Danny Shanahan discusses the inspiration behind his cover of this week’s issue.

“I used to always go in the ocean, but the last few times I’ve been to the beach, I’ve done exactly what those guys are doing,” Danny Shanahan says about this week’s cover. Shanahan didn’t tell us how he wears his trunks, but he explained why he now stays close to the shore. “The last three consecutive times I went in at the Cape, I ended up with a scratched cornea and in the urgent-care center there. Three times in a row, and it was just incredible pain. I couldn’t open my eyes, I couldn’t close my eyes, all because I had opened them underwater and got sand in there. It was just unbearable. So now I tend to either go to the mountains or play golf. The last vacation I had, I went to Scotland and played golf, and I didn’t even think about going in the water. I didn’t have to—with all the rain, the water comes to you.”

via:newyorker