Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published on Jon’s blog,RaisingaGrommet.wordpress.com.
Backwards. Always backwards. Photo: Jon Perino
I like to wear hats. In fact, I have a hat rack in our entryway of my home that’s covered with about a dozen of my best lids. It all started in my early twenties when I noticed my hairline slowly beginning its retreat. Its retreat from what? I wasn’t sure at the time, so I just threw on a hat and went about my day.
Over a decade later, I now understand that you can’t fight genetics, and I’ve simply learned to own it. I still like to wear hats, and my son has recently become pretty keen for them as well. He climbs onto a chair and pulls down the lowest hanging hats from my hat rack and throws one on. He waltzes around the house saying, “Dad’s hat. Dad’s hat. Dad’s hat.”
My wife and I decided that it was time for us to purchase “Kai’s hat,” so we scored a killer child-sized Vans trucker hat at our local surf shop. As soon as we showed it to him and explained who this hat belongs to, Kai smiled and placed it on his head—backwards. “Kai’s hat,” he says now. He likes to wear it backwards.
Now, I should start by saying that I’ve never worn my hats backwards. I can’t recall anyone that Kai has seen who wears their hat backwards. I’m not quite sure where he learned this, but he likes it. This is raw style in its earliest form. He really feels it too. I’ll take his hat off and place it forward like Dad, but he spins it back around and looks at me like I’m crazy.
These days, we can’t leave the house without it. On our way out the door we’ll ask, “Where’s your hat, dude?” He grabs his bare head and runs to the hat rack where he likes to keep it, and throws it on. Backwards. Always backwards.
Style is something that I believe should be your own. These are the things you do for whatever reason. Often times, you don’t even know why you’re doing it. These are the things that you should never have to explain to anybody else, and this was my first experience with Kai doing just that. It was pretty cool.
I hold a deep respect for people that run with their own style. For me, this is particularly true in the water. A few of my personal favorites, including Joel Tudor, Al Knost, Craig Anderson, and Clay Marzo, all do their own thing and surf their own way, which is really nice to watch. They’ve all made their mark as style icons and have brought their own unique thing to our sport. And any style-master will respectfully raise their glass and give credit to their influencers, but theses guys have taken those influences and created their own version of what they think looks good. To me, that’s the ticket. To me, that is style. If you were just copying someone else, that wouldn’t really be style, would it?
Developing unique style requires discipline. You need to spend time learning your capabilities, as well as getting dialed into your spot. You need to study the way certain sections on a wave allow you to do certain maneuvers. You must not try to outsmart the wave and deviate from what the wave has presented to you.
Style also takes patience. As a kid, I used to slam on the gas, bounce, hop, and do whatever I could to squeeze in as many turns as I could on one wave. As an adult, I wait for the wave to dictate what it’s going to allow me to do. It’s all about having respect for what you’re given and waiting for the right opportunities.
The bottom line is this: Your style is your own. Anyone these days can fly down the line and boost a few air reverses in one wave. Anyone can drop into a head-high wave at Restaurants and get barreled three times. And anyone can do what they feel is “the best turn of my life” on any given wave. I simply like to see people who move on their board like their comfortable in their own skin. Like it belongs to them. Like it’s borrowed, but hybridized. That’s what looks good. And it’s true with just about anything in life. The folks with swagger are the ones enjoying themselves the most, and the ones that graciously offer their flavor to even the blandest of days. These are the people who are willing to look up from their phone for a moment and appreciate the beauty of simply being alive.
As a relatively new father, encouraging my little guy to develop his own style and identity is one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of. I’ve never felt more unique than being a father to an awesome little kid. This is now my style: a dad. It’s a “9 p.m. bedtime on a Friday night” type of style. It’s an “all day at Doheny” type of style. Style is everything. Without it, you just look like everybody else. For Kai, it all begins with a backwards hat.
Follow Jon and his son on Instagram @jk_perino and keep tabs on#whatkailearnedtoday for daily lessons learned by the tiny little grommet in the photo above.
