The Standard

From left to right, the co-founders of Saturdays Surf: Colin Tunstall, Morgan Collett, and Josh Rosen. Morgan will be DJing this Wednesday.

This Wednesday at Le Bain, Mercury Nights presents a special end of summer party with the boys from Saturdays Surf. André Saraiva, Simonez Wolf and Sebastian Puga are also hosting with DJs, Morgan Collett, Jauretsi Saizarbitoria, and Tim (Das Moth).

Saturday Surf – if you weren’t familiar – is a downtown Manhattan surfing outpost serving up coffee and its own line of apparel. (Located at 31 Crosby as well as a new store on Perry and Waverly). They also just launched a bi-annual called Saturday’s Magazine. To learn a bit more about their ever expanding lifestyle brand, we emailed the Saturday team some Q’s and they responded with some A’s.

Standard Culture: How and when did you guys decide to start Saturdays Surf?

We opened the doors in August 2009. Its been three years!? It was a quick decision to open the store as the space at 31 Crosby Street became available but the idea of doing this had been tossed around in different forms for a while.

Was it always your intentions to open up a surf shop or was it to launch a lifestyle fashion brand?

Both. We didn’t have a business plan when we started. We all had similar aspirations for what Saturdays was supposed to be. We wanted to create a brand. In this we definitely wanted a surf shop in the city. A place to carry all the equipment needed for all types of surfing around here. We also wanted to create clothing that reflected the lifestyle we lived. Living and working in NYC with a passion for surfing.

You just released the beautiful #001 issue of Saturdays Magazine. How do three surfers get into publishing?

I (Colin) was in publishing for 10 years before partnering with Morgan and Josh. I worked at a handful of magazines including Esquire doing their Big Black Book, also GQ, NY Mag etc. We wanted to do a magazine that helped define what the brand represents. To us this lifestyle seems normal, but we do get a lot of curious people asking us why we did this. Hopefully the magazine helps visualize some of the aspects we enjoy in the balance of NYC and Surfing.

Left: Inside the shop. Right: Image from the Saturday’s Surf blog

Where do you go to find personal inspiration?

Its so easy to find visual inspiration these days with so many blogs and websites dedicated to really curated ideas. I think what’s been uniquely inspirational is who you get to spend time with. I feel we’ve been lucky to have a place where people can come and hang out. Share their stories and ideas. We get constant inspiration from our customers and our community. It’s a pretty special part of the city with so many exciting things going on.

Congrats on your 3-year anniversary last week! Can you talk about what’s in the works for the brand?

3 years!? When I say this it seems so young even though so much has happened and how things have changed. We’re excited to continue to focus on making great clothes and accessories. We have wonderful sunglasses handmade in Japan that will be out this winter. We’ve been working on backpacks, totes and a duffel bag which we’re all excited about as well. Part of our growth has been organic. Ideas and opprotuities are always being presented.

Pages from Saturday’s Magazine

Favorite surf spot in the world?

It all depends on where the waves are!

California or NY?

Too different to even try and answer. Good and bad things about each.

Morgan, we’re excited that you’ll be DJing on Wednesday night in Le Bain. Where and when did you start DJing?

Morgan: Me Too! I started to DJ back in 2008. A friend of mine helped start a little bar/club in the LES and he asked if I wanted to DJ. I never had, but eagerly said yes and pretty much learned by doing. I don’t DJ as much any more so I am pretty excited every time I get the opportunity. But for a long time it was four nights a week and helped me survive when we started SATURDAYS. I owe a lot to DJing .

Top 3 summer dance tracks to get the party started?

Die Antwoord- “Baby’s on fire” A$AP Rocky- “Goldie” Frankie Valli- “ Beggin”