Bruce Brown movies, Brian Wilson songs, LeRoy Grannis photographs, Dick Dale riffs: surfing isn’t just a sport, it’s a culture unto itself, one that has exported a daydream vision of sun, sea, and salt air to the world. These days, a surf-culture renaissance has been transcending the familiar iconography of woodies and longboards. Take a moment to look up the illustrator Andy Davis, the photographer Elizabeth Pepin Silva, and the painters Greg Miller and Peter Dayton. Or check out the films of Thomas Campbell, whose hypnotic Sprout and The Seedling—the heirs to The Endless Summer—are imbued with atmospheric soundtracks that veer from jazz to indie and beyond. They were the inspiration for this playlist.
So here’s to the next wave, beyond the Surfaris and Chantays: a collection of surferly songs for the 21st century, stokage guaranteed.
Mark Rozzo is an Editor at Large for AIR MAIL
