On Style

The poet said, “Style is at its best when artfully responding to need.” The designer said, “Elegance is elimination.” The architect said, “Form follows function.”

Let’s run this photo through those filters: Did the surfer need to be flying at full pelt? Did he need to go so far away from the hook? Did he need to leg-lock this wave into submission? Did he need to overcome a mainland shortboard’s characteristic snap-oversteer? 

A recent Gallup Poll said, “Yes.”

Pete Mendia’s surfing is not a hummingbird’s courtship dance. A power wagon of a surfer, Mendia was never marked by need to add embellishment. No look-downs. 

No tube stances when not tubed. 

No mid-ride adjustments to his coiffure.

Shown here at Rocky Rights in, oh, 2006 (based on his trunks), he’s enacting a turn that should have nearby surfers belaying any thoughts of dropping in. Historically, there have been plenty of Surf Muscles on the North Shore. Few—few visitors, at least—have displayed this sort of audacity. If any Aspen Highlands snowboard carvers are paging through, this is how one truly commits.

[Feature image by DJ Struntz]