Page 79 - Montenapoleone

Although he has never ridden the wave, Jim Helmann, surf world understood as lifestyle. All divided into f ve chap-
anthropologist, brilliant illustrator and collector, seems to ters marked by a chronological order and accompanied by
know the surf culture very well, ever since the age of twel- brief essays by the most experienced journalists, but not
ve, spent his days watching the surf guys on the Southern only, because surf has also made inroads in the f eld of
California beaches where he grew up. And Helmann has illustration, music, f lm, design and fashion. And by the way,
no doubt that right the years of his formation, the legendary it is in the news that the sport of Kings has charmed even
sixties, have to be considered the golden age of a sport Victoria Beckham. The former Posh now f rmly at the helm
destined to become a real philosophy of life, inf uencing of her own fashion brand, for the Spring Summer 2016 col-
different artistic and creative areas. Nothing must have se- lection presented in New York, does not give up beautiful
emed more natural then for the executive editor of Taschen artistic prints inspired by the surf. “I absorbs everything of
America, who created for his publishing house “Surf ng. all my travels” conf des Ms. Beckham, riding the wave of a
1778 - 2015”, a majestic volume of 600 pages in which col- contemporary style, in a sign of femininity in a perfect ba-
lect, through a story in Images with a strong visual Impact lance between elegance and practicality. It’s not a surpri-
- more than 500 pictures collected in two and a half years of se then to know that even the New Zealand surfer Danielle
painstaking research - more than two hundred years of hi- Clayton has founded her own brand Salt Gypsy, launching
story and culture of the sport of Kings. And never def nition the wave leggings, in lycra/spandex with UV f lters and qui-
would seem more right, considering that was in the Hawaii ck-drying to protect the body from the sun, as well as from
islands that eight hundred years ago the surf achieved a the reef pitfalls and from jellyf sh stings. Who knows what
cultural identity, and that the Kings of the archipelago soon would think today Captain James Cook, who in 1778 was
made it the off cial sport. Since then the board has become the f rst Westemer to witness a surf ng exhibition sailling to
a way of understanding life, and it is precisely this aspect Tahiti. “The reason of this sport is fun - he wrote - is not
that has fascinated Heimann, who wanted to celebrate the about tests of skill and with good waves is understandable
big adventures, in and out of water, of the great reef of the how it should be pleasant”. Thus was born the surf ng tribe.

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