls. Evan Mock is proof.
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Kona Johnson – Such a great example of lineage, respect and class. A rarely surfed North Shore spot, this day was heavy and consequential. Kona’s style is so relaxed. With pure lines and flow, he eases into this upcoming cavern where others may have run for safety.
John John Florence, Backdoor – This extreme North swell was NUTZ! Backdoor turned into monster snapper with subterranean barrels exploding on sandcovered reef. Of course the local kid knew how to effortlessly navigate which waves would reward from the ones that would eat you.
John John Florence – Inverted full rotation makes JJF looks so comfortable doing these things… This was one of about 10 crazy airs from this session. Check the final episode of 12 for the others. Please let the tour have big powerful surf this year!
Pancho Sullivan – Pancho has a timeless rail game. I love it. Doesn’t everyone? A North Shore legend that inspired John John and countless others is still blasting after all these years.
Kalani Robb – Kalani is the soft-top maestro. We connected at Keikis and we were just laughing our heads off. Closeouts become pretty darned fun when your board isn’t gonna slice you in two.
Jackson Dorian – This is the greatest surf grom in the world. Shane’s son is the beneficiary of the ultimate rad-dad… hunting trips, skate ramps and surfing all over the world. Jackson literally caught every single wave that came through at V-Land this day... every wave. And he’s got sick style as well.
Lucas Godfrey – I almost want to whisper anything I say about Lucas. He’s a full North Shore underground dawg. Shhh! Out early, out late, in every barrel, every swell, he’s always there. Every time I looked up this winter he was shralping or getting spit out of a barrel. Shhh!
Heimana Reynolds – Heimana is so well rounded at skating: street, transition, bowls… he can do it all and with crazy control and Hawaiian style. So good to see him becoming a power skater as he grows up and fills out.
Clark Little – I made a movie last year about Clark Little called Shorebreak. I remember when we were kids Clark was known for charging the shorebreak at Waimea. It’s amazing that later in life the movement he started is now so popular. Nobody who was the subject of photographers has ever become so famous as a lensman in their own right. Oh, and yes… he is crazy.
Bruce Irons – Just sitting watching some rain delay action at OTW. One guy keeps chilling into every wedge and getting pitted, no flailing arms and no claims! Oh, it’s Bruce, that makes sense.
This winter has proven to be one of the best snow seasons ever. It seems like for the majority of the winter, social media feeds have been clogged with waist-deep powder. Pick a winter destination and you can’t go wrong. When everywhere is this good it becomes more about the people involved and the vibe that you bring. We invited a heavy crew to join us in Salt Lake City for Electric’s “Legends of The Volt Tour” at Brighton Resort, followed by a week filled with shredding and debauchery. At the height of our trip we had 15 kids sleeping anywhere and everywhere, not including the eight Electric riders that already live in Utah. The idea was to do one big trip where everyone was invited and see who came, who meshed, who got too “smoked” and so on. With so many people
on board and wanting to film a video, we had to break up our crew most days to try to get some shit done. We had a 15-passenger van maxed out that made up one giant crew, our buddy Seamus was leading the smaller and much more productive crew into the Brighton backcountry, and last but not least Ryan Pluche, Lenny Mazzotti, and Daniel Salazar broke away from time to time to hit some street stuff in nearby Orem. We spent the majority of our time at Brighton Resort, where a nice storm hit the week prior Sam Taxwood • F.S 540 Photo • Seamus Foster
Jack Dawe, Garrett Warnick, Christian Connors, Cali Doerfler, Brian Neri, Lenny Mazzotti, Ryan Pluche, Tyler Flygare, Frank Knab, Cody Rosenthal • Photo • Scotty Arnold
Sam Taxwood Photo • Seamus Foster
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Pat Moore • Andreche Photo • Brian Neri
Garrett Warnick • Bs 360 Photo • Scotty Arnold
Christian Connors • Fs 360 Photo • Scotty Arnold
Ryan Pluche • Kickflip Photo • Scotty Arnold
Christian Connors, Frank Knab Photo • Scotty Arnold
Frank Knab • Bs 720 Photo • Scotty Arnold
Cooper Whittier • Fs Grab Photo • Scotty Arnold
Lenny Mazzotti, Frank Knab, Christian Connors, Cali Doerfler Photo • Cody Rosenthal
to our trip. We managed to keep venturing further and finding more powder as our week progressed. Huge thanks to Jared Winkler and the Brighton Crew for helping us out with everything! With such a deep and diverse crew we had to come up with some fun besides the usual snowboarding, Coors Light and making fun of each other. We had a basketball court at the house, which provided a nice pre-shred warm up and many laughs throughout the week. It’s no surprise to anyone that snowboarders are terrible at most conventional sports. Jill Perkins was pretty much the only exception, draining just about every shot the whole week. Outside of basketball we rode snow skates, snow bikes and almost blew ourselves up in the backyard! All and all this was a trip that none of us will forget, Daniel screaming “FRIED CHICKEN” for no apparent reason is still echoing in all of our heads. If you haven’t stopped reading this yet then you might want to check out the video that drops on Snowboardermag.com in early March. Pick up the phone, group text everyone you know and go on a trip somewhere before the snow melts so you can post a bunch of photos on Instagram and piss off everyone that sits in an office all day!
Jack Dawe • Fs 720 Photo • Seamus Foster
words • patrick lape The world’s best surfers aren’t normal humans. They don’t eat like you, train like you, sleep like you, or look at a wave the way you do. When Hurley told me I was going to interview Kolohe Andino in front of a crowd of local artists, photographers, print makers, shapers, family, friends, and then throw the whole thing on the Internet, I wondered what the number four surfer in the world really had to say. Come January 26th, the stage was set. Close to 400 people packed the Hurley “Town Hall” and the Shorecliffs Surf Team occupied any available floor space to get as close as possible to their most famous alma mater. With bellies full of carnitas and asada tacos, the audience tuned into a very poised Kolohe Andino. Topics covered ranged from growing up in the surf-inspired town that is San Clemente, handling the pressure of great expectations, training like a professional athlete and the headspace of a young 22-year-old who put together his best year to date on the WSL Championship Tour in 2016.
To complement the Q&A, Kolohe’s filmer provided us with five minutes of raw, unseen footage of Brother Andino ripping up and down the California coastline. What struck me the most that night was how Kolohe responded to the question, “How do you want to be remembered by this community when you no longer surf for a living?” To that he replied, “I just want to be remembered as a hardworking, very grateful young man.” It was a pleasure to be a part of an event that is helping to positively influence our role models as well as the next generation of surfers.
Jon Overson
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Photo: N. Torres
@activewomens
Alex Knost with Duncan & Malcolm Campbell Duncan & his son with Taylor Knox Last month on February 4th the Costa Mesa Conceptual Art Center hosted the opening night for the Campbell Brother’s “Bonzer” exhibit, curated by Alex Knost and Daniella Murphy. “The Bonzer is a contemporary compendium of the Campbell Brothers Bonzer experience,” Knost said. “[It’s] a complex retrospective surveying its evolution and accelerated mindfulness, a celebration of the future, mindful from where it came. Widespread disillusion, hysteria and panic, the sort that enables limbs, creates a catatonic star, and numbs the primal urge of euphoria. The brotherhood of outer known resource, the spirit and lineage of wave riding, a kinship either devoured from the inside out or exhaled under deep breath… the exhausted source. All ambient origins test the tug of war that is invention. Invention – the art of necessity, right, wrong, fade left, go right… Is it a wig that is youth? A stifle that is resent, or a wink that is the last laugh? Immortal and indigenous, it is the art of creation. It crests
as if the cut is slow and necessary. An umbilical bible of resource, gaze at the ephemeral, it is your lineage.” The Costa Mesa Conceptual Art Center also commented on the exhibit. “We want to thank Malcolm and Duncan Campbell for being so generous with their world and history,” said a CMCAC spokesperson. “Without their archives and access to their materials, this exhibition could not have been so comprehensive. From our serendipitous conversation at the Bonzer Front in Haleiwa in early December 2016 to the fruition of this project two months later in February 2017, the process has been an incredible journey. We hope this project will inspire further investigations into the Campbell Brothers’ work.” The CMCAC can be found at: 1930 Placentia Ave. Unit B3, Costa Mesa, CA 92627. Colin Moran, Krunchy & Ford Archbold
Kevin O’Sullivan & D Rad
Oxnard Friends Brophy & Newport Grom Squad
Jared Mell & Mitch Abshere
Ryan Donahue & Mikey
Jon Overson
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Colin Moran
words • spencer pirdy • photos • stan sievers & robbie jeffers Boardriders clubs have always been an Australian pastime. A tradition since the 1960s, these clubs bring surfers together from the same town, and focus on the camaraderie involved with surfing against one another. These boardriders clubs have played a huge factor in strengthening surfing in Australia, and it was about time that the US caught on. What was almost half a year in planning came to fruition this past weekend. The West Coast Boardriders Associations hosted its first Boardriders Clash between the cities of Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach on the south side of the Huntington pier. A tag team event, the beach was packed from 8 a.m. until the final horn blew, and you better believe that major city bragging rights were on the line.
With 3- to 4-foot waves on offer and a hungry crew of competitors, every division was looking to have their hometown reign supreme. The Newport Boardriders Coalition jumped out to an early lead with solid surfing from Dave Giddings and head coach Dave Post. While each team has its fair share of surf talent, Newport never looked back and took out the first West Coast Boardriders Clash, with HB coming in second, Seal coming in third and Laguna Beach in fourth. At the end of the day it wasn’t really all about who won… Ok, maybe it was. But what really mattered was that everyone shook hands, showed respect and had a great deal of fun in the process. Later that evening boardriders gathered at Boathouse Collective in Costa Mesa for some tasty grinds, cold drinks and the awards ceremony. Surfing is alive and well in the United States, and with the introduction of more and more boardriding clubs all up and down both coasts, it should continue to thrive!
Casey Wheat & Ziggy Williams
Danny Nichols
Hans Hagan, Brandy Faber, James Pribram, Mike Parsons & Jeff Booth
Matty Passaquindici
Tyler Stanaland
Jack Colby
Jeff Hurley
Brophy & Colin Moran Kirk Weissinger
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Bobby Lockhart & Ryan Salazar
Andrew Dohney
Jack Boyes, Casey Wheat, Billy Hopkins, Derek Peters, & Matty Passaquindici
Hans Hagan, Julian Goldberg, Christian Schenk & Ryan Magee Danny Nichols & Jerry Lathrope
Erik Weissinger, Jake Hart & Jack Colby
Joe Alani, Grant Collins & Jamie Reidling
ford
alex knost power lunch & blister
photos & words • delon isaacs
noa
Last month on Friday the 17th, a bunch of your favorite surfers all somehow met in the hippy promise land of Australia’s Byron Bay and put on a gig. Almost like the Observatory of Santa Ana or the Echoplex of Los Angeles, the Northern is the most poppin’ venue in a 50-mile radius, housing the town’s most rowdy of youths. I mean, these fucking kids party and throw down, and dance, and make out publically, and really know how to take advantage of a free show. I still haven’t correctly wrapped my brain around how the drinking age here is only 18; it’s crazy watching kids with braces hopped up on Red Bull vodkas and VB’s go completely mad at an adult bar. Newport Beach’s wrecking crew Power Lunch, composed of Andrew Doheny, Tromberg and Merit kicked off the night. Every time I watch Power Lunch play I re-fall in love with Andrew. He’s so fucking cool on the guitar and when he’s singing. If you watched him live it would completely blow you away to think it was the same quiet person you awkwardly run into every morning at Al Capp. Blister took the stage next. Blister is the sickest two-piece band you’ve never of made up by Noa Deane and his filmer/best friend Shane Fletcher. These two motherfuckers are inseparable and are so in tuned it’s crazy. Their music and band is just as good as their surfing and edits. I back Blister hard! Tomorrows Tulips, Knost and Ford’s band, headlined the night, and they played without their main drummer and had Noa fill in. The band played two original songs that put a smile on everyone’s face for about 8 minutes and then went off into a 15-minute long noise tangent, which psyched and confused the fuck out of absolutely everyone. Their performance ended as Alex took a plunger to the guitar, playing it like a violin until all the strings ripped of the guitar and broke. Overall morale of the entire night: pretty good, I reckon.
power lunch
creed & nate foster
driod & ozzy blister
alex
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photo • karlos rene ayala : interview • max ritter
Your new LP just came out on the Ghost Ramp label of Nathan Williams (WAVVES). Can you tell us a little about the band, the new album, and how you found a match for it with Ghost Ramp? Morgan: We’re just three dorks who can tolerate each other enough to play music together sometimes. I went to high school with Kenny in the foothills and I met Andy shortly after moving to Sacramento to go to college. We started playing music together because we were bored, I guess. We wrote and recorded Please Let Me Know in 2015. We just wrote songs that we all liked and that were fun to play. We recorded it with our incredibly talented friend, Pat Hills, at Earth Tone Studio here in Sacramento. It was originally supposed to come out on the label that put out our last record, The Unlawful Trade Of Greco-Roman Art, but that didn’t pan out so Patrick McDermott, who manages Ghost Ramp, said that he would be down to release it if we wanted. We already knew him because he had helped with the art and layout of Greco-Roman Art. We were all very psyched on Ghost Ramp and Patrick so it was a no-brainer for us. The first single on the new record is called “The King’s Wig.” What is it about? Morgan: I think our songs are open to interpretation so it can be about whatever you want it to be about.
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Kenny: To me, the song is about a king and a wig. The wig belongs to the king. The king is old and mostly bald, which is why he decided to get a wig. The king’s budding romance with the wig leads to an unhealthy obsession. He can hardly bear to have it leave his head. The wig must be removed periodically to undergo routine wig maintenance and cleaning. This bi-weekly ordeal of removing the wig and watching it go away to be washed really weighs down heavily on the king, but he knows that it is necessary to nourish his romance and ensure that it is long lasting. He sings, “I can’t wait, but I will” every time he watches the wig leave. It’s kind of like the movie Her, I think. I’ve never seen that movie though, only the preview. Morgan: To me, it’s about being in love and appreciating the person you love and how much cooler things are because of them. It’s about recognizing and valuing how great and exciting and lucky it is to be able to love somebody. But again, Kenny’s answer is just as right as mine or anybody else’s. What do you think it’s about? Being a band from Sacramento – the good, the bad? Kenny: I think one good thing about being in a band from Sacramento is that the river here is incredibly high right now. It’s really exciting to look at. I see it a couple times a day on my way to and from work. Morgan: I work right next to the river so I get to see it way more than Kenny, just so you know.
I think Sacramento is fine. I think the good and the bad are probably the same in Sacramento, as a lot of places that aren’t big cultural hubs or little, tiny towns. There are plenty of cool things and plenty of dumb things about the city.
Kenny: We’d be down to play with a bass player, though. If anyone reading this is interested in auditioning, just make a video that tells us a little bit about you and displays your chops and send it to us.
Kenny: If you’re in a band from Sacramento, you can go to the State Fair once a year and get a hamburger that’s stuffed with macaroni and cheese sandwiched between two glazed donuts, if you want to.
Morgan: You would have to be around our age, though, so at least 40.
Morgan: That’s true, if you want to. One thing I like about So Stressed is the three-piece with no bass player; instead you have a synth. Was that by design or did something specific inspire that? Kenny: We used to have a bass player. That was back when So Stressed was an improvisational act, before we started writing songs. I think he eventually just stopped showing up to practice. I don’t blame him. Morgan: I think the only reason it’s set up like that is because I barely know how to play music at all and I have found that pushing buttons and keys is easier for me than strumming a guitar. The only instrument I had when we started trying to write songs was a keyboard so we just tried to make it work with what was available. I don’t think it was ever a conscious decision to use keyboard instead of bass guitar for a “sound” or whatever. That’s just how it worked out and I’m too dumb and lazy to learn how to play a real instrument.
Are there any current bands out there you guys really like right now? Who are they and why? Morgan: I’m really enjoying that new Carsten Jost record. It sounds good and weird in a way that I don’t hear too often. It’s a really good balance of warm and cold. I also like 311. Kenny: I like the EP Blisters by serpentwithfeet. Do you guys have plans to tour the new album? Morgan: No Kenny: I would like to tour. I think we will. Morgan: I disagree. So Stressed’s new album Please Let Me Know will rip your head off and is available now on Ghost Ramp.
reviews • max ritter & rob molt
Alex Cameron Jumping the Shark Secretly Canadian
Ahmad Jamal Trio The Awakening Impulse
Australian storyteller Alex Cameron has released his excellent debut release, Jumping the Shark. Imagine David Bowie and Nick Cave having drinks in an empty dive with some guy playing synthesizer in the corner. That’s just a look into the heavy synth- and beat-based concept art of Cameron and his business partner, saxophonist, Roy Malloy. From their Geocities-style website to a live show best shot for a David Lynch film, the group already looks fully formed. Already having made fans of Henry Rollins, Angel Olson and label mate Mac Demarco, you too are going to want to be on this guy’s side.
When you want your child to become the brilliant scientist/astronaut his mother envisions him to be, you need to play him only the finest jazz.
Kevin Morby Singing Saw Dead Oceans Ryan Adams Prisoner PAX-AM
Neo-folk singer/songwriter (my worst genre description ever) Kevin Morby’s latest release crushes those kinds of labels. The record does sound throwback, yet with a more layered instrumental variety. The lyrics are less wordy than Dylan and Cohen, which guys this good are always compared to, but they are still cutting-edge storytelling. Play this for those who have heard everything.
Ryan Adams psycho fans unite. I preordered this one and counted down the days. What a Jedi Master this dude is.
Crystal Fairy Crystal Fairy Ipecac Recordings This is what happens when your dream girl hangs out with your heavy uncles. With members of the Melvins, At the Drive-In, and fronted by the ultimate rock goddess Teri Gender Bender of Le Butcherettes, it sounds exactly how you would think it sounds. It’s arty heavy metal with the postpunk bass of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. But it’s Bender who completely slays us on this one. Her psychotic, panicked vocals are almost operatic, totally beautiful and heavy. I lover her… so much.
Little Dragon High Loma Vista Was waiting for Montel Jordan to come in on a verse on this one.
Dani Bell & The Tarantist Dark West Redwoods Music Gerry Rafferty City to City This is for when you need to drop that dad-jam, adult, non-contemporary hammer in the playlist. Gerry Rafferty also famously wrote “Stuck In The Middle With You” as part of the band Stealers Wheel.
San Diego’s Dani Bell and the Tarantist are pure West Coast psychedelic soul. The duo, who are part of the Redwoods Music troupe of bands, combine lush mixes of pop and soul on their debut release Dark West. Already a local favorite around the southland, Dani has venerability in her voice while emitting confidence in her lyrics. Al, who performs multiple percussions in the background, lays the woozy foundation. They are completely captivating and totally sexy. Is it cool to call people sexy still?
photo & words • david evanko
Mind Meld The Echo, Los Angeles, CA Sunday, February 5th, 2017 Locals of Eastside LA spent February sifting through both of the Permanent Records LA locations, chatting with the friendly staff and leaving with updated music libraries to go with the smiles on their faces. Each Monday night, those smiles would be scorched into ashes reminiscent of Pompeii, as that same staff, who happen to be the members of Mind Meld, hosted a month-long residency at The Echo to celebrate the release of their new selftitled record.
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photo• jason kenworthy
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