Indosole Blog & News

Soul Surf Project BaliOn Wednesday night the 15th of January, Soul Surf Project Bali opened their new location, including Indonesia’s first eco surf shop after 4 months of hard work! In celebration, Soul Surf Project Bali organized a day full of events. The day started off with a traditional Balinese melaspas ceremony and ended with an opening party. This party was all in the eco theme, we served healthy fresh made juices, vegetarian appetizers and were surrounded by eco surf gear. The night was a great success and there were many interested people!Soul Surf Project Bali’s mission for 2012 is a statement; we opened the first eco surf shop in Indonesia on Jalan Nakula in Legian. The shop is non profitable. All the profit that the shop makes will be used to fund the program's effort to teach Indonesian orphans more about their environment and how to preserve it, but also the aspect of sharing the stoke of surfing. Many of these orphans have never been to the beach and are not aware of the environmental coastal problems. With surfing, we teach the kids to respect nature while also giving them an understanding of the art. We encourage creativity and hope these kids gain inspiration for other crafts and education! Surfing leads to smiles and a happy future!In the eco surf shop, we only sell environmentally based brands or products. We have leashes from recycled plastics, sustainable grown bamboo waxcombs, eco-friendly wax (without petroleum!), shoes and flip-flops made of recycled materials such as tires and many more products! One of our prides are the sustainable wooden surfboards made by local entrepreneur Vince Surfboards. Great for the surfer who cares for sustainability and wants to make a difference.The eco surf shop is a proud dealer of Wavetribe, Surfyogi’s, Indosole and Vince Surfboards. Several big brands are in the line up to join as well!Come to check out the shop to see all these great stuff yourselves!

Photographic Retrospective: Brad MastersMega respect to our mate Brad Masters for recently being spotlighted on IndoSurfLife. When you have a free minute, give a gander through his top 2011 photos. Brad has been a top-notch friend of IndoSole family since we began our residence in Bali. A testimony to this posts title, his images allow viewers to seek a retrospective. Many refractions in light along with a pantone swatch of colors enables Bali to be seen in one's own retrospective.

HAPPY NEW YEAR - SELAMAT TAHUN BARU Wishing you and your family all the best in 2012. We at Indosole would like to thank our friends and fans for all the support in the early stages of our business. 2011 was a year of progress for our team and we look forward to following the path upward and onward in 2012.   It is important for all of us to set goals for ourselves and businesses while transitioning into a new year. For Indosole, there are many goals for this year ahead. Saving more tires, further inspiring resourceful creation, and staying true to our mission in this growth period are amongst the long list.   An immediate goal of ours is to hire a local Balinese man or woman to aid our production team during busy times. We are proud to have given local craftspeople jobs in manufacturing our footwear in the past/present. This time, we need a special someone who can provide utility in various areas. Our new hire will help us sort junk tires which will become shoe soles, additionally he/she will travel the streets of Bali on motorbike and pick-up and deliver goods from point A to point B.   Indosole has partnered with HOOP fund - A San Francisco based organization that assists like-minded businesses in following a mission and going to their respective "next levels." The crew at the HOOP fund is a solid group of people that are truly passionate about supporting causes thru microloans.   Indosole is offering shoes/sandals for purchase which are bundled with a small loan to help us hire and pay salary to a local Balinese. Thank you!

The holiday season is in full effect. Seems that all of us at the office are jazzed about the Holiday Party invites on the bulletin board. However, I recently came across an archived article that has allowed me to feel especially grateful for my life during this holiday season. My job is rewarding, my friends and family are supportive while also providing daily stoke and there's a roof over my head at night. This article dates back to late September 2011 so it's still very accurate for the current times at Bantar Gebang, the largest Indonesian landfill. ( READ HERE ) Be thankful for the life you live and live the life you love.Photography: Javad Tizmaghz

IndoSole featured guest @ MuchBetterAdventures.comWe get really stoked when unknown individuals reach out to us. After routinely blasting through the morning mailbox a few weeks ago, I came across an email from a kool kat by the name of Sam Bruce. He went on to introduce himself along with Much Better Adventures, the online community he founded a couple years ago. Through his supportive words, I could feel his encouragement for IndoSole to keep pursuing its mission. He wanted us to somehow get involved with his community of awesomeness and after acknowledging their commitment for travelers to have an interactive, local perspective to new destinations, my cards were all in. Please check their site out (muchbetteradventures.com) and scan through their integrative pages....some great material no joke.Since San Francisco is my home for the autumn months, I thought maybe it would be a swell idea to write a travel guide to the world's most progressive city. There was one parameter that Mr. Bruce through out at me. He told me that there needed to be focused outdoor activity included in the city guide. Well....wasn't a tough decision. click on link to read : {TRAVEL GUIDE to SAN FRANCISCO}. IndoSole definitely plans on contributing more material for Much Better Adventures so stay tuned.

can you say....FUN! 11/5 7-9pm. 46th Ave & Irving St.

Bali {based} Artist: Matthew Gillett Matthew Gillett is a visual artist. His eyes have that sparkle of a guy who is psyched on life. From across the room he looks like he could be a tough guy, but when you meet him you find out right away he is all heart. He is the example of that saying “still waters run deep”... or is it “quiet rivers run deep?” “Deep waters run deep?”.... I can’t remember, but you know what I’m saying. The dudes got soul.A few years back before Gillett had dedicated his life to art, he was breaking up a fight outside a venuehe was working in Australia and was hit from behind. The result was weeks recovering in a hospital from a hemorrhage in his brain; seizures, migraines, and depression for the next year of his life. Because of the seizures he wasn’t able to surf or motocross anymore or even drive his car. He watched himself deal with mood swings and depression from the brain injury. His entire life changed as he lost the ability to do the things he cared about most, and his vitality was dimmed to a hazy shade of winter.And so it goes if you wanna make lemonade from lemons you better get squeezing. With the help of a friend, Gillett made some major life changes to help his mind and body heal. And in the end, he decided to save his own life and plunged himself into his own serotonin- producing, self- medicating therapy: ArtName: Matthew Gillett .Age: 36 but its hard to believe to look at!Hometown: Stanwell Park , South Coast of Sydney Australia also known as Gods Country .Currently living: In Bali .Occupation: Artist .Medium: Oil On Linen .Endorsed/ Sponsored by: My Credit cards like most artists, (Hurley , Carve, Nathans Bequest.).Next art exhibit: (name, date, location) MY ART KILLS MONSTERS . Date not fixed but 2012 if the worlddoesn’t end, cause that would be a shame not to have the show ha ha haHi Matty!Tell everyone about your newest project "My Art Kills Monsters"It’s an idea I came up with over a year ago. The idea is to paint pieces then use time-lapse photography to document the creation of each painting! This then gets edited into a 3 to 4 min video. Then you can see the creation of the piece in fast forward instead of watching me paint for 4 days; which is kind of boring, like watching paint dry ha ha ha. Each video will then have a song donated to it from big bands in Australia creating a short film with music to the paintings creation.What made you decide you wanted to do this in Bali? Is it easier to be creative here?There were a couple of reasons. I have been coming to Indonesia to surf for 20 years and love everything about it: food, people… everything. It’s a can do country in Australia, we are so heavily governed and I wouldn’t have had the creative freedom to set up wherever I wanted to, like I have here. Every spot I have painted at has been hassle free, a quick chat to whoever is in charge with the explanation and then it’s sorted. In Aus there would be so much red tape! It’s so easy to be creative here. Creativity is everywhere. It’s infectious.How many paintings in different locations will you be producing in Bali? Which location was your favorite so far?I will be creating 14 paintingsin 14 different Locations throughout Indonesia. I have pretty much said after each location it was my favorite and that painting is also my favorite (I am my biggest fan). But thinking back with 12 completed… Krakatau. The energy at that place is crazy. I stayed on the volcano Indo- camp style. Krakatau rumbled smoke, exploded, and spewed out soccer ball- sized rocks. So yeh Krakatau… The solitude, remoteness, and danger combined to make it my favorite spot.What do you make of the contrast between your art and your personality? Your paintings can feel a little dark, but you’re so friendly. Which is closer to the real you?I agree some of my art is on the darker side so maybe I paint my bad instead of acting on it, resulting in my friendly nature. Ha ha ha. I think also that people see skulls etc. and associate it with darkness. But we all have one and it’s a damn attractive suitcase for our very important brains, and it doesn’t receive enough recognition.Don’t the Balinese have some theory about the balance between light and dark? Like their own version of yin and yang....Yeh, I mean you can’t have the good without the bad. My Balinese friend of 20 years made good sense of it telling me that we all have half bad and half good and that the goal is to live in the middle expecting both sides.As an artist, or just regular human, what do you think is your most unusual quality? Do you think it’s your belly button? I’m just wondering because one night I saw someone stick half of their finger into it.That’s kind of deep. As a human, sad to say I don’t think I really have any. Others may disagree, and haven't told me ....! Until now that you have made me aware of my belly button. Ha ha ha. To my credit the poker had short stumpy fingers creating a kind of optical illusion, like smoke and mirrors.On a scale of 1-10 how much do you love your life? Definitely a 10, every day is a trip!www.matthewgillett.com- Fayzer

REFINED CRAFT for the PAVEMENTThis past weekend was all time since Indian Summer has finally made its well anticipated arrival in San Francisco. The weather flirted with temps near 80....so yes, the dry winds were blowing east. Some may say that there was a lack of swell. Well, depends on who you ask. If you grabbed the most foam in your quiver, you might have come down with a rare yet desiring illness that my good mate Teacher Kevin calls "froth-itis." The highline trim and lowline head dips were there for the taking during loww tide.After fueling up on a full tank of premium leaded stoke, I took some time on land to shoot da breeze with the mates @ Mollusk Surf Shoppe. While walking up Irving St., I noticed some people getting loose on the pavement with some highly alluring skateboards. I asked the smiling young man with the longer shaped board-"who's the maker of these boards?"he replied, "me" with a slight grin. "you wanna ride one?"After pushing and leaning into a few tight pavement lines, he and I went inside to talk about his project. Erik Maki, the visionary behind Maki Longboards, is completely passionate toward his endeavor. I could feel his enthusiasm in both his board designs and the materials / processes going into each one. One topic that really stoked me was his approach to maintain complete wood rawness with using Entropy Bio Resin. Erik emphasized that each board he crafts is progressing to higher performance levels with rider feedback while also mastering the sustainable design science. Did I mention that his boards look slick. No Graphics. Just Rawness. Please check out makilongboards.com. Had the pleasure to ride his Skipper shape...could not have trimmed more this past weekend. Thanks Erik!

BALI BAGUSIn regards to the beginning of this short video, I think we have all experienced those times of our worrying mother at the airport soon before departure. Be Safe...Have Fun. Bali is a teenage utopia and possibly a mother's worst nightmare. Rad footage guys.