Seth’s influences run deep – from the music he listens to the waves he rides. Photo: On right by Ryan Mack
“Growing up in Ocean City, Maryland is a pretty interesting place to be a surfer and artist,” says Seth Conboy. “I won’t say too much, but Maryland surprisingly has great surf at times. Anyone who has seen it knows.”
Apart from a committed click of core locals, and their select, well-vetted, friends, there aren’t a whole lot of surfers who’ve seen it. Despite a surf history dating back to the 1940s and a surf scene established around Ocean City’s first surf shops that opened in the 1960s, the boardwalked peninsula that stretches from Delaware Bay to Chesapeake Bay has largely gone under the radar.
“It’s not your average surf spot. Where I live is very flat with no mountains, and what isn’t agricultural fields is marshland and waterways,” says Conboy. “And the ocean and land temperatures range from boiling in summer to snowing in the winter. We struggle with consistent surf, but the good days are like a high-quality surf trip in my backyard. On those days, you are in the water from sun up to sun down.”
Most of those “good days” are in the winter. Water temps drop to a head-splitting 34 to 41°F, and Ocean City settles back to its permanent population of 7,000 having swelled to over 300,000 on the sweltering August weekends. The small fraction of those residents that are surfers await the swells from the storms that surge up from the Caribbean. Then it’s a matter of pairing the bitter, offshore westerly winds with the right sandbank on the myriad of barrier islands, long beaches and coves. If it all comes together, the result can be fleeting, freezing, world-class beachbreaks. With no one out.
The goofy-footer has the surfing knowledge and the talent, the two biggest barriers to entry, to find and negotiate the often hard-hitting, punchy waves that square up on the flat-packed sand. He’s documented some of those days, often surfing with New York surfer Balaram Stack and Ocean City’s best-known alumni, Rob Kelly. It can be an endless, and often fruitless search, but diamonds do exist around the Indian River Inlet, Ocean City’s concentrated stretch of short jetties, and the wild, protected expanses of Assateague Island further south – only accessible by four-wheel drive.
“You don’t want to oversell it because there are just so many down days as a surfer on this coast,” the 26-year-old said. “But being secluded in a farm area works great for me because I enjoy the peace. And the lack of surf means more time creating in the studio.”
Conboy developed a love for art as a child and remembers constantly drawing dream waves and sketching characters. He honed his skills through high school and completed a Graphic Design and Fine Arts degree in Florida. After working as a freelance graphic designer in between his travels as a sponsored surfer, he is now turning to more traditional art forms.
Forgotten no more. Seth on a below-sea-level keeper. Photo: Brian Nevins
“I’ve recently hopped over to the dark side from design to fine art,” he said. “I feel like I’m exactly where I want to be now. Creating stuff is my favorite way of slowing myself down and enjoying some peace. No boundaries, no rules, tons of paint and loud music. It brings a mindlessness I need.”
His art reflects his love of surf, skate, and punk music, and melds it with influences as random as American traditional tattooing, the stars, color theory, and “things born late at night.”
“I’m lucky enough to stay inspired by spending time in big cities not too far from me like Philadelphia, and New York,” he said. “A few short hours in the car can bring me to the most creative places in the world. This place has helped shape me as a surfer, artist, and person. I cherish where I’m from.”
