You’re Probably Not Wondering Why We Made Brother, Griff, And Crane Dye Their Hair For Surf100

With very few exceptions, most of Stab‘s conceptual efforts have fairly sound reasoning behind their more out-there ideas. 

A Why, as it were—a narrative string, or attempt at problem-solving, or a question asked and an attempt at an answer, etc. 

For instance, The Dock: Can you rethink catching waves in the age of the step-off. Stab in the Dark: Can you really definitively find The World’s Best Surfboard? The Electric Acid Surfboard Test: to see what the world’s most progressive surfers look like on, for lack of a better word, alternative designs. The Pick-Up was an irreverent, twice-weekly effort to hoist the Triple Crown (and the subsequent happenings on the North Shore,) back to its rightful cultural position. 

So why, exactly, did we talk Ian Crane, Kolohe Andino, and Griffin Colapinto into dying their hair for our inaugural Surf100 event? 

Peer pressure. 

Crane-O in Smurf blue.

Photography

Will Stiles.

Brother in jet black.

Photography

Will Stiles.

We always knew there’d be a need for some easily identifiable markers if our poor filmers (11 angles, btw) were going to be able to reliably spot our talent amongst the hundred bobbing heads in the midday Lowers lineup. The initial proposal was simple: rail sprays to match a color hit on your wetsuit. 

Then Ian Crane texted our colorful group text for the project:

“We should dye our hair the of the board.”

Seemed like an effective enough method to identify our surfers amongst a near-triple-digit crowd. So just like that we were off and running. We left the forecasting to Lower’s self-proclaimed guru Brother Andino, while the boys chose their shades. Crane-O immediately chose blue. Why? 

“I’m blue. If I was green I would die.” 

The night before the event, after Event Director Brother Andino made the definitive call to run, we swung through San Clemente with a lovely hair stylist named Victoria. Griffin and Crane can pretty much joust swords from their respective homes, so we started the dyeing process at Griffin’s and moved on down the line, Brother second, and Crane-O last (worth noting that all surfers were thoroughly manipulated into agreeing to dye their hair save for Crane. Our sincerest apologies to their sponsors for interfering with any creative direction around your athletes.). 

We conducted our preshow Lowers inquisitions while Victoria ran streaks of color—or whole globs of black, in Kolohe’s case—through the boy’s hair. 

The resulting interviews tell the story of one of California’s most dynamic triumvirates, and the hi-fi playground they call their backyard. 

Event Director Kolohe Andino.

Photography

Will Stiles.

Dead fuckin sexy, blonde eyebrows be damned.

Photography

Will Stiles.

Bubbles Colapinto and Victoria.

Photography

Will Stiles.

Pregame Ian fuckin Crane.

Photography

Will Stiles.

You’d be right to believe Kolohe Andino might have relished, if only slightly, in letting us play on the darker sides of his, um, egoes (or lack thereof, these days).

Photography

Will Stiles.

Crane’s flouro blue dome mid-tint.

Photography

Will Stiles.

Get your tickets for Thursday night’s live broadcast, and find out more details about our experimental 100-minute wave riding demonstration, here.