MGMT Surf Avalon With The Critical Slide Society

Stocked in Urban Outfitters in America and Beams and United Arrows in Japan, Sydney surfwear brand The Critical Slide Society have more global fans than your average purveyor of tees, board shorts and miscellaneous accessories. Their latest international endorsement comes courtesy of a surf expedition with MGMT frontman Andrew VanWyngarden. Recently in the country for a headline slot at Future Music Festival, the brand took VanWyngarden for a surf at Avalon in Sydney’s north, outfitted him in their wares and taught him how to shape a board.

Founder Sam Coombes explains how the hook up came about: Sony Music contacted The Critical Slide Society. MGMT wanted to go surfing. Rather than just a usual paddle, we put a twist on it. We organized one of our TCSS Sliders, Thomas Bexon of Thomas Surfboards to come down to Sydney and work with Andrew from the band to shape a log. Thomas makes beautiful surfboards. We also contacted Sugarmill surf shop at Narrabeen, great partners of ours and a great surf shop that takes you back to the days when surf shops smelled of wax and the owner shaped boards out back. We used their shaping bay to shape the board. We gave Andrew a bunch of clothes which he chose to wear. Elle Green of Hell In Tokyo shot the stills. All in all a top day, and some good downtime for the band. Andrew’s only been surfing for a couple of years, we took him out to Avalon for a wave. Wasn’t much surf around but it was still good to get in the water.”

Check out the pictures.

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