More than snowboarding, skateboarding, rock climbing or any other extreme pursuit, surfing occupies a niche in our cultural psyche that extends far beyond its participants. It’s thanks to the blissful naiveté of Spicoli, and the no-holds-barred attitude of Bodhi, not to mention the marketing efforts of a multi-billion dollar industry, that surfing has achieved a romanticism that makes living in a van by the beach not just admirable, but aspirational.
Matt Titone’s new book, Surf Shacks Vol. 2, manages to simultaneously reinforce and defy surfing’s engrained ideals. Its 200-plus pages provide momentary views inside the homes of figures well-known and obscure who both shape and are shaped by wave-riding culture. Some exude cohesion in their construction, as if made for the pages of interior design magazines, while others unabashedly bear the charm of their mess.
The very existence of these homes challenges the image of the board-toting vagabond, and Titone is clear-eyed about that: “While I chase waves where and when I can, the truth is I spend most of my days at the studio in front of a computer screen,” he writes in the book’s introduction. It’s not hard to imagine that many of the occupants of these so-called shacks might echo that sentiment. Nevertheless, there’s something mystically inspiring about putting up walls and filling them with ephemera, whether the view beyond them includes an ocean horizon or not.
Price: $60.00 $49.21
Jeff & Kara Johnson — Santa Barbara, California
Matt TitoneThere’s a lot to be jealous of at the Johnson’s refurbished California A-frame. Jeff attributes the interior to Kara, and it’s plain that the natural playground outside, which includes rope swings and a wall for bouldering, comes from Jeff, who spends much of his time photographing and storytelling for brands like Patagonia and Roark Revival.
