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It Doesn’t Not Work II

Photography by Tim Schutsky
Text based on Interviews by Johnny Knapp

ALBERT SHELTON Recycled trash handlplane.

On a beautiful blue-skied weekend in April 2015, twenty-five East Coast surfers unloaded their weirdest, most unusual surf crafts into Picture Farm Gallery in Brooklyn. The boards ranged in terms of both shape and functionality—they included work-in-progress projects and tried-and-true formulas. Appropriately titled It Doesn’t Not Work and curated by Brooklyn-based surfers Tyler Breuer and Toddy Stewart, the event hoped to encourage creativity and experimentation among local surfers—even if those experiments wouldn’t always objectively be called ‘successes’. After all, innovation doesn’t happen without a few failures. Here we’ve compiled a few of our favorite boards from the show. 

JEFF TAYLOR, Various Swallow-Tails

Perhaps Taylor summed up the spirit of the event best when he explained that the forms and proportions for his board came from “My ignorance and curiosity.”

 

CHRIS JOHNSON, Hollow Wooden Mini-Simmons
DANNY CALLAGHAN (d.Cal), Pinecone Stretchpin, Nub

The Pinecone Stretchpin “is 5´8˝ and I’ll use it on the biggest and hollowest days the winter has to offer in New Jersey. I loved having [the Nub] to whip around in small waves and really enjoy pushing the limits of noseriding on it. “

MARK PETROCELLI, FAKTION SURFBOARDS, Five-Fin Bonzer (Detail)
J SCOTT KLOSSNER, Mini-Simmons & Fish

The Simmons was made to be shore break safe and was inspired when ‘some kook broke [Klossner’s] fins off…again!”

MARK PETROCELLI, FAKTON SURFBOARDS, Five-Fin and Three-Fin Bonzers

“The surfing of Russ Short and the surfboard design of the Campbell Brothers”

JAN DROJARSKI, Alaia-inspired Surfboards and Handplanes

Inspired by pre-industrialized oceanic cultures and raw athleticism, Drojarski wanted to explore the relationship between control and speed. He sourced the finest materials available in the world, including a linseed oil produced by a family-run manufacturer in Germany, locally harvested beeswax and Pennsylvania-grown Paulownia. The boards are made without the use of electric tools or lights.

RICHARD DENNIS, Deep V-Tail

Dennis found inspiration for this board from both the USS Enterprise and Lieutenant Commander Spock.

ANTHONY ROMANO
DAVID EDGAR, JR., Step-Up

Winter surfing inspired this design — Edgar wanted more foam to compensate for heavy winter wetsuit surfing.

CHRISTIAN BOALT TOKEN SURFBOARDS
KRIS CHATTERSON, Mini Longboard

The artist, surfer and regular contributor to WAX, wanted to create something more streamlined that would fit in the waves at Rockaway and would allow for quicker turning. What he ended up with was, in his words, “an egg and log hybrid.  A Legg so to speak.”

ALBERT SHELTON, The Breadsled

The idea came to Shelton while on the job as an art handler, observing “industrial amounts of waste made by the fine art industrial complex. Somehow I found all [the materials] within 4 blocks… in an hour.”

JACQUES BERIAU, Fish, 2 +1 Egg, Mid-Length

“I designed my schoolie fish model to be ridden from top-to-bottom and to be constantly put on-rail.”

WAX SURF CO., Various Shapes
WILL ROSE, Diamond-Tail Thruster
EVAN BOYLE CHERRY BLOSSOM SURFBOARDS, Various Longboards
MICHAEL 'MIKE MING' MIYAHIRA, “Stubbies, Fatties, Cheaters and hopefully a cheater/ripping/slashing/thrashing/gouging/throwing buckets vehicle.”
MIKE LUKENS, Various Wooden Longboards
WOOD CRÜE, Alaias, Paipos, Handplanes

“Shaping and riding these alternative and sustainable surfcraft have deeply enhanced our relationship with the ocean and created unique friendships between us.”

KYLE BLACK BROOKLYN SURF CO., Mini-Simmons / Hyto-Krypto Inspired Shapes

“I have High hopes of back pressure spirals and Fibonacci contours squeezing every last drop of juice out of these nectarines in the name of fun.”

This story originally appeared in Wax Issue 7.