An ounce of originality, a dash of alliteration, maybe a pun. Probably a good story, at least. What follows are the genesis tales for the names of four (and a half) leading surf crews in the Nike Chosen contest.

Crew Name: Neck Rash
Backstory, as told by crew member Jamie Parkhurst:

"A few friends and I were skating around Venice, just sightseeing and such. So we're hanging out on the grass enjoying a beverage and some old surf dog bum came and sat next to us. I don't know why, but he kept calling me 'neck rash.' I did not have a rash on my neck. He continued to tell us these stories of the glory days, and how he burned Martin Potter in a heat once and really didn't give a shit, and between every little tale he would look at me and say, 'Are you listening, Neck Rash?' So when I was asked to come up with a name for a surf dog crew, all I could think about was that old dog and my Neck Rash nickname."


Crew Name: Raw Jersey Crew
Backstory, as told by crew member Rob Kelly:

"I don't really remember how the name originated, but we've been calling ourselves the Raw Jersey Crew for a while. As far as the tattoos, yeah, they are real. We got them when [writer] Matt Walker from SURFING Mag came to hang out with us to work on a story about New Jersey when we were in high school. We got 'RJC' tattooed in our lips so we would make the magazine, and it worked."

Crew Name: Dirty Harry and the Bandits
Backstory, as told by crew member Jason Harris:

"Basically, [crew member Matt Payne] and I got this little Super-8, just total rookies. We filmed a bunch of rolls and got it processed, and we were tripping out how cool the raw stuff looked. Matt wanted to edit something, and he'd heard some people calling me Harry or Harold, and Wardo used to call me Dirty Harry sometimes. Then Matt was watching the actual Dirty Harry Clint Eastwood movie, and he was like, 'Dude, we should do something sick with this.'"

Crew Name: Wild Lyfe
Backstory, as told by crew member Raven Lundy:

"Driving home from Hatteras one day, I was with my buddy Eddie. He does a lot of our filming, we do a lot of filming and cutting together, been best friends forever. We were in the car, just talking shit back and forth. We'd just had one of those super sessions, so good, like words can't describe what you just felt -- when you get barreled, get blown out. I don't know, we just came up with 'wild life,' and changed it to a Y, and thought, 'Maybe let's feed off that and get some energy.' It just started as a cool name -- is it about partying, or is it, like, animals? We'll walk up to random people going, 'What's the Wild Lyfe?' It's funny, it strikes up conversation. I asked some guys the other night, they're like, 'It's co-cayyyne!' I'm like, 'Are you kidding me dude? Where'd you get that from?'"

Crew Name: Chomp Proper
Backstory, as told by crew member Matt Meola:

[Actually, the story of the Chomp Proper name is better left shrouded in mystery. It originated with a friend's harrowing trip to Africa, and for the benefit of all parties, no more will be said about it here.]

See these and other crews put their skills on display -- or, hey, where's your crew? -- on the Chosen portal now.