High end brands are seizing surfing; a sport and a way of life that so embodies relaxation. The board has become an accessory which is presented in fashionable concept stores. Let’s investigate this double sided popularity.
Let’s take a larger view. Ten years ago, being cool meant you had to be a skater. Once Winter hit it was best to invest in a snowboard. In 2011 bicycles became the new obsession. It has been predicted that next year the genuine hipsters will be cruising on motorbikes with greased hair, rolled up sleeves and big cylinders. And today, to be considered truly “urban” one must casually lean a board against a wall in the hallway. Whether in Paris or Guéthary.
Surfing has fallen into the hype category. Ranked as an established sport and far from the type of lifestyle it represented at the beginning, surfing has been snatched by the mermaids of marketing. It has become a kingdom of excessive sponsoring and general advertisers ranging from 4x4’s and high -tech energy beverages.
At one time, competitions were sponsored by surf brands that targeted surfers. The best won up to 7,500 euros. Today these competitions can be seen via streaming on the web and the winner of the US Surf Open can win 75,000 euros. The surfers have become very pro and are surrounded by a large staff, dieticians, trainers and personal shapers for their boards.
High end boards
This has not escaped the attention of high end fashion brands. In June, Tommy Hilfiger opened a giant store on the Champs-Elysees entirely devoted to beach themes and surf boards. Sand, a Beetle without an engine , coconut matting and the tone was set. The Summer collection was named “surf shack” and it paid tribute to the surfer’s shack and the place where one goes after the surf effort which makes every sea-spray deprived citizen fantasize about all year long. Hilfiger sold boards at 1,500 euros a piece (to lean against a wall instead of in the water) and artists such as Richard Phillips, Raymond Pettibon or Scott Cambell with the purpose of attracting a certain non-surfer clientele.
Other brands have launched their own luxury surf boards: Chanel created a longboard with a black and white logo (approx. 4,000 euros), Lacostelab also sells their own version (1,280 euros). Prada has created a silk wetsuit which is a copy of the neoprene version worn by the pros. And Sandro has reproduced images of Hugh Holland from the 1970’s on T-shirts. Their last ad campaigne decked out their models in black surf boards and matching suits and mocassins while walking through city streets far from the sea-side.
Chanel’s Long Board
On the Landes coast, the real hard core surfers frown at this recoup. Surfing with a fashion logo board? For many, this is a sin; “They have never seen waves and they make boards, it makes us laugh” says the director of a surf shop on the coast. “Surfing is in fashion and it’s exponential”, added one of his colleagues. In 2013, 10,000 permits were counted but many more were occasional surfers. The surfer is the perfect flag-carrier for summer relaxation. Aficionados display a kid of ultra-conservatism when it comes to “their” spots. Good waves are not endlessly multiplicative even if the rumor has it that wave gardens could eventually settle into our hood. “We have become protectionists because there are way too many people and many of them are disguised as surfers”, says Matteo Ferrari. “Of course there are posers it’s inevitable. I understand that it’s annoying to have your waves stolen by beginners but there are enough for everybody. This is just like the world of skating which shares a lot in common with surfing. Before, you would cross paths with a skater and think that this could be a potential new friend. This feeling of community has vanished because skating has spread and so has surf”.
The rise of concept stores
More so than the sport itself and the performances; what has really allowed for the discipline to become fashionable is the rise of concept stores such as Saturdays, a shop dedicated to boards, simple and frill-free, located in Manhattan on the paved stone streets of Crosby Street.
This new type of surf shop opened in 2009 targets traders, ad people, prominent artists and is a success. The three owners are handsome, chic and relaxed. Their collection looks like them, somewhere in between APC and the young label Ami. They sell boards, skates, clothing, books and contemporary art always inspired by their passion for the sea, open space and a certain lifestyle. They have opened a second shop in Tokyo and boast about taking the train with a board under arm to surf in Rockaway within one and a half hours from the center of New York. The three founders have given surf the urban touch that it was missing.
Sale, another surf shop in Brooklyn has gained respect within the circle. In Paris, Wait, half apartment, half shop has opened a few months ago on the rue Notre Dame de Nazareth. Julien and Antoine, the two owners are from Brittany and surf in Normandy when September makes its appearance. They sell mostly old school brands (Deus ex machina, La Paz and the old sneaker brand Noël) that are more creative than their elders.
While these private brands multiply, the historians and leaders that crushed the market in the 90’s are making a come-back and re-surfacing as fashion virgins. Lightning Bolt which was at the top of the game in the 70’s has collaborated with Colette this past spring. Rip Curl set up a pop up store at Wait to remind us that they started out small and they brought back their original logos. Quicksilver, the giant in the business, that the mass market rejected from its philosophy, has brought back its first board shorts designed by Jeff Hakman and collaborated with Providence, a shop well known in Guéthary as it attracts as many hipsters as it does local surfers.
For the giants such as Quicksilver, Billabong and Oxbow, nothing seems to indicate that the sales from 20 years ago will return even though surfing has never been as trendy or practiced as it is today. Cruel to be at the through of the wave.
Jonathan Paskowitz, legendary
Credits: Jonas Unger
The son and brother of surfers, Jonathan Paskowitz, fifty-something and tan has become a legend of the sport. Born in Oahu (Hawaii), today he is president of Lightning Bolt, a brand of mythic boards from the 70’s. He was raised in a trailer with his parents and his eight brothers and sister.
The camping car roamed all of the beaches in California, registering the Paskowitz “surf camp” where Kelly Slater taught for a while. None of the children went to school.
« We lived like a group of gorillas » remembers Jonathan. Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, his father is 93 years old and has the aura of a guru. He is a physician who received his diploma from Stanford and abandoned everything to live a bohemian life. He has never taken any medication, never eats sugar and still surfs under the supervision of his wife whom he is inseparable from and to whom “he makes love to every day” specifies his son. Surfing was the cement of the family. Some Paskowitz children would become champions, including Jonathan.
Happy but insolent, the boy leaves his parents as a teenager and goes to Israel where he teaches bank robbers how to rob. While in his 30’s in the US he collaborated in cinema productions dedicated to boards and ended up like many others from his generation, working in the surf industry with clothing and boards. He was swindled by an associate and lived in the streets, delivered ice cream in New York and helped put together a concept store dedicated to surf with Tom Sachs and Mary Frey, Mario Sorrenti’s wife. As of now he is president of Lightning Bolt and he campaigns to give back a long lost quality and style to objects of surf – hence his recent collaboration with Colette, for the trendy boost. Never married, without children, Jonathan Paskowitz has kept the heart of a hippy and the speech of a seducer. The family surf camp still exists but the situation offers a lot less freedom.
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