My 1st Posca Canvas Painting 97' 🏄‍♂️ Early days at LOST Surfboards

I’m Celebrating 30 Years of Surf Art

And telling true stories behind the paint (1996–2002), over 60 days.
This is the first story about Whyland.

Enjoy!

Drew Brophy painting Lost Surfboards in the late 1990s

Back when I had long hair — painting Lost Surfboards in the late 1990s.

Howdy friends,

In 1996, when I lived in Hawaii, I noticed my friend Strider surfing Pipeline on a surfboard painted with Poscas. It was the first time I ever saw anyone else with a surfboard the way I did it.

I asked who painted it.

He said, “My friend Matt — he lives in San Clemente. You should look him up.”

A couple weeks later, after my bad surfing accident, I ended up moving to San Clemente, California. I was 25 years old and starting over.

At the time, I had no idea I was about to meet one of my greatest collaborators.

Dragon artwork painted on a Lost surfboard

The Dragon Board

When I finally tracked him down in the old Herbie Fletcher surf shop, he was shaping in the back. Typical dusty dirty shaping bay. He was covered in foam dust with an attitude to match. I told him who I was, a friend of friend, and that I did art with Posca pens.

He was painting some really cool art on his boards. We had some banter back and forth about ideas and then he challenged me to paint a board and see what I could do. I quickly painted a dragon.

I would work long nights in those early days, listening to death metal, painting boards till sunrise. The next morning Matt would come in and see the craziest designs on all the boards. Every one of them different.

It was this explosion of ideas on surfboards that allowed us to pull the best concepts into paintings, prints, and t-shirts.

Drew Brophy and Matt Biolos around 1997 — *Biolos and me, around 1997.*

Vintage Whyland artwork display and framed piece — *Early Whyland-era artwork on display.*

Original Whyland sketch.

Where Whyland began

One of the first ideas was a spoof on the artist “WhyLand” where he did these over and underwater scenes in a round shape. We took my crazy waves, fish, and sun, and put them together. I would sketch it out and we would laugh at the funny ideas. These early paintings were the first time I used the Poscas on canvas, transferring my surfboard art into paintings in the same style.

Explore Vintage Surf Art

The advancements in printing had made it possible to print the colorful designs, though it was very expensive, the results were unreal. As I look at this painting now, I can remember painting it in the garage, I have come so far since then.

Matt and I have been on a wild ride for the last 30 years, leaving a trail of art and influence in surfing. Not bad for two guys who just wanted to be good at we do and have fun doing it.

I’ve been collaborating with Matt “Mayhem” Biolos and Lost Surfboards for 30 years now. We’ve been making cool art together ever since that day.