Studio Aiuto

I have a confession to make. I have never been to the West Coast. Not even once. It’s a region (and perhaps a culture) that I’m not familiar with. But when Jaime Di Dio Aoyama, founder of Studio Aiuto and based in the tiny San Diego coastal town of Leucadia, sent me these pictures I suddenly had a strong urge to plan a visit.

Co-founder and in-house designer Seitaku “Tak” Aoyama was raised in Japan but currently works out of Leucadia, where he overlays his own Japanese perspective with the indigenous culture. For his latest project, Tak designed this surfboard that, in his own words, is a celebration of the fact that “life and death coexist…. When I no longer need my body, I will contribute it to nature with the possibility that animals could use my former ‘home’ as their own. They can have a party in there.”