Have you been cruising down the 101 lately, and noticed a huge mural of a man on the side of the UNIV store? An anonymous street artist known as BERT painted the 17-foot-tall mural of the 2013 Pipe Master, Kelly Slater, holding a crystal ball. BERT is a local artist who paints all surf-related art, and overnight had this mural, ‘Hawaiian Pipedream,’ put up on the UNIV store.

On the artist’s website is the following description of this piece: “In the Kelly Slater biography titled ‘Pipe Dreams’ printed in 2003, Slater responded when asked where he sees himself in 10 years, ‘…competing at Pipe against kids like John John Florence… he is only 10 years old but already charging Pipe. When he is 20, I’ll be 40, and hopefully I will have a chance to surf against him.’ Slater’s Hawaiian Pipe Dream came true in the 2013 Pipe final – almost exactly 10 years later.”

BERT has installed art in cities up and down the California coast and continues to put up local paintings. BERT has made many other local paintings in Solana Beach, Carlsbad, and Encinitas.  The store manager of UNIV, James Abdonizio, says that another mural was just put up on the 101 by BERT, but was taken down due to vandalism. Abdonizio says that UNIV will keep the ‘Hawaiian Pipedream’ mural up for at least a month.