Michael Dunphy Searches For Paradise Three Times

Paradise. It’s a state of mind.

To some, maybe it’s two-foot and offshore and it sounds like a commercially successful Bob Marley song and it tastes like an acai bowl and it uses the word “manifestation” un-ironically. In public settings, too. 

To Mick Fanning, maybe it’s a wild right with nobody around in a country that still enslaves people or possibly a peaceful corner of the globe that nobody’s ever thought to graze. Maybe it’s both. Maybe it’s just driving the internet insane.  

But, to many of us, paradise is boardshorts, blue water, and a consistent peak that really does beg to be painted with rail. The simple things, right?

Michael Dunphy pleads so. 

Dunphy took some time in the past year to go searching for his idea of paradise. His efforts lead him to Bali, Bocas Del Toro and a beautiful little speck in the Caribbean. And that, in turn, lead him to a lot of painting with rail – all of which you can admire here. Paradise may be subjective, but damn does this look good. 

PS – You miss seeing an air reverse every wave? Nor did we. 

Filmed by Layne Stratton, additional filming and edit by Jon Hechtkopf