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Most professional surfers have some sort of experience in front of the camera. There’s surf photography and video edits, of course, but there’s also magazine features that are often accompanied by a photoshoot both in and out of the water. Also, while many sponsors are happy to just have their logo slapped on the nose of a board, it’s become the norm for surfers to appear in catalogs and advertisements for the surf apparel they promote. Most recently, the ascendance of social media has some of them spending virtually every waking moment in front of a lens.
However, there’s a select few boardriders who’ve extended their reach beyond surfing and into the world of fashion (Tahiti’s Kauli Vaast is the latest, having just signed with Dior). They appear in the pages of Vogue rather than SURFER, sport Versace rather than Roxy, and walk down runways as much as they cross-step. Without further ado, here’s seven other surfers who’ve ventured into fashion modeling.
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Buzzy Kerbox
Buzzy was first “discovered” when famed (and problematic) fashion photographer Bruce Weber saw a picture of him in a surfing magazine. From there, he was persuaded to come to New York for a Vogue photoshoot. After Vogue editor Kezia Keeble met him for the first time, she described Kerbox as “short but spectacular,” as Weber told Saturdays NYC. From there, Buzzy posed in a series of major advertising campaigns throughout the late 1970s and ’80s. It’s tough to pick just one moment in a legitimately impressive resume that includes being the face of Ralph Lauren at the height of the brand’s popularity. However, perhaps the apex of his career was when he modeled alongside Cindy Crawford in the pages of Vogue, a shoot that Kerbox’s son Kasey recently recreated.
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Laird Hamilton
Laird Hamilton truly does do everything. While he’s perhaps best known for his hand in the invention of tow-in surfing, he’s also been a stuntman, entrepreneur, hydrofoil pioneer and stand-up paddleboard aficionado. His brief brush with the world of fashion began when a photographer for L’Uomo Vogue discovered 17-year-old Hamilton on a Kauai beach. After the Vogue issue came out, Laird followed it up with a 1983 photoshoot with Brooke Shields. However, as the saying goes, the candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long. According to a 2004 profile in Men’s Journal “after a single, demeaning cattle call he quit modeling.”
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Koa Smith
Kauai native and surf YouTuber Koa Smith has modeling in his blood. Inspired by his older brother Travis, who was in the midst of a successful modeling career that included fronting Versace’s 2012 Versus campaign, Koa entered the 2015 VMAN/Ford model search. After winning the competition, he was photographed by Steven Klein in a black and white biker-influenced shoot styled by Matthew Ellenberger.
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Victoria Vergara
Victoria Vergara grew up in New Caledonia and Réunion Island. Réunion in particular is home to some of the best waves in the world, so it’s no wonder she’s a phenomenal surfer (it’s also the former shark-attack capital of the world, as it happens). In between showcasing her nimble and stylish longboarding in competition and some pretty rad edits, she appears in photoshoots and on runways. Though she’s currently sponsored by surf apparel mainstay Rip Curl, she’s also posed in the pages of Vogue Paris and walked for Etro and Missoni at Milan Fashion Week.
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Kanoa Igarashi
The famed fashion house Dior loves to sneak surfing into its lines. As such, it wasn’t much of a surprise when, ahead of the 2020 Olympics, they chose Kanoa Igarashi as a brand ambassador. Since then, Kanoa has been featured in several Dior-clad magazine spreads, including a cover of High Snobiety Japan. He’ll be in good company, too, alongside Teahupo’o charger Kauli Vaast, who we mentioned recently signed on to join him in the Dior stable.
Christian & Nathan Fletcher
Christian and Nathan Fletcher are part of a multi-generational surf dynasty. Christian was the chaotic enfant terrible who pioneered aerial surfing as we know it. Nathan was the quieter, but equally talented younger brother who would later earn a reputation as a fearless heavy-water charger. They also modeled for Versace.
Their stint in the world of fashion came about as another product of photographer Mark Weber’s love of surfers and surf culture. On Weber’s suggestion, Christian and Nathan (and Matt Archbold) were brought in for a photoshoot in the Florida Keys helmed by Gianni and Donatella themselves. As Weber describes, the Versaces were at first apprehensive of the young surfers’ tough-guy attitudes, but they eventually came around. “Gianni loved them,” he said. “He put them in his printed shorts against all the tattoos.”
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Special Mention: Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
Though one could argue that it bends the definition of “fashion,” the SI Swimsuit Issue undoubtedly plays a pivotal role in the world of modeling. A coveted cover appearance can mark the rise to supermodel status, while both up-and-comers and established icons have appeared in its pages. It’s also featured a bunch of surfers, including Alana Blanchard, Bruna Schmitz, Anastasia Ashley, Malia Manuel, Courtney Conlogue and Caroline Marks.
