I think enough time has passed that my ego can handle this. Back around AD 2010 Dane Reynolds was, to put it bluntly, the shit. He still is for a variety of reasons (dad, business man, Former and Chapter 11 founder), but let’s go back to the white hot era — when drawing crude black and white pictures on your boards, wearing denim shirts, eating McDonalds fries with beer and riding Neck Beard surfboards was en vogue.

I was working at Surfing Magazine and Dane compromised my “journalistic” integrity because he freaking ripped and we all wanted to be him. And while I could talk a lot about his surfing, which consisted of a preternatural talent and some kind of reckless abandon that allowed his tuck knee airs and “fuck you” layback hack to have more authority than anyone, it was what he was able to do back on land that made him even more interesting. It was never more evident than when he started wearing a denim shirt every day.

I was lucky enough to be on the Modern Collective trip with Dane, Jordy, Dusty, Mitch, Dion and Yadin. The one where Kai Neville filmed the “Mind Dimension” intro to the film before going to Gold Coast to film the final surf section. During that trip, we were all gaga for Dane. Even Jordy Smith — who at the time was in a man-on-man duel for gnarliest up-and-coming surfer with him — was in awe. Dane had all our hearts.

One day, while out walking around Melbourne between studio shoots, Jordy started shopping around. “Bru, where can I get a denim jacket?” I remember him saying. Surfer Poll was coming up and Dane had been relentlessly wearing these button down denim shirts, and well, Jordy needed one too. We all did. Look back at that era and you will find a ridiculous amount of surfers — myself, Conner Coffin, Dusty Payne, Kolohe Andino, Luke Davis, Jordy Smith and many more included — guilty of donning button down denim shirts.

Now I have copied before. Everyone from the Ultimate Warrior to Deion Sanders have influenced my style at some point in my life and been copied. But never have I been so gone and under a spell as I was for Dane in that era. We all were. We hacksawed the tails of our surfboards thinking we could surf like him if we wore denim and listened to enough Sonic Youth reverb. We couldn’t, but this is the power of style. It makes us do goofy things only the original can pull off. Like wearing stupid cheap denim shirts.

In episode 2 of “Style Matters” — our 4-part series with Vissla — we talk about how having style doesn’t stop in the water. It may be how they hook us, but you better bring it to the land too. Whether that is a denim shirt or signature beanie-leather jacket combo or rocking a suit to the airport like Mike Hynson and Robert August, it’s an important layer if you want your name in the pantheon of great styles.

For a master class in social media style, please look no further than Tom Curren’s IG @curfuffle. None of us are worthy, but we’re all guilty.—Travis Ferré