Slowtide towels getting hot poolside. Photo: Slowtide
Surfers have so much damn character that it can’t be fully expressed through the ownership of artisanal surf craft, artist-designed tail pads and fins, retro-styled wetsuit jackets, fey sunglasses, hats, premium hair products, patterned underwear, or ample forearm tattoos.
Hence, surfing’s newest obsession: the tasteful towel — featuring designs more colorful, cheeky, and expressive than ever. This new breed of aesthetically pleasing towel lets you make a statement even as you quietly hope passing motorists don’t catch a glimpse of your butt crack. Clearly, covering your naughty bits on road shoulders and beaches is a necessary part of suiting up for a surf. (Ever had to change into a wetsuit on Pacific Coast Highway without a towel?) And no longer must that be done with a boring rectangle of generic terry cloth.
Slowtide, sponsoring the likes of Sage Erickson, jumped on the scene first, in 2015, with plush, colorful improvements on the aesthetic that standard towel fare offered before. The Costa Mesa-based brand made the industry feel warm and fuzzy (see what I did there?) taking home the best accessory award from last year’s Agenda trade show. Slowtide’s founders Wylie Von Tempsky, Dario Phillips, and Kyle Spencer are surf and skate industry vets with marketing and design experiences at brands like Quiksilver, HUF, and Nike.
And more recently, Leus, a Carlsbad company part-owned by Conner Coffin, hopped on board, debuting in the U.S., with European sales to follow later this year.
These companies sell full-sized towels for around $25 to $60. Maybe it’s time to stop draining your sinuses and drying your soggy groin in a lackluster towel.
Here’s a peek at Leus’s range:
Offerings from new towel brand Leus. Photo: Leus
And Slowtide’s:
A few designs from Slowtide. Photo: Slowtide
So if you find yourself wet and needing something sleek, sexy, potentially representative of your personality and premium to get dry, you can thank God, because the day of the premium beach towel has finally arrived.
