Monday, September 7, 2009

The Mollusk

Couldn't think of any medical thing to write about this week, so thought I'd write about some of my other favorite things: art and surfing. These two are nowhere more beautifully combined than in The Mollusk, my favorite surf shop in the world. If you are in San Francisco I strongly recommend checking it out. I think they have shops in Venice CA and New York also, but SF is the original as far as I know.

The Mollusk is so refreshing in its aesthetic treatment of surfing. Most popular glossy surfer mags are a battlefield of images and advertising, each trying to outdo each other with neon, lightning bolts, and over-the-top, in-your-face, Red-Bull macho aggressiveness. Maybe it's a NorCal/SoCal thing, but the Mollusk seems to take a more mello attitude towards their art, dress, and probably the way they surf. While glossy mag surfers get their boards from the mass-produced epoxy bargain warehouse, your typical Mollusk surfer probably made their own board, a single fin fish or even an alaia. Glossy mag surfers wear electric yellow rash guards and punch out locals at the most crowded spot on the beach, while Mollusk surfers probably keep a secret spot up on the Humboldt coast for naked sessions by full-moonlight. Whether it's shortboards or logs, local break or foreign trek, the Mollusk emphasize everything I love about surfing culture--grace, relaxation, beauty, and humor (SEA KAT!).

I'll through a few shoutouts to the artists and bloggers associated with that crowd, so you can see for yourself what I mean:
Thomas Campbell (go see The Present if you can)
Serena Mitnik-Miller
Ryan Tatar
Hydrodynamica
Nate Russell
Andy Davis

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