Kelly Slater composing the music for the Fiji section. Leave it to Kelly, Alex Gray and Dane Gudauskas to find the best waves on earth that day. Photo: Myers
Words, photos and film by Nathan Myers
Somehow my name ended up in the director slot of this film. It’s all a bit confusing to me. Anything I know, I know from following Taylor Steele around the world these last few years. And I’m sure a handful of other modern surf directors would say the same. Kai Neville. Matt Beauchesne. Greg Browning. I’m in good company.
Taylor would never put it this way. Wouldn’t like me doing it either. There’s a part of him that makes these fancy videos, and part of him that sits in the audience with the rest of us. Just a fan. Just a surfer. Both those parts of him worked on this movie.
As I ran around our edit-house splashing caffeine and alcohol on anything flammable or electrocutional (I still have things to learn), Taylor was calming shooting three music videos (Wolfmother, Angus Stone and MT WARNING), developing the next Corona campaign, playing with his two daughters (while wife Sybil shot the next Billabong catalogue in Hawaii), surfing just the right tides and sprinkling surfing fairy dust over the final edits of Here & Now, like: “Swap those waves out,” he’d say. “Kill that whole section.” (Sorry, dude.) And then… “Kelly’s on his way to record the music for his section.”
Stuff like that. Magic stuff. The best stuff in the movie.
Here & Now is a unique project. Titles like “director” and “producer” are really just words. Innersection Films is making surf movies in a new way. To film this entire project in a single day would not have been possible for a single person. This is collaborative filmmaking. A network. A symphony. A jigsaw.
Music Director MT WARNING works his ProTools magic while guitarist Andy Six String lays a drum track. Everyone wore multiple hats on this project, creating most of the music during the edit process. Photo: Myers
Our crew this time included a dozen amazing surfers from every different backgrounds. We pooled footage from some of the industry’s best lensmen: Bali Strickland, Loic Wirth, Ryan Heywood, Jeremy Koreski and Peter King, just to name a few. We made the music mostly in-house, under the sonic supervision of MT WARNING and bluesibilly guitars of our lead editor Andy Six String. With Kelly, Rasta and Ozzy all contributing tracks. Then there was Angus Stone, Wolf & Cub and Years Around the Sun also splashing poetry onto the canvas.
It all felt like a family project. A jam session with friends. No one ever said, “How much?” or “What’s in it for me?” They just jumped in and played along. The best kind of work ever. And as we reach the exhausting conclusion, my only thought is the same one I get every time I finish riding wave: I wanna do that again.
So humbled just to be here. So stoked to share this film now. But I don’t think of it as mine, or as Taylor’s, or as anyone else’s who gave as kick to this mad dash experiment. We’re all just in the audience.
International Surfing Day is a celebration of the connection we all share through surfing. Here & Now is a movie about that connection. Forget those high-flying acrobatics we love like the circus: this is a movie about real surfing. Adventures. Road trips. Wipeouts. Getting skunked. Going camping. And finally scoring.
And we can’t wait to do it again.
Happy International Surf Day. We’ll see you at the theater.
Here & Now Trailer
INTERNATIONAL SURFING DAY – JUNE 20TH
Here & Now Premiere schedule
San Diego, CA — June 20th
7:30 pm @ 1404 Vacation Road, Paradise Point
*hosted by Surfrider Foundation & BYOB
Encinitas, CA – June 20th7 & 9 pm @ La Paloma Theater
*hosted by the director
(RAEN afterparty at The Saloon)
Santa Barbara, CA – June 20th
7 pm @ Channel Islands Surfboard Store
*sponsored by Wahoo’s Tacos
Tofino, BC – June 20th
9pm @ Shelter Restaurant
*presented by Storm Surf, Monster Energy,
Hurley, Reef, Nixon & Oakley
Ormond Beach, FL — June 20th
7 pm @ Rip Tides Raw Bar and Grill
*presented by Maui Nix Surf Shop
Miami Beach, FL – June 20th
8 pm @ F1RSTSurf Shop
*presented by F1RST Surf Shop, GoPro,
Portofino Wine Bank & Mandarin Napoleon
Byron Bay, NSW (Australia) – June 20th
7:30 @ Beach Hotel
*hosted by Taylor Steele & special guests
Corpus Christie, TX — June 23rd
7:30 pm @ Doc’s Seafood and Steaks
South Padre Island Drive
*hosted by Wind & Wave Water Sports
Stay tuned to www.Innersection.tv for more premieres to come
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