When I visited The US Open of Surfing this year I was really inspired by the photos of Deanna and Ed Templeton. The couple has released at least one book featuring images of young kids who get their bodies signed by action sports athletes and although I didn’t see any signatures during my trip, I spotted a lot of things written on kids’ stomachs like “Free Hugs” and “Slap My Ass.” It made me think about the people as the art and the sand as the canvass, as opposed to a walking through a traditional gallery environment. And there was definitely a variety of characters cruising along to make a wondrous palette from — including a shirtless elvis and plethora of bad tattoos. However, the funniest [and intentionally so] piece was on a young dude wearing a speedo that had “Confidence is Sexy” written on his backside. Hurley even has a live mural wall going for the whole week of the competition, which is definitely one of the highlights of the art going down at the event besides my esoteric reasons to people watch.
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