Gotta admit, Surfing and ‘Surf Culture’ has never really done it for me.
Don’t get me wrong I love Point Break as much as the next red-blooded male, and I dig that Pet Sounds is a damn good album, beating anything the Mop Tops ever did.
However the Beach Boys were far cooler to my mind when they were the simple ‘Pendletones’ (a knowing reference to the woolen shirts popular at that time, and still today).
For me you can keep your sunshine and sand of Cal-i-forn-I-A, the flip-flopped full resorts of Rock and Cornwall, and the Brad Willis types from Oz.
It’s all a bit ‘hot and happy’ for my dour nature.
Even as an impressionable teen, as contemporaries got over excited by Quiksilver and Billabong I’d only be interested in some of the Ocean Pacific ski jackets.
If they were navy.
Or even better grey.
See, miserable bugger me; and surfing said ‘nowt to me about my life’.
Well surfing’s just taken a bit of an upturn in my mind; mainly due to the output of Cool, Cold Water Surf brand Finisterre.
Cold Water Surfing…the name pretty much sums it up.
Hard, tough, and done for love, not looks.
But what it has spawn is ‘surf wear’ that pretty much fits in with how we like to dress today. Forget the bright graphic tees and floral board shorts. What Finisterre give us are high performance, understated, quality gear that’s as at home in the gritty, winter urban environment as it is on the windswept beaches of the North sea.
Recently welcomed onto the roster at ‘Proper’s Pals’ Oi Polloi, you’ll find a couple of ace knits, a beautifully bold sweat, and stand out piece for me, a reversible over shirt / jacket (*refrains from calling it a ‘shacket’*).
The Beaufort Reversible Insulated Shirt Jacket is made of 80% cotton & 20% merino wool, one side giving you a herringbone cotton shirt; whilst the other provides a Primaloft nylon ripstop fabric coated with a water-resistant sheen. Subtle branding and press stud fastening finish it nicely.
Check out the range at OiPolloi or have a butchers at the Finisterre website.
2 Comments
Here, here Karl! (Neil)
As a surfer, there is room for a cold surf company and the legendary Oi boys. It’s about the cut, the selvedge, the tones and St Agnes ethics, give them both a visit, not many of us get a chance to step off, look back on the world, only thinking and looking to the horizon.
Nothing better than wearing Norse and Patagonia to the beach, nothing worse than wearing quik or billagonewrong, it’s a swell partnership.