NYC's 30 Under 30: Meet Gotham's Game-Changers
The Artful Surfer: Tripoli Patterson
The word "surfer" may conjure images of a prototypical passive stoner hanging ten in the sun, and, while pro-surfer Tripoli Patterson certainly does his fair share of hanging ten, he is far more motivated and in-tune than the stereotypical, wave-catching "dude." Not only is he an accomplished surfer (having practiced the sport since he was 8-years-old), and an Eastern Surfing Magazine cover boy, but he's also a curator. Tripoli opened and runs his own contemporary art gallery, the Tripoli Gallery, in Southampton. And indeed, surfing and running the gallery — just a drive away from his birth place in Sag Harbor — brings Tripoli's career full-circle; He's lived (and surfed) in Indonesia, Bali, and New Zealand, to name just some of the places he's evolved as a traveler, gallery owner, and pro-surfer. Expectedly, Tripoli has collaborated artistically and athletically, training and filming with many fellow surfers, but his most important connection is that with the ocean. He explains that "it is such an important part of nature and this world, being able to build the most intimate relationship with something as powerful and overwhelming as the ocean is a gift." We'd venture to guess the outdoor office and constant rays don't hurt either.
Hair by Sera Sloane Bishop, makeup by Erin Green and Tiffany Patton.
in NYC