Though formally founded in 2003 by South Bay surfer and artist Andrew Sarnecki, HippyTree more accurately began in early 2000 with a twenty-one-year-old Sarnecki who, at the time, sported waist-length dreads and a car full of spray-paint cans, surfboards and cameras. “Hippy,” the name Sarnecki’s friends fittingly called him, also marked his half-ironic graffiti moniker. Frustrated with the bureaucracy of publishing his photos in major surf publications, he began designing and printing his own mini-surf magazine entitled, “South Bay.” He distributed thefree publication to friends and local surf shops, and before long the booklets were getting hyped in the LA surf scene.
After publishing two issues, and getting constant inquires about further goods, Sarnecki created a South Bay wall calendar, along with a t-shirt, tidebook and sticker. His bedroom became his ad hoc business headquarters and within a matter of months thousands of orders had been placed. And the rest is Hippy Tree history.
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