Otis Carey x Billabong

image by duncan macfarlane

words by ben stephens

Context is always a nice place to start.

Otis Carey is an insanely rad surfer. Staying away from the corporate ladder of the World Surf League and sticking to the lip as a free surfer, over the last couple of years the man has been continuing to absolutely shred. Otis has strong family ties to the Aboriginal communities of Gumbayanggirr and Bundjalung tribes, stretching from the mid-central coast all the way up to the northern coast of what is New South Wales. As far as indigenous surfers goes, Carey is at the forefront as a top-notch inspiration for those in the sport. On top of being a world-class free surfer, Carey also creates contemporary indigenous art, which is on par with his surfing ability – rad.

Pardon the bad quality pic. "GAAGAL", Ocean. Chrissy pressie painting

A post shared by Otis Hope Carey [-o-] (@otishopecarey) on Dec 24, 2016 at 8:48pm PST

Just last year, Otis held a gallery night at China Heights in Sydney, where he managed to sell over $24,000 of his original work.

This is where Billabong enters the scene. As one of the countries world’s biggest surf culture brand, they inked a deal with Otis mid last year, seeing him come on board as surfer, artist and fashion designer for the surfing giant.

What this equals is some of Carey’s killer artworks being recreated on a piece of fabric that you can purchase from your favourite Billabong haunt.

In an interview with STAB magazine from last year, Carey said of his artistic style ‘The way I can best explain it is, it’s a broken-down form of traditional symbols and stories that aren’t giving all of it away but just enough for people to understand. I think it’s super important. I just wanna do my part and share my culture in the best possible positive way. I think it’s super important to be able to have that outlet for other people to experience.’

So if you’re in the need for some artistic or surfing inspiration hit the play button below for a small dose of Mr Carey or navigate over to Billabong to check out his sweet designs HERE.