That’s Matt Titone from ITAL/C. And when he had a chance to photograph professional surfer Owen Wright, he didn’t want to go the traditional “surf porn” route. So instead of capturing Wright cutting through gnarly waves–do surfers still say “gnarly”?–Titone and his partner Ron Thompson focused on Wright’s beyond-Herculean physique. They created a video and an interactive site called Anatomy of Owen Wright. It’s a Vitruvian Man for the modern age, highlighting a demigod with the stature of Dwyane Wade and a wingspan bigger than Michael Phelps.

The Anatomy Of Owen Wright from Indoek on Vimeo.

“We kept referring to it as an anatomy lesson from a high school or college science teacher. It had to have that matter-of-fact quality, but still be warm and endearing,” Titone explains. “A reference that we held in high regard throughout the process was the Eames Powers of Ten video. It is so scientific and informative, but also approachable and very entertaining.”

And they nailed it. Somewhat nostalgic, somewhat idyllic, somewhat scientific, Anatomy of Owen Wright is a charming and informative celebration of the human form. Or at least one human’s form. In fact, the more I study Wright, the more I’m convinced that he can’t be a real homosapien. Because that torso is just unfair.

If you’d like to see more projects/torsos like this one, you can support a related Kickstarter campaign here.

see more at fastcodesign.com

It is nearly 35 years since Francis Ford Coppola’s transposed Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness to the madness and mayhem of the Vietnam War and called it Apocalypse Now.

It was actually filmed in in the northern Philippines.

That when the filming stopped, another story started, a story that has more to do with waves than war.

The BBC’s Kate McGeown explains how surfing has transformed the culture and industry in the Philippines.

listen @ BBC

Biarritz has long been known as the surfing capital of France — ever since the American screenwriter Peter Viertel arrived on its beach during the filming of “The Sun Also Rises” in 1956. Nowadays, major surf brands like Quiksilver and O’Neill have offices, shops and competitions in the area. But lately, a more indie surf-meets-art-meets-fashion scene has sprung up, as cool young Parisians settle into this grand old town overlooking the Atlantic. Their presence — not just in summer but increasingly year-round — has transformed Biarritz and its surrounding beach towns from what was once a resort for bourgeois retirees into a breezy bohemian outpost that has come to be called “the French California.” It’s sunnier, friendlier and more rough-hewn than much of France, tied by its hardy Basque roots to its Spanish neighbors just over the border.

“St. Tropez used to be the cool place to be in France, but it became too bling-bling, so the real cool is here now,” says Thibault Taniou, 30. He and his girlfriend, Audrey Perrot, 28, met as classical dancers in Paris but now live here full-time. They own a minimalist fashion boutique, In the Middle, which stocks hip labels like Grenson and Warriors of Radness. “Madonna visited Guéthary two summers ago,” he says with pride, referring to a trendy rustic village down the coast. (She came with her young boyfriend, the French model-dancer Brahim Zaibat.) Other famous Biarritz-goers include the actress Monica Bellucci and the French electro singer Sébastien Tellier, whose cheesy-sensual hit, “Roche,” begins, “I dream of Biarritz in summer.”

read more @ nytimes