As the original mastermind behind the “. . .
lost” surf boards that began showing up a few years ago, Drew Brophy gave new life to the almost forgotten art of surfboard illustration. From the very beginning, young Drew was building a name for himself, not only as a surf artist, but also as a local hellman in the big surf. In high school Drew worked as an airbrush artist, hoping to save up enough funds to pay his way to Hawaii. His hard work paid off, allowing Drew to catch his plane to the topical Islands shortly after his high school graduation . Drew found that his southern accent made him stick out like a sore thumb, but he made up for it by fearlessly taking on some of the biggest mavericks that an angry Pacific ocean could throw at him.
His custom board designs also where making a stir at the beach side, but sadly, not so much with the board shapers . The classic white board and curren rail bands were the current fad, and shapers where leery to use Drew’s unconventional illustrations. As if rejection wasn’t enough, Drew suffered a major wipe out that left him disabled for over 3 months. Unable to work, Drew packed up and moved into his friend’s garage in San Clemente. This seemingly tragic event actually would turn out to be the starting point of Drew’s career.
Noticing a few illustrated boards under the arms of some local gromits, and having recovered the use of his arm, Drew looked for the creator of these boards in hope of finding a job. Directed to the San Clemente Surf Company, it was here Drew first met local shaper Matt Biolos. Shortly after he was hired, Drew convinced Matt to let him run his shop while he was on a business trip in China. Given free reign of the shop, Drew went wild, creating fantastic and beautiful illustrations of sunsets ,surf and sun gods. Drew’s boards flew off the shelves and stared the .
. . lost surfboard craze. Drew finds his inspirations from many surf artist , such as Rick Griffen, Robert Williams, and Rick Rietvela, but most of his inspiration comes form watching the Hawaiian surf, sand and sun.
Drew is a self taught artist who although accepted to many art schools, couldn’t afford to go. Drew’s pallette is predominantly blues and greens, but he also draws from a large pallette of vivid oranges and reds, purples and yellows. Drew is now a 30 year old family man, living with his wife Maria and his son Dylan. He still loves to surf and is expending his talents to illustrating children’s books, toys, and clothing. Bibliography:
