I do not like mainstream surfing culture. I think what magazines, surfline.com, the ASP, Quicksilver and Billabong, represent is one very sheltered element of a larger culture. The sheltered element manifest itself in the way surfing is typically filmed. The template for a surf video is so simple and uninteresting, every shot begins the moment the surfer lets the rails go and stands up on the board and ends when the surfer kicks out the back of the wave or ducks under the wave. However, if you actually go surfing, you quickly realize that there is so much more to surfing then carving up a wave. You must paddle out through the waves, find the perfect spot to sit, read the swell, and catch that swell and ultimately, ride it. In between riding waves a surfer must deal with rip currents, shifting tides, channels, breakwaters, the landscape of the ocean floor, and other surfers around you. The elements, which make surfing interesting, are left out of most if not all of mainstream surfing culture.
Back to Dane, here is a guy who is unarguably one of the best competitive surfers in the world. Yet he is not sanitized by the competition structure like many of his rivals (Kelly). His “go for broke” style is inspiring and a bit self-destructive. He is sponsored by the top brands in the surfing world, yet he likes to downplay the influence the sponsors have on his surfing. At the 2006 Surfer Poll awards, he said, “thanks to Quicksilver for giving me stickers to put on my boards.” He rides single-fins, fishes, and foam boards when he’s not competing. But he’s not self-righteous about his interest in alternative and retro board design like his contemporary Rob Machado. The comparison to Machado is very informative. Machado perfectly exemplifies the soul-surfer, back to basics attitude of a retired competitive surfer. Machado’s film ‘Drifter’ was a montage of Rob, ‘leaving all the hype behind’ as he traveled through Indonesia. Yet the story just doesn’t connect as its obvious he was traveling with a film crew and helicopters shooting his every soulful gaze. But if you go to Dane’s website you can see him surfing, like actually surfing. You see Dane getting up early in the morning, driving his 1980’s era Volvo to the beach, paddling out, and paddling into a wave. You see everything from the gloriously large airs, to a curious seal following him out to the lineup, to the random stoner walking to work on the beach. The short films on Dane’s website are shot with an eye for style, and great music to accompany them. I particularly like the video shot in morocco, which I’ve linked to below. So thanks Dane, you are the man.
http://www.marinelayerproductions.com/
