Alright, so the obvious, why did we decide to do this whole thing? Beyond not being able to sit still.

Well, our lives seemed to always have a thread of juxtaposition. Whether it was splitting time between the City and the Island or being athletes and artists in school, our real talent was covering a wide spectrum of passions and interests. That being said, surfing and art always felt intertwined. A perfect blend of preparation, practice, and chance. Luckily, we found a way to do both.

Truck. Bed. Boards. More like - what do we do with all these handplanes? In all seriousness, you've been flipping boards way before HSC was a thought in our minds.

Truck Bed Boards was definitely the first step - but I never imagined it would turn into what we have now. Admittedly, I didn't really know that I was taking a step towards something, but I dove in head first regardless. In 2015, I was living in Virginia Beach and had ingrained myself into the local surf community. There were a ton of lesser-known shapers who needed a wider audience, so I reached out to as many as I could and began collecting their boards to bring them up North - thus, Truck Bed Boards was born. And yes - the handplanes - sore subject.

We definitely should've kept a few of those boards. It's only fitting that selling our favorite one happened to coincide with THE drive.

Yeah, I never thought a drive to Riverhead in summer traffic would ever be considered THE drive, but it really was. We were tossing around ideas about how we could improve our small business model - not that you can call driving boards up North and then driving all over New York to find them good homes much of a business model. The surfing part we had down, but as two artists, we wanted to try to weave our art and surfing together. How could we actually have a business that incorporated both?

I feel like you're going to answer that for us.

Yes, yes I am. It was really our version of the napkin. We had some scrap paper and a sharpie in the car buried under those old cassette tapes and countless other artifacts still holding on by a thread of nostalgia. It took one draft. One name. One logo. Simple. Clean. To the point. Hamptons Surf Company. Big square. Two surfboards. Boom. Had we not been driving all over the state delivering boards, frustrated by all that traffic, the idea never would have crossed our minds. This is probably the best and only idea to come out of Long Island summer traffic. We do not take it for granted.

Alright, let's talk about the first big purchase that really made this a reality.

I'm assuming you're talking about the twenty foot trailer?

It's the biggest thing we've purchased so far.

So far. Well, confidence was obviously at an all time high. Not only did we get a makeover thanks to our new name and logo, but people seemed to like the idea. We started small because we really didn't have any product. Using our social media account, we would promote other artists we admired from the East End of Long Island. Some were friends, others were acquaintances, but we wanted to establish our new brand as one that helped people. With the little money we had from Truck Bed Boards, we decided our best investment was to purchase that twenty foot trailer. In hindsight, we were stupid, but it was fun. The outside featured a rotating list of local artists creating colorful murals, while the inside was home to a surfboard shaping bay and dark room. It was a full-fledged studio on wheels that put our name on the map.

So that fully function surfboard bay...

That probably needs to be addressed. I decided it was time that I put my degree in Sculpture to use and start hand shaping some rides. Luckily, it went okay and we've been churning out boards ever since. With this new found skill, we wanted to find a way for the two of us to collaborate that wasn't oversaturated beach photos on the walls of tiki bars. My shapes, your photos. Add our all-star glasser, Matt Leverett, and our first Photo Board series was born. We created six in 2016 and luckily sold them all in a matter of weeks. We were finally in business.

And yet, you wanted to be a clothing brand.

If we learned anything in Iceland, you and I switch sides in this argument quite a bit. I don't know if we hate complacency or just don't like being bored. We definitely hadn't conquered the Photo Board process by any stretch of the imagination, but we wanted to take on a new challenge. With our brand becoming more recognized, we thought the apparel was probably the way to go. We both did some graphic design and took a printmaking class or two in college - how hard could it be? We bought a screen printer and materials from a nice retired art teacher, watched a bunch of YouTube, and decided we were read. Dead wrong. It took us well over a year to feel comfortable giving *free* clothing to people who we had known for less than a decade. Shockingly, some people still wear their first editions.

The infamous free pizza and beer "modeling shoot."

Still talked about to this day and definitely not because of the clothing! After a thousand test shirts, we probably had about ten we were happy with. That was good enough to invite our friends over some subtle bribery and modeling. If they hated the clothing, we probably would've called it quits. Fortunately, the reviews were strong and the more beer and pizza consumed, the more ideas were flowing.

Let's talk about Mom.

You're right, we should probably talk about Mom. We're definitely lucky to have supportive parents, even luckier that they have some skills of their own. A skilled seamstress in her own right, we knew that we had to get Mom involved. We had Photo Boards, clothing, wildly unsuccessful handplanes, but we needed more. In the same vain as the Photo Boards, Mom went to work creating our first Photo Bags. Taking your images and having them printed on canvas fabric, Mom sewed forty eight unique bags in 2016 alone. The only product we've ever made that has sold out before even being released. Leave it to Mom.

Two brothers and their Mom - people loved it.

As great as that was, we knew it was time to extend out from at least the immediately family. We started reaching out to artist friends and other artistic connections to see who was interested in working with us. The emphasis was on collaboration. Hamptons Surf Company was built on the idea of intertwining interests and passions. With that in mind, The Collective was born. Our group started off small, but continues to grow each year. We strive to work with individuals and groups who share our vision for art as a vehicle for change - not just pretty pictures.

I realized I'm not really asking you any questions - some interviewing style. What else did you see HSC doing?

More. As simple as that. Hamptons Surf Company began as our way to give back to a community that gave so much to us as artists, surfers, and individuals. As we continued to grow, our reach expanded and so did our influence. We quickly realized that we actually could make a real difference with the right plan of action. As a result, we decided to donate a portion of the sales of each project to charities hand-picked by members of The Collective. With the idea in mind that the world's waters connect all of us, our hope is that HSC, with the help of our partner charities, will act as a vessel for change.