drift, perspectives in surfing

“I’m in my 40th year of surfing in San Diego and I’ve been through every stage of jaded disillusionment with the place. Ryan Burch is like an antidote for all that stuff. He’s a muse and an inspiration. When he’s surfing his foam chunks I’d rather be on the beach filming him… he’s so fun to watch. I don’t think I’ll ever see that kind of spontaneous outburst of creativity in surfing again in my life.”—Richard Kenvin

We’ve got the first interview with the filmmaker in anticipation of the May 4 World Premiere of his new film “Castles in the Sky”…

A little while ago the perennial stoker outers at the Mollusk Surf Shop relaunched their website. It seems that since then they’ve been stacking it high with rad bits and pieces, including a killer two part interview with Skip Frye…

Images from the Australian surf culture art show and an interview with the curator, Nell Schofield…

A couple of blokes from Byron Bay, rumored to be ex-WQS journeyman Johnny Abegg and Matt Yeates of Sea Surfboards, have cooked up what looks to be a “buck the status quo” kind of surf film. Make the jump to read the Drift interview with the filmmakers…

This year’s winner for the Viewer’s Choice award at the NYSFF came out of the unlikely spot of Cleveland, Ohio. “Out of Place” is a portrait of surfing on Lake Erie. Not just a film documenting that yes, there are waves on the Great Lakes, “Out of Place” is a glimpse into the lives of the core people who make up Cleveland’s surfing community.

Surfing can be such a selfish pursuit, its easy to take the pure fun of it for granted. Everyone has those grumpy days in the water, mad that a few others wanted to paddle out and “ruin” your perfect session. Really, we should be stoked to even have the opportunity to surf and share it with others. A few local kids in Bangladesh are, and filmmaker Russ Brownley tells their story with his movie “Gum For My Boat”, which premiered at the NYSFF.

In late September the Drift office packed it up for a few days and headed down south to the wilds of NYC for the second annual New York Surf Film Festival. The weekend featured the best in independent, grassroots surf cinema and the house that De Niro built (the Tribeca Film Center) buzzed all weekend long.

An interview with Tyler Healy the maker of the short film “I’d rather sink than call brad for help,” a short sequence that questions space and time.

New week we’ll release our Drift Feature Article on shaper Josh Hall. Andy Smith conducted an extensive series of interviews with Josh for the piece, so we thought we’d share a video snippet as a little preview.

Rob Kulisek interviews Kyle Pahlow and Nick Zegel, the filmmaker and art director behind the new 16 mm surf film “A Pleasant Surprise.” The film premiers at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, New Jersey on September 11–special musical guest Sean Bones–$5 7PM. A screening will also be held at the New York Surf Film Festival the weekend of September 25.

Marco Ortiz is a surfer and shaper who lives in Guadalajara, Mexico. He shapes under the name ATL Surfboards and also does contract work for the Mexican surf brand Squalo, shaping performance boards for their team riders.