Episode 4: Savannah Rusher
It wouldn’t be difficult to rattle off a list of surf brands that proclaim they support the greater good causes of community, diversity, and inclusion. It’s the ones that follow through on these often unfulfilled value promises that are harder to come by, let alone look good while doing it.
IDEAL surf, owned by designer and surfer Savannah Rusher who I’m honored to know, leans heavily into these principles of community and diversity within the surf industry. It’s kind of her thing. Savannah is an ex-nine-to-fiver who started freelancing to clock more hours in the water and reject the corporate overlords — her language, not mine — during which time she launched the Oakland-based surf brand IDEAL.
Savannah and I talked in late January as she was recovering from the flu and anxiously trying to return to the line up before landlocked depression sets in, something we talk about below. Other topics covered: skating as a gateway drug to surfing, branding vs. design, and mindfulness, whatever that means. It was good to catch up.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
So how old were you when you started surfing, and did you start on a shortboard or a longboard? I know we started surfing around the same time and it felt like longboards were nowhere to be found when I was learning to surf.
Yeah, that’s so true. I was 16 and I started shortboarding in Myrtle Beach. It kind of made the most sense with the conditions where I lived too. Just all the short period wind swell waves. If it was choppy out, you could make it through a lot of the unorganized sections that I think a longboard probably couldn’t have made it through, especially in the period leading up to a hurricane. It’s pretty disorganized out there, but can be big and fun.
And did you skate at all? I feel like that was a natural segue into surfing for a lot of kids our age.
That is exactly how I got pulled into it. I started skating when I was 14 and then got a job at a surf and skate shop. That was kind of how I fell into surfing, just being around it suddenly and having access to gear and people who were pretty adamant about getting me out in the water. They knew that I would love it.
Has your surfing career been steady or were there some flat spells?
Definitely some flat spells. I lived in New York City for a few years and I didn’t surf at all when I was there but I have since gone back and surfed at the Rockaways quite a few times.
I think it’s funny that I missed out on that opportunity when I lived there but I was working a nine-to-five in Manhattan. When I moved out to San Francisco I still wanted to live in a city but was looking for a little bit more access to nature and a better quality of life than I was finding in New York.
And it took me a while to paddle out here. I think I lived in the Bay for a year before I ever paddled out. I was pretty anti-wetsuit for a while which was definitely a deterrent. I even lived in the Sunset near Ocean Beach which is so funny. When I moved to the Mission, a friend of mine was like, “I know you used to surf. Why don’t we go to Santa Cruz?” So she and I went down to Santa Cruz and rented boards and I though, “Oh my God, I forgot how much surfing is a huge part of my life.” Since that day, I don’t think I’ve gone longer than a week without getting in the water.
When was that?
2014 I think. Eight years ago.
There were definitely times when I felt defeated by the cycle of falling out of practice and then losing all of my strength. I would paddle out and my mind would know exactly what to do, like a big bottom turn or a floater, the things that I could do as a teenager, but then I’m out in the lineup and think, “I am the kookiest motherfucker out here.” I couldn’t even paddle for more than 30 minutes sometimes. That was super discouraging. So I realized that I had to make this a regular practice if it was going to be enjoyable. I needed to commit to it.
Do you travel around looking for surf or stick to one spot?
Well now that gas is like $6.50 a gallon, I explore less. But I love the Santa Cruz area. I really love driving down to Southern California in the summer too. Ever since I moved to California, I pretty much find myself needing to leave town and go surfing or explore somewhere new at least once or twice a month.
Sometimes my design workload can get heavy, but I still make the effort to get in the water at least once a week. It’s an important part of my routine for good mental health maintenance.
Yeah. I get really crabby if I’ve been out of the water for more than a week or two.
Oh yeah, me too. My boyfriend’s even like, “You need to surf. I need to get my girlfriend back.” When I seem sad, he tells me to go surf.
For sure. I tell my partner that I need to surf to keep sane but she thinks it’s a bullshit excuse. So I know you worked for some pretty big companies, like Random House and Airbnb, and now you’re freelancing. What made you make that shift from working in house somewhere to doing freelance work?
Surfing [laughing].
Oh really?
Yeah. I knew that there was no way I could ever be a weekend warrior. I need more flexibility than a corporate nine-to-five can offer, particularly in the days of commuting to an office. Now I can get all of my work done early in the morning (or at night) and surf. I can restructure and prioritize my time how it best suits me instead of how it best suits a corporate entity, which ultimately doesn’t have your best interest in mind.
That makes me think of your surf brand, IDEAL. The IDEAL mission statement seems like a reaction to your last statement about corporations not having someone’s best interest in mind. Can you tell me about how IDEAL originated and the anti-corporate philosophy behind it?
Yeah, it’s been marinating in my mind for a while, particularly since my first job which was working at a surf skate shop when I was in high school. It’s odd to me that whenever I walk into a surf shop now, hardly anything has changed. There’s been so much change in society since the early 2000s.
When I was working in a surf shop, even at that time, I felt like I loved the activity of surfing but very few items in the shop or marketing campaigns by these big brands spoke to me. I still shopped at thrift stores and dyed my hair black. I was definitely not a puka shell wearing blonde.
I wanted something a little bit more creative that challenged the mainstream status quo instead of fitting right into it. I feel like it was because the corporate overlords held the power that kind of kept everything stagnant. So instead of being discouraged by that, I thought there is this gap and it’s ripe for a creative breakthrough. And if I do it, I’m sure there are a lot of other people who will think, “Hey, I relate to that.” That’s exactly what happened since I started IDEAL. I’m constantly connecting with people who are on that wavelength and it’s been the most wonderful part of IDEAL for sure.
Where do you make those connections? Is it on social media? In the water?
All of them. I was hoping for a lot more in-person events and interactions but I started IDEAL literally two months before the pandemic hit. It’s just been a part of IDEAL that I’ve kind of kept in the incubator or growing phase because I’m still navigating how everything’s changing.
But I was recently in Mexico and these girls paddled up to my friend and me in the lineup and said, “Hey, are you from Oakland? Do you do IDEAL?” That was a really good feeling. We ended up hanging out with this group of Portland kids all week, taking boats out to surf breaks and hanging out. It was really cool to feel that sense of community.
Plus, anytime I see anybody wearing IDEAL out in the water, I get really stoked.
Does that happen a lot? Seeing people represent IDEAL?
More and more. The places that I’m shipping to are getting farther away from the Bay Area, like Australia, Japan, Hawaii, and New York. For a long time, I sold mostly to people that I knew. Now it’s definitely spread beyond our little surf community here, which is cool.
How has the IDEAL ideology, philosophy, and message influenced the design?
So I guess I should explain that IDEAL was also born in the wake of my screen printing business which I started just under my own name while working at said corporate entities. I would often find myself really needing a creative outlet that had nothing to do with corporate work. So I started doing these doodles that had mantras on them or mindful quotations. A lot of them were inspired by Ram Dass or quippy sayings in the back of these hippie books that my landlord let me borrow. They spoke to a simpler, more appreciative mindset. As I kept doing it, more and more people became interested.
I eventually wanted to disassociate my personal identity with the designs because they weren’t about me. They were messages that anybody could relate to. That’s when I realized this would be a great time to start IDEAL and really pivot this messaging to something I have been super passionate about for a long time.
I realized that’s what was missing from surfing for me — this mentality of mindfulness and being a part of a collective experience. It’s important to be mindful of what we bring to the water, how we represent surfing, and how we interact with other people. Holding space for everyone.
I not only wanted to apply a mindful ideology to the design of the products, but also how they’re made. I wanted to stick to making things in small batches so I didn’t create a lot of waste. I also wanted to work with companies that had ethical manufacturing processes and were eco friendly. I wanted to ship products in compostable mailers to get away from plastic mailers. Now I’m trying to eliminate plastic from most products. It’s pretty hard to get away from plastic completely, especially when you want to keep price points affordable to people. However, single-use plastic has really got to go.
I also had to make a decision on whether or not I was gonna try to keep up with seasonal fashion calendars. I quickly realized that it’s wasteful and as a company of one person, I would completely burn out. It’s also something that I personally don’t subscribe to. That’s not who I am as a consumer.
I noticed on your personal website you distinguish between Design and Branding. I’m wondering how you think about branding in the context of what you do.
That’s a good question. I feel like there’s branding in the commercial sense where, as a designer, you’re typically hired to create a logo, put together color swatches and font pairings. There’s kind of a formula that you follow and, depending on what your client’s needs are, you sort of check the boxes through the lens of branding.
For IDEAL, I took the opportunity to play with visual identity and only use those guidelines as a loose blueprint. I thought, “What could it look like if you push those boundaries and make it feel more DIY and loose and evolving?” I wanted it to feel approachable and not so buttoned up like a corporate branding identity might otherwise feel. It’s all about having fun and being spontaneous.
Yeah, I think so. What are you riding these days?
Good question. I’ve been riding an 8’4” Bing Pig Pin. It’s really fun for somebody who likes to shortboard but also likes the convenience and ease of catching waves on a longboard. The pin-shaped tail is very responsive so it can turn on a dime. The pointy nose helps you plow through chop pretty easily too. I really like it.
Other than that, I ride my 7'4" Mitsven and a 9'4" custom log by Rachel Lord. I also just got a 4th Gear Flyer surf mat and am having a blast on it.
Who are your influences?
I feel like I should be better prepared for this question. I mean, Thomas Campbell, for sure. Kassia Meador, definitely. And Leah Dawson. I really love the energy they bring to surfing and how they interact with people. I got to do a surf retreat with Kassia and Leah last fall, and they’re just the most wonderful people. So wildly talented. I could watch them surf forever. They’re just so cool. Oh, and Karina Rozunko. Definitely a style icon.
My last question was about mindfulness and how you would define mindfulness in the IDEAL philosophy and messaging but I think you did a great job of that already.
I feel like I talk in circles when I speak about mindfulness because we as a society are constantly in a cycle of learning and evolving. I hesitate to give a definitive statement about anything, really. With each day I learn so much and I want to stay open to that. Awareness and mindfulness work in tandem that way.
Learn more about IDEAL here.
