In celebration of 50 years of surfing, Rip Curl is pleased to announce the release of Mad Steez x Rip Curl, a collaborative range of wetsuits, boardshorts and men’s apparel that brings Rip Curl’s brand value of “irreverence” to the front and centre.

With a rare vision impairment in his left eye, large-scale mural artist Mark Paul Deren, aka “Mad Steez”, sees the world through a different lens, and uses bright colours and large, sweeping strokes to bring his paintings to life in a way unlike any other artist.

“Before he was an artist, Mad Steez was a surfer,” says James Taylor, Rip Curl’s Group Creative Director. “We wanted to collaborate with him because as an artist he shares our company values and a love of surfing, but also has the ability to bring something different to the brand.

“For the first time in company history we’ve allowed our iconic logos – The Search, the Wetsuit Logo and our corporate logo – to be modified. We gave Mad Steez freedom to truly collaborate with the brand, and we are very happy with the result.”

Mad Steez, an unlikely candidate to become a surfer, grew up in the suburbs of Washington DC. “I remember being 12 years old and my mom would go and buy Rip Curl t-shirts for me from my local surf shop,” says Steez. “Rip Curl was this really strange connection for me… having those t-shirts made me realise that I wanted to be a surfer.

“Many years later I found myself in Bali – just there to go surfing – and that trip was actually what catalysed my painting. This collaboration is a synergy of my two worlds, painting and art, and I think we have made some really rad stuff.”

The range includes a small selection of carefully designed wetsuits, boardshorts and men’s apparel, and it is available as of April 15 around the globe. The Summer 19/Season 2 range will hit stores in December. The second collaboration of Madsteez products features a range of products from spray painted bright floral, through to tie dye and colour blocking.

With the April and December collections Rip Curl had Steez cut loose on some iconic Rip Curl logos. In this current April drop it was the Search and wetsuit logos, with December it’s the Lotus logo.

On top of this Rip Curl had Steez spray the all-time classic Ted Grambeau shot of Tom Curren at Backdoor. As with most of Steez’s artwork this was spray painted onto a brick wall in lifelike size.

As this is truly a global collaboration, Mad Steez will be spending the rest of the year painting murals in other major Rip Curl regions around the world. For the weekend of May 4^th, you will find Mad Steez painting the side of Rip Curl by Hansen’s in Swamis, California. Following the USA, look out for Steez somewhere in Europe…

The Mad Steez x Rip Curl collaborative range is now for sale online at ripcurl.com.au in Rip Curl and key wholesale stores around the globe.

Contact your local Rip Curl Account Manager for more information.