We wanted to see what Ando and Friends were up to and how things were going down south. These guy's are always creating beautiful stuff and we are always excited when a box shows up at Aqua Surf Shop. Here is a quick check in with Andy Davis and some photos of Ando gear and art.
When, where and why was Ando & Friends started?
Ando & Friends was born in the fall of 2006. It had two homes, Cardiff and Costa Mesa California. Cardiff was where myself and two of my partners dwelled, and Costa Mesa was where our other partner and our showroom (Andoland) warehouse and offices were. One of our partners was Jeff Kelley from Sanuk sandals. I had known him for a while and he and his partner Ian Kessler approached me and wanted to know if I wanted to start another clothing brand. I had two other clothing brands prior to Ando & Friends, FREE and Byrd. After a few months of talking and negotiating Ando & Friends started.
Who have been your influences in both art and surfing?
I have had many influences in art and surfing. Here are a few in both categories. Art: Dr. Seuss, Margaret Kilgallen, Alexander Girard, and David Weidman. Surfing: Curren, young Wayne Lynch, Greeno, Alex Knost, Neal Purchase, and Tyler Warren. Way too many to name man!
WAVE SET TEE
What music are you currently listening to that gets you amped to surf and create your art?
It just depends on my mood I guess. Let's see the last time I painted, yesterday, I was listening to the Smiths I think.
What have you currently been working on? Are you doing any shows or events in the near future?
I am currently working on a few different projects. We just finished a window display at Patagonia and I just started working on a new one for a store called south coast in ocean beach (sandy ego). We are finishing our holiday line and I am starting to storyboard our Spring/Summer 2010. That sounds like Jetson's shit. CRAZY! No shows for a little bit, next year sometime.
Do you create the poses, waves, and characters in your art and clothing from actual surfing moments? (Such as pictures or video footage) Or do they come from your memory in the water?
The weird lanky humans I create come from all sorts of things. Day dreaming mostly, actual surfing memories too. Books and movies find their way in there from time to time as well.
SLASH TEE
Where do you like to surf and what type of board/boards are you stoked on?
Usually I surf close by my house, little shitty out of the way beach breaks and a couple little nooks that come to life from time to time. I like to ride all sorts of stuff. Not really any thrusters anymore. I have not ridden them for about 14 years. They were all that I ever used to ride and I was not having as much fun anymore so I started trying everything else. The board I am really stoked on at the moment is a 5'6 Larry Mabile twinzer. It's beat up as fuck, super delammed, but it still goes good.
INSIDE OUT HAT
What lies ahead for Ando & Friends?
What lies ahead for Ando & Friends is to keep supplying the stoke. We are starting our kids line, I have a four-year-old son Noah and he is my inspiration. We will be doing more with our very talented young family member Tyler "Pickle" Warren. More in the Friends Depo with Jeff Canham, he lurks in your neck of the woods. Having fun with our new website, being blogheads! We are also working with new factories trying to have all of our products becoming as organic as they can be. It takes awhile and we are still learning.
INSIDE OUT HOODIE
Thanks a lot to Andy Davis for giving Aqua his time and input. Look for Ando & Friends Spring and Summer 2009 apparel in our shops this upcoming year. Check out their website at www.andoandfriends.com. All the best to them and thanks for keeping things fresh.
Hello Aqua faithful!! This is the first of many buyers blogs coming at you. This initial entry is aimed at showing you curious folks out there where and how Aqua gets its gear and goodies. Well the answer is the magical world of ASR, where reps, shops, groms, pros, and pro um... ladies get together and appreciate the action sports industry. Here are some pics of some of our close friends in the representative world displaying there freshest gear for the Spring 2009 season. Enjoy!!
HURLEY PHANTOM GETS BOARDIE OF THE YEAR!!
Here is our good buddy Avery showing you the insane stretch of Hurley's Phantom boardshort. This upcoming Spring 2009 Hurley will be offering the Phantom technology in the entire boardshort line. SICK!!!
DRAGON GOES 80'S FLASH WITH THEIR GLASSES
Dragon glasses were looking on point and you can bet we'll be stocking some of these bad boy's for all you hipsters out there at Aqua's Haight location. Wear a pair of these to your next 80's blowout and you won't be going home empty handed.
LOST GOES BIG AND ALWAYS HAS!!!
Here is another one of our close friends Mr. John Tillery who is representing Lost Enterprises and a million other brands. Lost has always been on the forefront of ridiculously rad style, as you can tell by John's shirt and hat combo. And if you haven't seen Lost's boardshort advertisement with the Mexican hombre's posing as the WCT's top dogs then your missing out.
RVCA KEEPING COLORS ALIVE!!
Nate is demonstrating how not all ASR clothing companies are providing the baggy pant, logo tee, bro gear you come to expect from us surf/skate folks. RVCA is always pushing the fashion limits while keeping art and play a main focus in its clothing.
ELEMENT AS BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL AS EVER!!
This is our close friend Mark holding up a boardshort that Occy should have been shredding in the 80's. But Element is bringing it to you this Spring so watch out!! Check out our Element gear at both Aqua locations.
I'LL END THIS BLOG WITH SOME SURFBOARD EYE CANDY
The Agave Board was shaped by Gary Linden. It was very light and looked like it would surf great, but if you ding it the board sucks and holds water really fast. Agave is a desert plant and wants to hold and retain as much water as possible. The Bessell boards were unreal as well. The carbon fiber technology was insane!
Thanks for checking in and hope you dig the above info.
George Nixon
THEY ARE BACK..........
Hey "Retrobots" the Oakley Frogskins are back! Oakley broke out all of the Original Tooling from the 80's to re-create Limited Edition Frogskins in wild array of colors. With only 3,000 pairs released for nationwide distribution, these styels are selling Fast! So if you want to look like World Champ Surfer Tom Carrol, or simply own a piece of History, Aqua has these Limited styles available..........
Matuse 4.3.2 Hoplight
The cut of the suit is different, and it takes some new moves to slide into, which at first (just like no one could get into neck entry suits at first either) is a little tricky, but with a little instruction- becomes no problem. I’ve been wearing my Matuse 4.3.2 (It’s 2mm in the arms) for nine months now, and I’m pretty amazed at how it seems to be holding up. It has been the most flexible and light wetsuit I have ever owned. We all remember how damn chilly early January 2008 Ocean Beach was! I would put my Matuse on in the morning thinking, “This suit is way too thin and light to keep me warm!” But as I walked deeper into the sea, all I would feel is the pressure of the water surrounding me, not the COLD! That is partly because the cell structure of this unique (Geoprene is unique to the Matuse brand) neoprene is much denser then common neoprene, so not nearly as much water is being absorbed, giving you a warmth and lightness factor that I have not felt before. Is the suit the warmest ever? That is what some people claim- but I would simply say the wetsuit has kept me plenty warm for the duration of a regular session (to me this is 2 hours), but what makes me excited is the performance, my arms feel light and free, and I feel I can move more easily in the Matuse suit- which keeps me happy. Below is taken from Matuse’s website to give you more info about their uncommon neoprene.
WHY THIS YAMAMOTO RUBBER IS BETTER
The Big Picture
More Flexibility.
Matuse’s strategic panels and Yamamoto Geoprene combine to enable flexibility that’s even superior to that of the human body.
More premium performance.
More endurance: Energy is conserved since the body’s thermostatic line remains at a balanced level. This means longer and more fulfilling sessions.
More Warmth; Less Weight.
Yamamoto’s technology means thinner rubber is warmer rubber. It not only weighs less, it also allows athletes to focus on the right issues (like better surfing), and fuss less over the wrong ones (like being cold, uncomfortable—and performing like a wet noodle).
More incentives (to surf), less excuses not to.
It gives you more reasons why and less reasons why not.
The Details
Yamamoto Geoprene is the Ichiban
Standard, old-fashioned neoprene is petroleum-based: It's messy, it's hazardous-it goops up sea otters. Yamamoto Geoprene is derived from limestone that's 99.7% pure. And the purity of its limestone source - an ancient misty Mesozoic mountain - is also why Geoprene is so top notch.
Yamamoto Corporation has long been making rubber from a special polymer produced from rocks. Yamamoto estimates that their reserve of limestone will last approximately 3,000 years. Compare that number to the earth's dwindling supply of oil (as well as the astronomically high price per barrel) and you have a pretty good idea as to why Geoprene is not only better performing but also much more sustainable.
As with any product, how it performs according to its intended utility is paramount. On this note, the intended utility for wetsuit rubber is to keep you warm, light, comfortable and happy. Moreover, hopefully your wetsuit rubber performs long enough so that you don't heave it onto the scrap heap within 3-6 months of buying it.
Well, Geoprene gets an A+ for it's ability to fulfill its intended utility. This is because of its unique independent closed microcell structure.
To break it down, on standard suits, if a cell is connected with another-and if a wall of the cell is broken, the performance of rubber becomes largely lowered. Yamamoto has succeeded in making the perfectly independent cell (perfectly closed cell) into a micro unit. In essence, every cell in your suit has "the other cells' back." Keeping things tight like that.
This last point means that your suit will keep you warmer longer (meaning less wasted biomass as well).
In any case, because of this unique independent closed microcell structure, Geoprene keeps you warmer, lighter and just as flexible. These are some of the reasons why Geoprene puts a beatdown on standard, kitchen-sponge-like neoprene.
This rubber doesn’t suck
Unlike standard neoprene, Yamamoto rubber doesn’t suck up water. Yamamoto’s closed cell content is over 93%—23% higher than most competing materials. And with virtually no water absorption, the weight of this rubber remains nearly identical in wet or dry conditions.
This rubber has gas—and that’s a good thing
Each independent closed cell is filled with Nitrogen gas, enabling excellent thermal insulation and optimum heat retention.
This rubber backs itself up
Yamamoto’s uniform microcell structure ensures that if your suit’s surface gets scratched, new independent concave microcells are exposed to ensure continued functionality.
This rubber’s got more stretch than your own skin
Yamamoto's maximum elongation is 480-530%. The human skin's greatest elongation—found in the armpit—is only 60-70%. Even better, Yamamoto rubber never gets stretch marks.
This rubber’s got 3-DIS (i.e. 3-Dimensional Intelligent Skin)
Yamamoto applies this state-of-the-art technology to every foam compound. In addition to the "Regular Carbon Black" application, Yamamoto applies "Spherical Carbon Black"—which disperses all force loads: stretch, elongation, pressure and compression. Yamamoto also includes a "FE Polymer" which prevents self-curing and reduces aging (i.e. hardening) that affects inferior foam rubber compounds.
Also to get more feedback visit the Design Forum on Surfingmag.com where plenty of people seem to be talking about Matuse. Click Here
Visit Matuse at http://www.matuse.com
Cool new kicks from one of our favorite Illustrators Michael Sieben. Sieben has designed a slick colorful Adidas Superskate original. Brett, Matt, Andrew and the others from Juice design (those design nerds perched atop the Kilowatt) were behind this cool Adidas short featuring Michael and his creations. Check it-
Also doodle skate master Mark Gonzales has doodled the classic Adidas stripes on the new Doley Slip.
Get em at our Haight St location- this our limited-we don’t have many!
