Enter a world of magic and mystery, in my own head, where surfing and snowboarding are considered real jobs! Amazing feats of daring and skill are performed every day - and that's just getting the footage onto film!
Media anarchist, film guru, surf addict and web video blogger!
For 3 years now, I have been working very closely with the guys from Dragon Power. I have run their media for the live Muay Thai fight nights. I run their online media content and of course we made a successful Reality Tv Show, called "Way of the Warrior".
Many people ask me, "What is Muay Thai?" Well, take a look at this video and find out:
Incredible is the only word for me that sums up this Martial Art. So why not meet the 3 guys that have introduced me to it:
Cloudbreak was once the domain of rich US and Oz surfers, as it was a private Island and could only be surfed by the paying guests. This has all changed recently as the new government of Fiji have decided that in order to boost surf tourism, there can be no private waves!Not sure if you want 20ft tubes? haha
Its been a horribly long time to wait for a South African surfer to win one of our major international contests. We have been hosting contests since the seventies and you have to go back to that time and surfers such as Shaun Thompson and Mike Burness to feel the pride of victory on home soil. Shane Thorn winning the Country Feeling in the nineties, was the last time I can remember a major victory on home soil for a Zaffer - oh wait, there was Ricky Bobby taking the Mr Price Pro. Never mind the wait we have had for an SA surfer to win a WCT event. Though guys like Greg Emsley, Travis Logie and RoydenBryson have certainly flown the flag - it's been frustrating to not see a victory.
The winter of 2010 was to change all of this. Firstly we had the Mr Price Pro, which in reality is still flying the flag for the old Gunston 500. With many internationals not making the event this year due to the Soccer World Cup, the door was wide open for our local surfers to make the charge for victory. It was two surfers from opposite sides of the pro arena who made it count. Firstly we had Casey Grant, the young upstart from the South Coast. This kid has never been short of talent, but for quite some time it looked like he might go the way of plenty of SC surfers before him - plenty of talent, but no big match temperament and no desire for the big lights and rock and roll lifestyle of the world tour. We have seen many of these guys go quietly to a life of fishing or plumbing and perhaps the world was robbed of seeing some of the best surfers from our shores. But, Casey proved this will not be his life. Heat by heat he simply blew the competition out of the water, showing his bag of massive airs mixed with solid power surfing. It was only in the final where he came short - and lets be honest, he lost to the biggest name in the history of our surfing, Jordy Smith. The big lad from the WCT, showed why he is currently number 2 in the world and fighting Kelly Slater off for his first world title. But much more was to come from the kid who would be king.
Jbay welcomed the pros of the World Tour to the Billabong Pro in the best possible way. Four days of cooking waves back to back that saw the contest organisers not even having to use the waiting period. From the moment you stepped on to the holy boardwalk at Supers on the first day, you could feel that something special was about to happen. There was a buzz like a million hearts were vibrating together, perhaps a lag effect from the magical World Cup? The JBU boys had their own deck on the boardwalk and were braaing up a storm and making more noise than the rest of the beach put together. Every time a Zaffer hit the water there was a storm of voices cheering him on. There was also no way they could ever not know a set was on the way as the crew blared on their Vuvuzelas. All the Zaffers put on noteworthy performances, with Shaun Holmes proving once again that he is indeed a giant killer when it comes to competing at Jbay. He took out both Andy Irons and Kelly Slater, making us all wonder what could have been, if he had decided to go on tour and become a WCT surfer. It was Jordy though who had the crowd and his fellow surfers in awe, showing heat by heat that he truly is a possible world champ. Never before has a beach of loyal supporters been so animated and in all our minds we hoped he would win. He did not let us down, winning the contest and taking the number 1 slot on tour in the process. Finally we had a WCT winner, not only at home, but in contention for the overall title.
UnfortunatelyJordy could not carry this winning momentum into a 3rd victory at home, at the O"Neill Cold Water Classic, in Cape Town. Luckily for us, the rest of the Zaffer crew would take up the torch. Outstanding performances by Frankie Oberholzer, Dan Redman and Antonio Bortaletto saw them all finish in the top of the competition. But, it was the old campaigner and stalwart of South African surfing, Greg Emslie, that would end up dominating the event. he was on fire the final day of competition and was never looking like not making the finals. His smooth and radically fast surfing at Long Beach saw him take the event and make it a clean sweep for South Africans in the home circuit of the world tour events. A first for South Africa and a truly proud moment for all of us.
So now we move toward summer and our pro surfers leave our shores to compete in the back leg of both tours. Jordy currently sits in 2ND place on the WCT rankings and must be considered a serious contender for the first time. Kelly Slater sits in front of him, trying for his 10TH world title. What a time for a South African to win the tour for the first time, and I know all of our hopes and dreams rest on Jordy's rather large shoulders. We can only hope that the results of this winter transcend onto the rest of the tour and that soon we have more than two surfers competing for the WCT title. Travis made the much talked about cut to the Top 32 and we wish him luck in staying there until we can get more of our talented surfers there to join him.
Its time for South African surfers to realise their potential - its time for us to take charge, not just at home, but around the planet!
Okay, so when I was a wee nipper - I really was once upon a time - all I ever wanted to do was make movies. To be up on that big screen just like my heroes, that's what I wanted. So, thirty or so years later and I finally make it onto the set of a real Hollywood production. That's right, Hollywood!
At the beginning of the year, along with most of the Llandudno surf posse, I went to castings for Blue Crush 2, at the behest of our good friend and all round rockin gal, Lorin Barnes. To say it was a laugh would be an understatement, I thought they would put me up on the website like those idiots who ruin their reputations on Idols. But low and behold someone up top liked what they saw and 2 days before shooting began - yes that is right, 2 days before - I got the call that finally made that long held childhood dream a reality. I was going to be an actor!
The Cast of BC2
Hard at work!
Ok, so the story - a surfer girl from California does not want to go to College like her father wants - she basically has a real shitty relationship with him to, as her mother died when she was young and he throws himself into his work, instead of spending time with her. She decides to follow her mother's surfing footsteps and run away to South Africa, where she wants to surf the same spots her mother did from Durban to Jbay. She arrives in Durban, gets robbed - real surprising that, haha - and meets a local, black surfer girl, who helps her out and takes her to meet the "Surf family" at their beach house on the South Coast. This is where I come in, Max, the ex Belgian mercenary, who now loves instead of hates, surfs and is the father figure, sort of, for this dysfunctional surf family. Good times are had, until the cops destroy our house and we all jump on an ancient tour bus to Jbay. Shew! That kinda gives you an overview.
Flying up to Durban, my only consolation to the fact that I had no idea what I was in for, was that my good bud and fellow surfing journeyman, Andrew "Roosta" Lange, was also on the cast list. At least we would enter this new world of acting together - haha, nervous is probably an understatement for that first day! Luckily f0r me, Roosta was up first - and promptly got pissed on by one of the other characters. I followed screaming at the top of my lungs for what felt like 3 hours, out a tiny window on the bus - there was a "rhino" coming!
Roosta Enjoying himself on set.
What totally blew me away on these first few days on set, was how easily it seemed to be coming to us. With no former acting experience it was pretty intimidating having 3 huge cameras and an entire set of hard working people focused on you. But you got over the fright rather quickly and moved onto actually enjoying it. The greatest secret learnt - switch off any feelings of doubt and self worry and just go with it. Acting is not a pastime for anyone who is any way self conscious!
One of the most interesting details that quickly became apparent, was that even though this was a movie about surfing - one of the primary reasons we were casted - we were not in fact going to surf that much. In fact we were primarily there to "act" as surfers. While this might strike one as very odd, and it certainly made us scratch our heads initially, it is in fact the way of the movies and something we grew to accept as we moved along. Hopefully the few sessions we did have will show us as actual surfers and not Hollywood wannabes.
Hard at work on the Beach.
During the course of the shoot we filmed in amazing locations such as Oribi Gorge (And got to do the Gorge Swing which was insane), the South Coast of Natal, Roosta's home neighbourhood and one of the best places for warm water waves in the world, Transkei - though no one was to keen on surfing at Port St Johns due to the local shark population, and finally Jbay, which is in my home area and felt like coming home with my new and very large surf family. This truly was the hi-lite for me of the entire experience - the amazing people we met and the bonds of friendship that were made. The entire crew from actors, to grips to the poor peeps stuck in the office - we all got along and it actually felt like a giant extended family.
Coming up after the cliff jump!
With Mike Elliot, the Director.
So now the experience is behind me and we wait with baited breath for the release, which will probably only be late next year. In the meantime I am trying to get more work - Acting definitely appeals to me and I want more experience. So look out for the movie and hold thumbs for more!
