OH S’NAP: RED PANTS AND RAY BANS
This week’s “Oh S’nap” post goes to the guys. It takes guts to wear bright red pants on the city streets but this style-setter makes it look easy. Add some Ray Bans and well placed layers and he looks almost as good as that pizza.
For a change to be featured in our Friday Oh S’nap post, upload a straight-forward, full body shot (we can’t judge a look without soles) to our Street Style page.
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ROLE MODEL: SURF AND SERVICE
You might not ever think to put the words “surf” and “change the world” together in the same sentence; surfing, you’d say, is a diversion. A sport. A recreational activity. Changing the world? A deliberate act of altruism. No sports, diversions, or recreation involved.
In 2008, surfer dude Sam Bailey changed all of that. Sam had recently returned home from traveling through Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. He was jarred by the loss of culture resulting from foreign investment and monopoly in many once small and stable fishing villages. So he did something about it. He created Eco Surf Volunteers.
Now, a vacation isn’t just a vacation for Sam. Sam Bailey has taken the concept of volun-tourism and made it cool. Like surfer-dude cool. Combining volunteer work with tourism, Sam says, is becoming more popular as more people become aware of our environment’s fragile state. “But people want to learn something as well,” Sam says. “It’s not just, ‘Hey let’s go down and build a classroom. It’s about forming a relationship and respect, both with the people and with the culture.’”
The current goal of Eco Surf Volunteers is to use their manpower in Canoa, Ecuador to work with community leader Daniel Velasco to create a local foundation run entirely by native residents. The foundation, which would be targeted at high-school aged natives, hopes to create a four-year program for students to learn to achieve success in the hospitality industry, allowing kids to take ownership of local hostels, restaurants or surf shops. Upon completion of the program, Sam hopes to award each student a full scholarship to an Ecuadorian University.
“I’ve heard that volunteering is ‘so cliché,’ ‘one man’s effort to save the world.’ But hearing the children ask us when we’ll return is not cliché. Seeing the tears well up in the eyes of our volunteers as we drive out of town, kids lining the streets waving good-bye, is definitely not cliché…There’s nothing cliché about what we’re doing. This is all very real,” says Sam.
And change is indeed being made. With help from Sam and his troupe of volunteers, Canoans receive a little more help every time another wave hits the shore.
Surprisingly enough, most of the participants in Sam’s program have never even set foot on a board. “I figured most of our volunteers would come from major surfing backgrounds, but it’s been the other way around. We typically get about 75 percent beginners and 25 percent experienced surfers, which is a great mix…Experienced surfers enjoy the empty line-up while the rest take advantage of daily surf lessons.”
Eco Surf Volunteers is proving, every day, that a vacation doesn’t have to mean sitting around on a beach tanning all day, daiquiri in hand, but also that volunteer work doesn’t have to be—and shouldn’t be—a grueling, unpleasant experience. If you’re willing, it’s not hard to kill those two birds with one stone. “You know, there’s that classic scene in Good Will Hunting where Robin Williams says how Matt Damon could probably say a whole lot about Michelangelo and his…works, but he couldn’t tell him what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. It’s so simple but so true - the learning opportunities made possible from cultural immersion experiences are impossible to re-create,” says Sam.
Swim over to the Eco Surf website to find out more information and apply for one of the Eco Surf Volunteers’ many projects.
–by Hannah McCartney
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HEALTH & FITNESS: FREEZE FOR LIFE
Polar Bear Club move over…there’s a new crowd sharing the cold water. “Freeze for Life” is a combination of diverse water sports and dedicated athletes who brave frigid waters in order to raise money for cancer and educational charities. The event started in December 2008 at the Riviera Dock in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and grew exponentially with time. This past year ripper Mark Ruck man handled some small waves in the cold waters of Wisconsin while being towed on his longboard behind a Mastercraft towboat, bundled up from head to toe with only his eyes visible. Lucky for him, after his surf sesh, there was a steaming hot tub beach-side waiting for him at the end of his “heat”. Ruck warmed up to prepare himself for his heady jam session later that night at the Freeze for Life after party downtown Lake Geneva. Even the landlocked find a way.
–via Jessica Bush
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IN THE MAG: CYNTHIA ROWLEY
Since taking up the sport nearly a decade ago, fashion designer Cynthia Rowley has become an enthusiastic- not to mention stylish- member of the east coast’s surfing scene. Last September Rowley was one of the judges at the New York Surf Film Festival, and this spring she’s launching a 40-piece collection, a flirty and chic medley of surf-inspired streetwear mixed with street-inspired surfwear, in collaboration with Roxy. While traces of surf-inspired elements can be seen in Rowley’s past collections, this is her first full-on tribute to surfing life. And with style this fresh, neoprene just might become this season’s hottest fabric.
To read the full interview, head over to our digital edition or pick up a copy of Foam.
–Interview by Laura Neilson
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OH S’NAP: PLASTIC PANTS
Skin tight leather leggings, tie-dye crew neck, cross-over bag, and white shades. This girl’s style is the epitome of “effortlessly cool” with a pinch of playful.
To have your look featured in our Friday “Oh S’nap” post, submit your photos to our street style page using our easy uploader tool (don’t see it? Scroll down the page a bit). Make sure the shots are full body and from the front. We’ll choose our favorite look of the week every Friday.
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SPIN OUT: APRIL/MAY PLAYLIST
Feeling dreamy? Dancey? Sexy? Our current playlist has you covered.
-Cristina Black
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IN THE MAG: KESHA
It takes Kesha about five mintues to start talking about boys. Seriously, she’s mid-sentence when her gaze pans off to the right. “What is that…thing?” she asks, peering out the window. It’s not an object or even an animal out on the sidewalk. It’s a human being, a young male specimen, hair tousled, clad in slim black pants and jacket, with a tailored shirt open at the chest. Probably European, definitely sexy. “I’d like to take a bite out of that,” Kesha says, narrowing her glitter-spangled eyes on her prey.
We’re actually here, at a cafe in New York City, to talk about Kesha’s new album, Animal. It’s number one, it’s breaking records, it’s making her a Lady Gaga-level star, blah blah blah. That stuff is clearly secondary to her well-honed interest in hot male ass. And when you think about it, the record itself, led off by the stupidly catchy smash single “Tik Tok,” is mostly about men and the pursuit thereof. Also: booze.
Read more about the pop goddess in our digital and print editions.
–-Cristina Black
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DIY: GIVENCHY INSPIRED HEADBAND
For this month’s DIY, we recruited guest blogger Anni Jurgenson, the mastermind behind Style Hurricane. She’s a stunning trendsetter and fashion blogger from Estonia who has been featured by Refinery 29 and Teen Vogue for her DIY creations, which include her own line of brilliant zipper jewelry. Oh, and did we mention she’s 14?
DIY Givenchy Studded Headband
At the moment I saw that Givenchy studded headband I knew that is was p-e-r-f-e-c-t for a DIY project!
What You’ll Need:
-Basic fabric covered headband
-5x 1/2″pyramid studs
-6x 5/8“spikes
-Piece of leather or leather imitation fabric
-Fabric glue or hot glue gun
-Tape measure and ruler
-Tailor chalk
-Scissors
Optional:
-Bronze spray paint
-Leather hole punch
How to Make It
1.If you want to create the ultimate Givenchy look, first spray paint your studs and spikes bronze.
2.To be sure of how much fabric you’ll need by measuring how long the band is. Mine is about 14 1/2″ (37 centimeters). The width of the fabric should be two times bigger than the width of the widest part of the headband. The width of my headband is about 1 inch (2.5 cm) so the width of fabric is 2 inches. Cut out the fabric.
3.Use the ruler and mark the center point of the fabric piece. Also draw a horizontal line and mark the places where are you going to put the studs and spikes with tailor chalk. Leave least 2 3/8“ inches (6 cm) free on the sides.
4.Now start studding. (Create holes for spikes with hole punch. I don’t have a hole punch so I used scissors.)
5. Place the fabric on the headband with the glue. Fold the extra fabric inside the headband.
The coolest headband in the world is now ready!
-Johnie Emma Gall
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