s / s

14

Spr

ing

/ S

um

me

r 2

014

pat

ien

ce

in collaboration with WaX magazine

On patience

When Levi’s® made and crafted™ first approached us to collaborate on a publi-cation that would tell the story of their Spring / Summer 2014 collection, we were thrilled to envision how the experience of urban surfing and creative practice (the topics of our own magazine) might intersect with finely made clothing. We looked to the clothes for inspiration and were struck by the attention to detail and craftsmanship found there. These things, which take both time and care to develop, ultimately led us to the theme of this publication. after all, aren’t details simply a physical manifestation of the word patience? We, at WaX magazine, know a few things about patience. as new York surf-ers, we practice it regularly. We wait for trains. We wait for elevators. We wait for swell. But all that practice doesn’t make it easy. everyone struggles with the idea of patience (even those of us reluctant to admit this out loud). Waiting, going slow, taking your time, doing things right — these can all be extremely difficult. But, like all challenges, there is a payoff in the end, if only you have the persistence to let it come to you. come it does, in many forms: a hard-earned solo session, the crafting of a beautiful object, the construction of a well-made garment. What you have in your hands is the result of our collaboration: a lookbook (with an editorial voice); a magazine (inspired by an iconic brand). it is equal parts WaX magazine and Levi’s® made and crafted™, designed to celebrate the clothing, the people who wear it, the pursuits they enjoy and the time it takes to reach a place of excellence. after all, as the saying goes, good things take time.

Sincerely,aeriel, David, Zak (Founders, WaX magazine)

creative DirectOrS

aeriel Brown David Yun Zak Klauck

cOntriButing eDitOr

abbye churchill

cOntriButOrS

andy Byersabbye churchillJeff Dinunziorob KulisekJeremy LiebmanJohn Lukepavla nešverováJason Walkercarmen Winant

Levi’S® art DirectOrS

matt Wrightparul Sharma

aBOut the patternS in thiS puBLicatiOn

pavla nešverová is a former organist-turned artist. a czech native, her work

has appeared at numerous galleries throughout europe. to create the patterns, nešverová took scenes from two classic surf films —The Fantastic Plastic Machine (1969) and Sea of Joy (1971) —and manipulated them in the program max (a visual programming language for sound and video).

WaX magazine is a bi-annual print publication exploring the intersection of art, culture and surfing in and around new York city. each issue shares the stories of area surfers, artists, designers, authors and auteurs — all organized around a unique theme. www.readwax.com

One hundred and forty years ago, Levi Strauss invented a simple blue jean that would forever change the way america, and the rest of the world, dressed. Levi’s® made and crafted™ builds on this legacy by designing tomorrow’s classics using today’s best materials and con-struction techniques. www.levismadeandcrafted.com

I LIStENINg

6 MIKEY & LISA by Abbye Churchill

18 IN thE SKYby Jeremy Liebman

24 FIrSt WAvE by John Luke

II WAtChINg

36 INtErLuDEby rob Kulisek

38 WALKINg rOCKAWAYby rob Kulisek with Jason Walker

52 SAND ShOrESby Jeremy Liebman

62 SECOND WAvEby John Luke

III WAItINg

82 turNINg tIDESby Carmen Winant

86 trY, trY, trY AgAINby Jeff DiNunzio

94 SKY MEEtS SEAby Jeremy Liebman

102 thIrD WAvEby John Luke

From Sky to Sea

WAX Magazine spoke with two of Levi’s® Made and Crafted™ designers, MILES JOhNSON and AYLIN BEYCE, about their process and inspiration for the Spring /Summer 2014 collection.

WAXThe inspiration for the collection came from the word surf and the phrase, “where the sky and the ocean meet.” how did the design team arrive on this concept?

AylinSurf is such a wonderful jumping off point, isn’t it? It’s a word that immediately creates an impression, yet it’s still loose and lends itself to interpretation — there are so few words like that. You can go in so many directions. We were all very interested in things like the hypnotic pull of the moon on the earth or the tides or the texture of sand. Interpreting surf this way felt very fresh. This is how the phrase came about.

WAXhow do the designers, as a team, follow through on a concept like this from idea to final product?

AylinWe start by collecting images that define the phrase in our minds. In this instance, we pulled images of the horizon, moon charts, tide charts…

MilESthen, we started thinking about how to incorporate our impressions into the clothes. For instance, we started thinking about techniques like salt-washing or wind-drying or incorporating reflective or iridescent patterns.

AylinFor the fabrics, we looked to light, playful colors one might see at the beach — corals, aquas or ‘sun’ yellow. We balanced those more vibrant

colors with a pallete of silver grey, white and shades of indigo.

WAXAre there specific pieces that stand out for you as being particularly representative of sand, surf or sky?

MilESAlmost all of the pieces have a strong link back to the story, but I particularly like the sun fade effects we’ve done and the dry-textured, handmade feel to some of the fabrics.

AylinThe theme naturally lends itself to a lot of visual expressions. You’ll notice that all of the graphics in the collection reflect waves or the gradients of the horizon. The denim trucker jackets, for example, were constructed with different shades of blue to create an indigo tidal gradient. We also spent a lot of time thinking about about how the various fabrics might react to the elements found at the beach. We asked ourselves, ‘What happens to denim in the sun, sand and saltwater? What elements does fabric let in, what elements does it protect us from?’ We let these ques-tions guide both our washes and how we constructed the clothing.

WAXIt’s funny you should mention the gradated patterns and lines. They are some of our favorite details in the collection. Can you talk about how they came about? What inspired them?

MilESThe gradated pattern and line graphics really summarize the collection. They are — quite literally — our visual interpretation of where the sea meets the sky.

WAXWhen you design, who do you see in these clothes?

Aylinthe collection is versatile. It can be worn to the beach or, when just

daydreaming about the beach while running around the city.

MilESThe clothes are fun and sophisticated. The clothes are just as easy to wear off the sand as on it.

2 3

Introduction Contents

ListeningI

4 5

Mikey & Lisa

talking style, surf and the art of

filmmaking while waiting for swell in

Montauk.Photography by rob Kulisek / Interview by Abbye Churchill

Patience

6

Mikey & Lisa

7

AbbyE ChurChill:With homes in Brooklyn and Montauk, how do you divide your time?

MikEy DETEMplE:Lisa’s always out here [in Montauk] on her days off. During the warmer months, I’m pretty much in Montauk full time. In the wintertime, the waves dictate when I’m out here because it’s pretty boring if there aren’t waves.

AbbyE:It must be nice to have a sense of the city life and then this bucolic escape.

MikEy:Oh, it’s the best. Doing what I do would be pretty difficult if I wasn’t able to mix the two.

liSA MyErS:I love going out to Montauk. It lets me do what I want to do in life. Before, I was actually thinking of leav-ing New York in general because I just wasn’t happy. I lost my purpose. having surfing and Montauk in my life is so much healthier.

AbbyE:how do you negotiate those two worlds?

liSA:It’s difficult because I want to be out there so much. I’m constantly thinking about being out being there, looking at the surf report. When I have my days off out there, I have Mikey waking me up at six in the morning. I can’t wait one second.

AbbyE:Mikey, going back in time, how did you first dis-cover surfing? I read that when you were little, you preferred going to the beach but you didn’t want to get in the water. What was the “ah ha” moment for you when it all came together?

MikEy:the beach has always been a part of my life. My parents met surfing in New York in the ’70s. I grew up going to the beach but I hated the water. It was always a terrifying thing to me. I used to spend a lot of time with my mom at the beach. She got me to let go of the fear and go out on my own. I would boogie board every day, all day long; my dad would

Mikey Detemple wasn’t always so enamored with surfing. growing up on Long Island, and raised by a surfing family, the sport was always in Detemple’s consciousness, it just wasn’t something he participated in. But that all changed when he turned twelve. today, he’s a pro surfer with numerous titles and the owner of a film production company, high Seas Films, which explores the luscious imagery and exotic locales of the sport. Detemple has, very firmly, made surfing his way of life. Detemple proudly calls New York his home. Well, his two homes, to be exact. to satisfy his waterfront habit, Detemple and his girlfriend, Lisa Myers share a cozy place in Montauk, right in the heart of the Long Island surfing community. And, to satiate Myers’s lifelong passion for fashion (she is currently at Stella McCartney; previously at Lanvin), the dynamic couple share a second home in Brooklyn. It is a balancing act to be certain — between city and country life, between fashion, film and the surfing lifestyle — but one which both have embraced with open arms.

Patience

8

Mikey & Lisa

9

Patience

10

Mikey & Lisa

11

haze me for it. “I can’t believe you’re boogie board-ing. Why don’t you just stand up?” then I found his first surfboard in our garage. I thought, ‘I would feel pretty cool bringing this thing to the beach.’ I never touched the boogie board again after that.

AbbyE:Were there any pieces of advice that your parents, as veteran surfers, passed along to you?

MikEy:My dad always instilled in me how important style was with surfing. there was a point where I was trying to win everything I could win and he was like,

“Whatever you do, don’t lose your style.” that was something that really stayed with me throughout my entire surfing career and beyond: the importance of style. that’s translated to everything, I think.

AbbyE:Lisa, has Mikey given you any nuggets of wisdom to help with your surfing?

liSA:In the beginning, he would try and push me to go out when the waves were a little bigger than I was comfortable with. he was like, ‘this is how you learn.’ the waves weren’t big for him, but big by my standards. I prefer to go out when it’s my baby waves because I can pay more attention to my technique. Now, I’m selective about when I go out, what the day’s like. Every time I go out I feel like I’m learning. But, I want to learn more. I want to get pushed more. It’s also just fun to be out there with Mikey because he loves it so much and I want to be a part of that.

AbbyE:Mikey, how did you transition from your love of surfing to making films? When did high Sea Films start?

MikEy:It all came together on a trip to the Maldives in 2006. I was there with a couple guys from Australia and a photographer. It was one of the most amazing trips I’ve been on. And, no one was recording. I thought, ‘this would be such a crazy trip to shoot on film.’ I had a video camera with me; I shot video the whole time. And, I just thought, ‘I’ve got to go on trips and start shooting video of all these places.’ the next year, every trip that I did, I brought a video guy with me. I wanted to make a film not necessarily

about what I did alone, but about the trips that I went on and who I went on them with and what we did together. And, that was how my first film, Picaresque, was made.

AbbyE:You shot your first film, Picaresque, on 16mm film and then your follow up, Sight Sound on a combina-tion of film and digital. how do you like working with both formats?

MikEy:visually, I love the feeling that film gives. But now I’m a fan of digital, too. there’s no way I’d be able to make these shorts [I’ve been doing] if I were shoot-ing them on film unless I was getting thousands of dollars every time. Digital lets me actually do stuff, while keeping the cost low and still making beautiful images.

AbbyE:Lisa, have you gotten the bug? have you gotten any desire to begin making films from watching Mikey work?

MikEy:that’s such a good question. I like that question.

liSA:Yeah, for sure. When Mikey is making a film, I stay with him late into the morning. I have become attached to the process. When we went to Costa rica together, he let me shoot some footage. We keep talking about doing it more, but when the waves are good, it’s hard to be anywhere else. I would definitely love to get into it more.

MikEy:She’s a natural at it.

AbbyE:I can’t wait to see the first collaboration.

On Mikey: Parka / Peacoat. Crew Fleece / White Multicheck. One Pocket Shirt / Brilliant White Oxford. tack / Lagoon.

 — On Lisa: turnout Blazer Jacket / Blue Sapphire. Endless Shirt / Blue Sapphire Ditsy Waves. Marker / Spirit.

Patience

12

Mikey & Lisa

13

Patience

14

Mikey & Lisa

15

Patience

16

Mikey & Lisa

17

In the Sky

Photography by Jeremy Liebman

Patience

18 19

Delivery One: November – DecemberPa

rka /

 Pea

coat

. Cre

w F

leec

e / W

hite

Mul

tich

eck.

Patience

20 21

In the Sky

Bom

ber J

acke

t / Im

peri

al B

lue

Sued

e. B

ow t

ie / 

Blu

e St

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Blu

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tac

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ea B

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 / B

lue

red

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 / B

lue

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rew

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chec

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ack 

/ Sea

Bre

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tur

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acke

t / B

lue

Sapp

hire

. E

ndle

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hirt

 / B

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hire

Dit

sy W

aves

. Em

pire

 / M

otio

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Patience

22 23

In the Sky

First Wave

Wom

en’s

tur

nout

Bla

zer J

acke

t / B

lue

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hire

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ever

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.

Wom

en’s

tur

nout

Bla

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acke

t / B

lue

Sapp

hire

.

Photography by John Luke

Patience

24 25

Delivery One: November – December

Wom

en’s

Bea

u B

oyfr

iend

 / B

lue

Swel

l.M

en’s

Nee

dle /

 Spl

inte

red.

Wom

en’s

Bea

u B

oyfr

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 / B

lue

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l.h

and

scra

ped

and

spon

ged

finis

h.Patience

26 27

First Wave

Wom

en’s

End

less

Shi

rt / 

Blu

e Sa

pphi

re D

itsy

Wav

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100%

silk

fabr

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Wom

en’s

Bre

aker

tun

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Blu

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ed W

aves

.D

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wav

es p

atte

rn.

Patience

28 29

First Wave

Men

’s B

ombe

r Jac

ket /

 Impe

rial

Blu

e Su

ede.

100%

goa

t sue

de.

Men

’s B

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r Jac

ket /

 Impe

rial

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ede.

Patience

30 31

First Wave

Men

’s Pa

rka /

 Pea

coat

. Lea

ther

inte

rior

pla

cket

.

Men

’s O

uter

wea

r: P

arka

 / Pe

acoa

t. M

ac C

oat /

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Fog.

B

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ket /

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Blu

e Su

ede.

Lea

ther

Bik

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acke

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lue

Bla

ck.

Patience

32 33

First Wave

34

II

35

Watching

6:00 6:30

8:00 8:30

10:00 10:30

7:00

9:00

11:00

7:30

9:30

11:30

Photography by rob Kulisek

Patience

36 37

Interlude

Walking rockaway

the distance from Brooklyn is so

close, it’s walkable, but getting there

takes stamina and a little bit of

tenacity.Photography by rob Kulisek and Jason Walker

Phot

o by

rob

Kul

isek

.

38

Patience

39

Walking rockaway

Phot

o by

Jas

on W

alke

r.

Phot

o by

rob

Kul

isek

.

40

Patience

41

Walking rockaway

Phot

o by

rob

Kul

isek

.

Phot

o by

Jas

on W

alke

r.

42

Patience

43

Walking rockaway

Phot

o by

rob

Kul

isek

.

Phot

o by

rob

Kul

isek

.

44

Patience

45

Walking rockaway

Phot

o by

Jas

on W

alke

r.

Phot

o by

rob

Kul

isek

.

46

Patience

47

Walking rockaway

Phot

o by

Jas

on W

alke

r.

Phot

o by

rob

Kul

isek

.

48

Patience

49

Walking rockaway

On Jason: trucker Jacket / Stonebleach. regular tee / Blue Dash. Needle / Splintered. 32oz Denim Bag / Selvedge Denim.

Phot

o by

rob

Kul

isek

.

Phot

o by

Jas

on W

alke

r.

Patience

50 51

Walking rockaway

Sand ShoresA

ngel

s Sho

rt S

leev

e Sh

irt /

 Sto

ryti

me

Blu

e.

Photography by Jeremy Liebman

Patience

52 53

Delivery two: January – February

tru

cker

Jac

ket /

 Mid

Was

h. W

omen

’s Fa

r Out

tan

k / C

orn

Silk

Dit

sy.

Pool

side

Ski

rt / 

Stor

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e B

lue.

haw

aiia

n Sh

irt /

 Mul

ti W

aves

. LM

C t

ee / 

Star

Whi

te.

Dro

p O

ut P

ant /

 Den

im.

Patience

54 55

Sand Shores

Bay

Dre

ss / 

Bri

ght A

qua

Dit

sy.

Kni

t Car

diga

n / B

lue

Sapp

hire

. reg

ular

tee

 / r

ed W

hite

Blu

e. S

poke

 / La

goon

. Patience

56 57

Sand Shores

haw

aiia

n Sh

irt /

 Mul

ti W

aves

. LM

C t

ee / 

Star

Whi

te.

Ang

els S

hort

Sle

eve

Shir

t / S

tory

tim

e B

lue.

Pin

s Cro

pped

 / C

loud

y W

hite

Ble

ach.

Patience

58 59

Sand Shores

Luxe

Shi

rt / 

Whi

te. r

olle

r tan

k / S

tar W

hite

. Mar

ker /

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wou

t.

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ting

Str

ipe.

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ton

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n Sh

irt /

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heck

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d.Th

umb

tack

Cro

pped

 / r

igid

.Patience

60 61

Sand Shores

Second Wave

Men

’s D

rop

Out

Pan

t / D

enim

. Dra

wst

ring

wai

stba

nd.

Wom

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tru

cker

Jac

ket /

 Mid

Was

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ast s

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s of d

enim

.

Photography by John Luke

Patience

62 63

Delivery two: January – February

Wom

en’s

Ang

els S

hort

Sle

eve

Shir

t / S

tory

tim

e B

lue.

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Pool

side

Ski

rt / 

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oon

all o

ver p

rint

.Patience

64 65

Second Wave

Men

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ulti

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Patience

66 67

Second Wave

Luxu

riou

s Sil

ks fo

r Wom

en: F

ar O

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ank 

/ Sug

ar C

oral

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Wom

en’s

Luxe

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te. S

oft c

otto

n vo

ile.

Patience

68 69

Second Wave

Men

’s Th

umb

tack

 / r

igid

. Cop

per r

ivet

s.

Men

’s Th

umb

tack

 / r

igid

.Patience

70 71

Second Wave

Wom

en’s

Mar

ker /

 Blo

wou

t. r

ippe

d an

d re

pair

ed.

Wom

en’s

Mar

ker /

 Blo

wou

t.Patience

72 73

Second Wave

Men

’s B

laze

r / B

oati

ng S

trip

e. In

teri

or p

ocke

t.

Men

’s g

radi

ent P

atte

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Bre

ton

tee /

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pphi

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trip

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n D

own

Shir

t / A

mer

ican

Bea

uty

Wav

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eve

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lue

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ckbo

ard.

B

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own

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t / B

lue

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n g

rada

tion

. But

ton

Dow

n Sh

irt /

 Blu

e C

heck

boar

d.

Patience

74 75

Second Wave

12:00 12:30

14:00 14:30

16:00 16:30

13:00

15:00

17:00

13:30

15:30

17:30

Photography by rob Kulisek

Patience

76 77

Interlude

78

Patience

79

Interlude

III

80

Waiting

81

turning tides

unraveling the relationship

between the moon and our maritime

experiences.

We turn the tide, are tided over, drift with the tide. These linguistic meta-phors for the continual rise and fall of the ocean have been harnessed by writers the world over to describe romance, life force (or respiration), renewal, temperament, the steadiness of life and also its inevitable disappointments. The Oxford dictionary defines the tide as a powerful surge of feeling, which is perhaps the most astute understanding of the phenomenon I’ve ever heard. Most non-experts are aware of the relationship between the moon and the tide, and they usually agree that it seems almost metaphysical. It’s easy to figure that gravity, proximity, lunar phases, atmosphere, solar system, eclipses, magnetism, relativity, mass, the earth’s axis and its distance to the sun play a part in how the sea rises and falls, but the physics are more uncertain. how do the sea and the sky communicate and transmute energy? Like any dependent relationship, symbiosis is complicated and uneven; they both need one another, but in very different ways. The story is complicated so I’ll make it simple: the moon orbits around earth and together they rotate around the sun. As it rotates, the moon pulls at the earth—like a magnet in search of a reverse charge—trying to draw it ever closer. But the dense satellite is no match for our planet, which is three times larger and exerts ten million times the gravity. We hold on. What the moon can do, the only thing it can muster with its limited gravitational force, is attract the water. Water is harder to hold onto than land (perhaps you’ve noticed that you can’t catch it?) since it’s not rooted and is always moving. Oceans appear to bulge at the horizon line not only because the earth is round, but in fact because they are reaching away from the ground and towards the moon. Another slightly more subdued bulge, called a ‘sympathetic bulge,’ occurs on the side of the earth not facing the moon. And throughout this routine choreography, the earth never ceases to rotate on its axis,

“The tides, when the Moon swung closer, rose so high nobody could hold them back. There were nights when the Moon was full and very, very low, and the tide was so high that the Moon missed a dunking in the sea by a hair’s-breadth.”

—Italo Calvino, “The Distance of the Moon”

text by Carmen Winant

Patience

82 83

Waves take time

causing inconsistencies in the sea level as it reaches shore. These are tides, as we know them: every twelve hours and twenty-five minutes (as the moon is also rotating along with the earth), oceans on both sides of the globe rise and fall, rise and fall as whole oceans are stretched and released, stretched and released. I’ll return to the sun here, which is often left out of the story as it has less gravity than the moon and is also a little less sexy, a little too brassy. When the moon is big and ripe—a full moon, for instance—it’s because it has aligned with the sun relative to the earth and formed a single, straight line in outer space. As a result of level positioning, the moon’s magnetism is combined with that of the sun, which also pulls at the earth with distant gravitational force. On those nights—called ‘spring tides’—high tides are very high and low tides are very low. The sea is wild and bridled all at once. It’s an invisible lure, a pitch frequency, a siren song. Four times a year the sun and the moon stand at a right angle to one another; they are perpendicular to one another with regard to the earth. These are quarter moons and they cause ‘neap tides.’ During these episodes, the “bulges” in the ocean cancel one another out, and the high and low tides are very, very weak. Perhaps you’ve noticed. here’s a story about the spring tide and the neap tide: In the twenty-nine year history of Alcatraz, the water-bound penitentiary, thirty-six prisoners attempted to escape from the island and cross the mile and half of water to shore. Of them, only five men remain unac-counted for, all of whom fled at night. unlike the others who relied on tricks and diversions, it is reported that these men studied the San Francisco Bay. They understood, somehow, that the moon (it’s shape, it’s size, it’s relative closeness to the earth) profoundly affected the water’s swell, and the tides were their only real chance of absconding to freedom. They patiently observed from their cell windows, these old and young men—many of them feared gangsters, though a few petty criminals—that when the moon was full, the Bay was at its most wild. After waiting until the just right evening, the prisoners took their leave of that place only when they could be carried out. The water that held the prisoners captive on that rock was the only agent that could set them free of it. how did they know the time was right? A powerful surge of feelings. An innate sense. A strong attraction. It’s metaphysical that way.

Phot

o by

rob

Kul

isek

8584

Waves take timePatience

try, try, try Again

in a Brooklyn warehouse,

surfboard shaper David Murphy

proves that perseverance (and unconventiality)

pays off.Photography by rob Kulisek / text by Jeff DiNunzio

Patience

86 87

try, try, try Again

That Murphy grew up skateboarding in dried out pools in backyards in land-locked texas is about the only detail of his life that may have suggested a career making surfboards was unlikely. he’s been working with his hands for most of his life. he learned to sculpt in grade school and continued as a student at hampshire College in Massachusetts, worked as a carpenter building frames for homes, and made films and arranged theatrical lighting. utilitarianism is a living doctrine in his life. And Murphy is, most certainly, useful. In 1997, after hopping freight trains across the country to capture scenes for his final college docu-mentary film thesis, Murphy arrived in New York City. “I moved into a

warehouse space in DuMbO for a hundred-fifty a month, splitting it with three guys, no heat,” Murphy remembers of his first primitive home in the city. he then squatted across the East river in Lower Manhattan before returning to Brooklyn, always keeping his hands active — once in a minor fit of protest, building transmitters for community pirate radio stations. Murphy’s functional cunning, however, is not limited to inanimate objects. Nearly fifteen years ago, he blew out his back skateboarding. he tried everything other than surgery and drugs; nothing helped. he limped on. Murphy visited a guy who prac-tices what he does now, “and after one session I wasn’t limping anymore,” a healed Murphy recalls. “I walked

out of his office, got halfway down the block, and sort of rearranged my life. Said, ‘That’s going to be my next career.’” It’s called rolfing, named for Ida rolf, the Columbia university Ph.D. who discovered the therapy method more than fifty years ago. She understood the body as a network of integrated tissue rather than simply a collection of individual compo-nents — and that gravity will eventually exacerbate imbalances in the body, leading to pain and decreased flex-ibility. According to the rolf Institute of Structural Integration in Colorado, rolfing essentially links chiropractic adjustments — which focus on the skeleton — and massage therapy that targets muscles by incorporating

David Murphy is pacing behind a curtain. Throughout his fourth-floor workshop, air constantly swirls in unseen patterns, carrying with it a din of white noise — occasional exhales of a paint sprayer and the hum of the AC in the back corner window that peers south over the rest of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The trim, six-foot-two Murphy applies even coats of clear resin to protect the smoky navy blue deck of a nine-foot longboard. he strides and sprays in equal measure. Another few layers and an hour later, he’ll flip the board over and repeat the same steps on the bottom. Meanwhile, there’s always something to be done. While each clear coat dries, he continues mixing resins. Much like the ocean, where for the last six years his custom, handmade and often atypically shaped surfboards have carved the waves of south shore Long Island, David Murphy is always in motion.

Patience

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try, try, try Again

elements of both. Athletes, dancers and children are just some of the estimated one million people who have benefitted from rolfing therapy. And including Murphy, whose back troubles have long inhibited his physical activity, surfers too. rolfing, Murphy told me, also seeks to foster a perceptual change in the way patients observe their bodies in the space they occupy — connecting mind and body. From that, rolfing may ease chronic pain and improve freedom of movement. It saved Murphy’s life. So much so that a decade ago, he traveled to remote north central Washington, slightly east of the Cascades at a bend in the Methow river, to train at the Institute of Structural Medicine. If the few Yelp reviews are any indication, Murphy provides five-star handiwork. he rehabs clients three days a week,

“and the rest of the time I’m in my shop.” As in rolfing, Murphy seeks balance, and for him that comes in the form of building surfboards for repaired bodies to ride. Back at the shop, the faint grays streaking through his burly beard are easier to spot in the bright light, and in the soft shade of a MacBook scroll bar, the cool blue of his eyes is magnetic. The shop noticeably lacks the pungent stench of chemicals — of the polyester often used to glass surf-boards. That’s because Murphy uses the least harmful materials possible to construct his vehicles: recycled EPS foam, repurposed wood, water-based resins. Spray paint is about the worst product in Murphy’s shop. A dozen boards stand in varying degrees of completion along the racks against the wall. the cork-boards catch my eye — as they do many of New York’s surfboard geeks. Not long ago, Murphy’s curiosity drew him to investigate cork as a viable surf-board building material. he noticed northern California shaper Danny hess incorporating cork in his designs, and found a guy in Florida doing the same thing. So Murphy tried himself, binding cork decks to the bodies of his foam boards and sealing them under layers of fiberglass. Now he’s experimenting with exposed cork decks; the resin beneath the cork

seals it to the board, but the top is not laminated. No wax required. “Cork is the ultimate composite material,” explains Murphy. “It’s lighter, it’s cheaper, it’s more impact resistant, it’s easier to work with, it gives a really nice flex pattern.” The boards look like nothing I’d ever seen — much to the delight of his customers. Murphy never set out to make a business of building surfboards. he was dissatisfied by an alaia (a thin wooden board with no fins) made by California’s Jon Wegener. the handyman naturally asked himself the obvious question: why not just make my own? Friends who rode Murphy’s personal boards soon wanted their own, which Murphy sold under the label Inner Circle. As his renown grew, so too did the perceived pretension of his brand name. “New York feels like this weird backwater, where I’m picking it up as I go along,” Murphy, who never worked as an apprentice like other shapers, says of learning the craft. From that attitude came a suggestion from a friend for a more compelling, inclusive label: Imaginary Surf Company. Murphy’s approach landed him a small retail deal in downtown Manhattan. he had been shaping wooden handplanes for bodysurfing at the time he met Josh rosen — one of the three owners of the boutique Saturdays Surf shop in the city. Murphy stopped by, got talking to rosen. rosen remembers seeing Murphy later surfing at rockaway Beach, riding one of his cork-boards.

“We chatted about it for a bit and that’s when I learned that he shaped boards, as well as handplanes,” says rosen. Shortly after, Murphy’s handplanes arrived on Saturdays’ shelves. Murphy’s boards, however, are harder to find. he makes almost all of them to order, although a few exist at a shop in the hamptons and a Patagonia store in Japan. Murphy meets many of his clients like he did rosen. Corey Smith, a lithe, tattooed 22-year old transient who grew up surfing in Florida and moved to New York a year ago, met Murphy at a party in February. The pair hit it off, and surfed together a week later when the next

frigid winter swell arrived. “I surfed one his boards, this egg-shaped quad,” Smith recalls. “It worked really well, but it was a little big for me.” Murphy built a board made of paulownia wood for the shorter, lighter Smith.

“I’ve ridden it three times. It’s going to be a great summertime board, really strong,” Smith says, anticipating New York’s small wave season. Murphy plans to halt his hand-plane production after the summer to focus on making stock board shapes and to continue experi-menting with designs. “I’m hoping to come out with a series of templates based on nACA foils,” Murphy reveals. the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics — a precursor to nASA — was formed in 1915 to help the u.S. compete with Europe’s burgeoning aviation industry. nASA absorbed the agency in 1958, but not before nACA produced a series of airfoil designs to apply to airplane wing construction in the 1930s. Murphy believes he can translate those calcu-lations into surfboards that perform as well as any. It’s that mentality, an unrelenting curiosity, the ability to assemble success from failure and elbow grease, that carries Murphy. Be it sculpting, hardwiring radio transmitters, or healing bodies, Murphy knows his most effective tools are his hands, which can only be powered by his mind. Who knows if in the future surfboards will exhaust him? If they do, there’s little doubt he’ll tackle his next venture with the same precision. When I head for the door, Murphy pulls his mask back over his bristly beard, and returns his attention to the longboard, only a few laps from the finish. The spray gun fires again as I walk down the hall. I make a note to pay attention to the man behind the curtain.

On David: Classic Shirt / Indigo Flowers. Drop Out Shorts / Indigo Big Weave.

—On Chris: Big Shirt / Star White. Spoke / Khaki.

Patience

90 91

try, try, try Again

Patience

92 93

try, try, try Again

Ang

els S

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Sky Meets Sea

Photography by Jeremy Liebman

Patience

94 95

Delivery Three: February – March

Ang

els S

hort

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eve

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righ

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e.Patience

96 97

Sky Meets Sea

Cla

ssic

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low

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ke / 

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Patience

98 99

Sky Meets Sea

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less

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100 101

Sky Meets Sea

Third Wave

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Photography by John Luke

Patience

102 103

Delivery Three: February – March

Men

’s D

rop

Out

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rt / 

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eave

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omen

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. All

natu

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fabr

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Patience

104 105

Third Wave

tye

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esso

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: Ind

igo

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vas B

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Patience

106 107

Third Wave

Indi

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Patience

108 109

Third Wave

Men

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ts / 

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Patience

110 111

Third Wave

Fit guideM

en’s

Big

Shi

rt / 

Ligh

t Blu

e.Patience

112

Pins Skinny fit, low rise, skinny leg

Pins Zipper fly opening, 7 1/2” front rise,

13 3/4” knee, 10 1/4” leg opening

010

90

010

90

114

Front

115

Back

EmpireSkinny fit, mid rise, skinny leg

Empire Zipper fly opening, 9” front rise, 13 3/4” knee, 10 1/2” leg opening

Empire CroppedSkinny fit, mid rise, skinny leg

Empire CroppedZipper fly opening, 9” front rise, 13 3/4” knee, 10 1/2” leg opening

tenderSlim fit, low rise, bootcut leg

tenderZipper fly opening, 7 1⁄5” front rise,

14 3/4” knee, 18 1/2” leg opening

0114

0

1149

201

092

0114

0

1149

201

092

Pins CroppedSkinny fit, low rise, cropped leg

Pins CroppedZipper fly opening, 7 1/2” front rise,

13 3/4” knee, 10 1/4” leg opening

130

03

130

03

116

Front

117

Back

MarkerBoyfriend fit, mid rise, tapered leg

MarkerZipper fly opening, 9” front rise,

15 1⁄5” knee, 12 3/4” leg opening

Slim ChinoSlim fit, low rise, tapered leg

Slim ChinoZipper fly opening, 10” front rise,

15 1/2” knee, 12 1/2” leg opening

Beau BoyfriendBoyfriend fit, high rise, tapered leg

Beau BoyfriendZipper fly opening, 10 1⁄5” front rise,

16” knee, 13 1/4” leg opening

0181

0

1119

013

090

0181

0

1119

013

090

FluteSlim fit, mid rise, straight leg

FluteZipper fly opening, 9” front rise,

14 3/4” knee, 14 1/2” leg opening

1120

0

1120

0

118

Front

119

Back

tackSlim fit, regular rise, slim leg

tackZipper fly opening, 10 ⅝” front rise,

16 1/4” knee, 14 1/2” leg opening

0508

1

0508

1

120

Front

121

Back

rulerStraight fit, regular rise, straight leg

ruler Button fly opening, 10 3/4” front rise,

18” knee, 15 3/4” leg opening

NeedleNarrow fit, regular rise, skinny leg

NeedleZipper fly opening, 10 1⁄5” front rise,

16 1⁄5” knee, 13 3/4” leg opening

ShuttleSlim fit, mid rise, tapered leg

ShuttleZipper fly opening, 11 1/2” front rise,

16 ⅞” knee, 13 ⅞” leg opening

Cutterrelaxed fit, mid-waist, straight leg

CutterZipper fly opening, 10 3/4” front rise,

19” knee, 16 1/2” leg opening

5910

959

090

0505

559

118

5910

959

090

0505

559

118

122

Front

123

Back

Spoke ChinoSlim fit, regular rise, slim leg

Spoke ChinoZipper fly opening, 10 1/8” front rise,

17” knee, 14 1/2” leg opening

Drill ChinoStraight fit, regular rise, tapered leg

Drill ChinoButton fly opening, 11 3/8” front rise,

18 3/4” knee, 15” leg opening

Thumb tackSlim fit, regular rise, slim leg

Thumb tack Button fly opening, 10 3/4” front rise,

16 1/4” knee, 14 1/2” leg opening

Drop Out PantLoose fit, regular rise, dropped crotch,

tapered leg

Drop Out PantZipper fly opening, 13 3/8” front rise,

17 ⅝” knee, 14 1/4” leg opening

590

7305

131

5912

105

136

590

7305

131

5912

105

136

124

Front

125

Back

126 127

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