FTW Industry

Day in the Life of Bobby Martinez

FTW — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:49:13 +0000

Early fall morning, Shoreline Dr. Santa Barbara. Not much surf along this stretch ever, but the dog-walking is all-time. “This is where I walk Rio every morning.” Bobby says. “It’s cool, I can walk him and look at the ocean and get a sense of what’s going on. I have to go right when I first get up — if I don’t, I feel like I didn’t start my day right.” Photo: Jeremiah Klein

Bobby Martinez’s Rebel Cry

FTW — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:19:39 +0000

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Gangster Surf

FTW — Fri, 11 May 2012 05:46:38 +0000

On the Saturday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend, FTW, a bright, high-ceilinged surf shop on Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park, is overrun by kids: preadolescents sprawled across black vinyl couches watching a surf video; skateboarders attempting kick-flips on the sidewalk out front; pretty girls wearing purple velour sweats standing around, their boyfriends clinging to them from behind and telling war stories about last night’s party. Two months since the store opened, it has already become the default hangout for local teens who have grown up surfing the waters off Beach 90th Street and Breezy Point.

An older Rockaway surfer with shoulder-length hair is regaling a few kids with a story about a wave he caught in Costa Rica—“I’ve never been barreled like that in my life!”—and Bobby Vaughn, the 34-year-old California native who opened FTW, can’t help himself. He emerges from behind the cash register to tell the tale of his own perfect wave—an unexpected tube ride on a long, right-breaking wave that he’d recently scored on the Jersey shore. The memory of a great ride can last a surfer for months, and the recounting of it is what people gather in surf shops to do.

Vaughn grew up surfing legendary breaks in Santa Cruz and, later, Hawaii. If he’d been more focused, he might have surfed professionally. Now it seems that Vaughn has taken a page from the book of Skip Engblom, who opened Zephyr surf shop in the seventies and recruited the most talented misfits of Venice, California, to form the legendary Zephyr skate team (of Dogtown and Z-Boys fame). Vaughn’s goal is similar, if more modest: to put Rockaway surfing on the map.

When asked how he plans to do this, Vaughn points first at Pat Butera, a big, powerful 16-year-old in a green T-shirt. “This kid right here rips, man. We call him Rambo because he looks like Stallone.” Vaughn’s been coaching Rambo on how to get his back fins onto the lip of the wave and make the kind of forceful snap-turns that you see the pros doing on surf videos. That’s not something Rambo had ever done before, or even seen in person—there are few down-the-line surfers in Rockaway. Earlier in the spring, Pat was tentative, shying away from the lip, eating it hard. He’s making progress, though. “In a few years, he could be on the cover of magazines,” says Vaughn. “He just needs that push.”

Vaughn looks around the room. There’s Kevin Gray, a reed-thin 17-year-old who may be even more talented than Rambo, and Lawrence Benin, a long-limbed 14-year-old with fewer skills but plenty of promise. And then there’s Tommy Tyne, a slight 13-year-old who Vaughn says may be the most marketable of the bunch. “Tommy’s so small he makes every wave look huge. But he’s fearless. I’ve been out with him on days when none of the older kids would paddle out.”

Vaughn plans to turn his surf shop into a clubhouse that doubles as the flagship for FTW, the lifestyle brand he founded in 2004. (FTW—or “fuck the world”—is an initialism long used by convicts and bikers.) He wants to build a tiki lounge in the backyard and a gym in the basement for members of his FTW crew to train on days when the surf is flat. By the end of this year, he hopes to have a team of about 25 kids. The top members will receive a salary, FTW clothing, and money to travel to some of the best surf breaks in the world.

Back behind the cash register, Vaughn is getting Rambo pumped up about Rockstock & Barrels, an upcoming contest that is expected to attract surfers from as far away as Florida as well as some kids from Long Beach, up the road. “If you want to stand out, beating Long Beach is a start,” Vaughn says. “After Long Beach, we’ll go to Carolina and then Florida and then California. Then you’ll be doing something.”

There aren’t many observers who think that Vaughn has a chance at succeeding in Rockaway. He has opened, of all things, a surf shop that stocks only $600 high-performance Australian surfboards, expensive clothing, and high-end sunglasses on one of the bleakest blocks in all of Queens. On the eve of the shop’s opening, word spread of Vaughn’s troubled and violent past—one that includes a murder charge and the illegal possession of a handgun. This led a number of local surfers to bash Vaughn on Internet message boards. Rumors spread that FTW is a money-laundering front for organized crime (which Vaughn denies). And only a few days before Memorial Day, Vaughn had spent 33 hours in central booking after being arrested for carrying an illegal knife.

Transplanting the Legend of the Santa Cruz Surf

FTW — Fri, 11 May 2012 05:11:36 +0000

By COREY KILGANNON

Bobby Vaughn is from Santa Cruz, legendary in California for its renegade surf culture and rebel wave riders.

Mr. Vaughn says that the Rockaways in Queens have all the ingredients to be the next Santa Cruz: good waves, public housing projects and a growing surf culture. His main problem with the Rockaway surf scene is that it has not embraced its inner gangster.

Enter FTW, the surf shop he opened on Saturday on Beach 116th Street, a half-block from the ocean. Its name is an abbreviation for a vulgar expression used by convicts and bikers. It is also the name of Mr. Vaughn’s clothing line and philosophy of life. He has the letters tattooed on his right cheek and inside his lower lip.

Mr. Vaughn, 34, is undeterred by the recession or by the two other surf shops in the area, including the Rockaway Beach Surf Shop, several doors down. These are mere details in Mr. Vaughn’s business plan, which he says is born of a life of daring and hardship.

Mr. Vaughn’s ideal surfer is fearless, tattooed and rides an expensive top-of-the-line surfboard decorated with gang tags. His shop exudes tough-surfer chic, from its graffiti-covered surfboards and skateboards to the wall murals in urban spray-can style. Mr. Vaughn believes that this West Coast feel will catch on here.

“Rockaway is ready for a surf scene, and this store has the edge that the hard-core surfers here are looking for,” he said in the store on Friday, as a group of young local surfers helped him with the finishing touches.

The shop has already created a buzz, partly because of Mr. Vaughn’s history — he helped start the Von Dutch clothing line and has had some serious brushes with the law — and because the store is the latest sign that Rockaway has arrived as a surf spot.

New York City has designated a section of the beach, near Beach 90th Street, for surfing only. Many houses nearby are rented by groups of surfers seeking a waterfront outpost, and surfboards on the A train are a common sight. With the rise of the urban surfer here, Mr. Vaughn sees a niche in which surfing, fashion and bad-boy street culture converge.

Mr. Vaughn grew up in Santa Cruz with surfing legends like Darryl Virostko, known as Flea, and was part of the so-called Westsiders surf crew, which claimed the famous Steamers Lane as its home surf break.

Mr. Vaughn said that as a teenager he was a competitive surfer endorsed by equipment companies but that he became friendly with gang members. He said he saw his closest friend commit a murder.

Mr. Vaughn went on to prosper, as the Von Dutch line of expensive hats and apparel soared in popularity, gaining favor with the likes of Paris Hilton, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. Mr. Vaughn, who became a regular on the celebrity circuit in Los Angeles, wound up splitting with his Von Dutch partners and settled for an amount he recalled on Friday as paltry.

One night in 2005, Mr. Vaughn said, he was with his friend, who had just been released from prison. The friend, Mr. Vaughn said, attacked him with a broken bottle. Mr. Vaughn shot him, fatally, and claimed self-defense. He was found not guilty of first-degree murder.

He came to New York City to start a new life, he said, but was arrested and charged with carrying an unregistered handgun. He pleaded guilty to a felony gun charge and was sentenced to five years probation, which he is still serving. With no job, he risked violating probation and being sent to jail. Then he discovered the waves at Rockaway.

“I gave up on life, and then I came out here and saw the surf here,” he said. “I never knew they had surfing in New York City. I got a board and jumped in the water and I just felt reborn.”

The young locals were immediately impressed by Mr. Vaughn’s surfing and his past. One surfer’s father agreed to invest in the store, in a space that was formerly a shoe store.

“People get intimidated by the gangster look, but I just want to turn my life around, and to show the street kids here — whether they’re surfers or kids from the projects — that they can do it too,” he said, detailing his plan to conduct anti-gang initiatives through surfing and skateboarding.

Not everyone is enamored of Mr. Vaughn. His background troubles some residents, and local merchants worry that his store will only add to a seedy side of Beach 116th Street.

But Mr. Vaughn said, “This is gangster image — the tattoos, the graffiti — this is what appeals to street kids, but we’re strictly positive.”

Ricky Reyes, 38, a friend from Santa Cruz was visiting on Friday. Mr. Vaughn asked him to open his shirt to show the letters FTW tattooed across his chest.

“My brand is a way of life,” he said. “You won’t see people tattooing other surf brands on themselves.”

Matt Alessi, 17, a local surfer who works for Mr. Vaughn, nodded and pointed to the retail rack of high-performance surfboards made in Australia.

“You don’t see these types of board in Rockaway,” he said. “We need someone like this to help put Rockaway on the map as a surf spot.”

Ben Chapman contributed reporting

Bobby Martinez signing party photos.. Welcome to the FTW Family Brother!!

FTW — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:43:15 +0000

Familia The World..

Say Goodbye to the Bad Guy..

FTW — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 14:45:07 +0000