Ever since it was unveiled that surf-pop-culture artist Rick Griffin’s MURPHY was of Hawaiian ancestry, Surf Museum Hawaii (SMH) has worked tirelessly to curate the world’s most diverse collection of vintage items of the iconic character.
After dismissing the swath of new-production Murphy skateboards and hoodies which have recently flooded the marketplace to put the toon’s image at risk of dilution, we find ourselves winding down the annum with confidence that we have achieved our goal. We have done so, with the most recent acquisition that we are featuring here today on the SMH blog. We introduce to you two pairs of vintage Rick Griffin Murphy board shorts.
The well-designed shorts carry a “Going for the Gusto” label, and despite a “USA” tag, the extremely limited edition board shorts actually come from a clothing distributor from Italy (no longer in operation) by the name of The Walking Canvas Company. The European roots explain while the boardies are on the shorter side, exposing more thigh than a red-blooded Hawaiian or American are generally comfortable with. No loss, as these shorts are to be framed and displayed instead of taken to the ocean.
SMH chief curator @marcus_ocean, who has the second largest Murphy collection on the planet, had never seen or heard of the shorts prior to coming across them from a seller in Delaware, USA. Certain that the first largest collector of Murphy paraphernalia, Mark Fragale of Kailua (Oahu), had, we reached out to find out if he had ever seen a pair out in the wild, or if he had one in his own collection. Here was his response:
“Me neither. 2nd generation Murphy. Birdwell copy. Incredible find! Details please. Thanks for sharing. Aloha Mark”
That’s all we needed to know. SMH’s @marcus_ocean made the purchase and added this incredible set to our preeminent Murphy collection for your viewing pleasure.
