The next installment in the Legendary TVC’s series is this gem of a Coke commercial from ’75 with footage from George Greenough‘s seminal Echoes, set to the song with the same name by Pink Floyd. The music in the commercial is not by Pink Floyd, but whatever band made the soundtrack they only changed enough notes to stay clear of a lawsuit.
Don’t forget to check out the previous episodes of Legendary TVC’s: Toohey’s Extra Dry (feat Mark Richards) and Quiksilver (feat Ross-Clarke Jones) if you missed them!
Tahiti resident Tim McKenna has captured some fantastic angles at what must be one of the world’s most photographed waves at the moment.
Tilt Shift lenses are frequently used in architectural photography to control perspective, and in landscape photography to get an entire scene sharp. They can also be used to create a selective focus area to simulate a miniature scene. Outrigger canoes, small boats, jetskis and surfers are perfect subjects for this. This is the photographic effect Tim has been working on while flying around French Polynesia these last few years.
The new Craig Anderson Moments clip dropped some time ago and it is unreal. Nobody his age surfs with the same degree of style and composure. The introductory barrel, cutback and backside double-grab air-reverses (what?!) could close any respectable surf movie.
Lengthy Nathan Fletcher profile by Joel Patterson for Surfer Magazine. Happy to see him finally getting the recognition he deserves.
“Fiji was the culmination of a long road,” he says in a gravely voice. “The sun was out, I had the right board for the swell size, I was with like-minded people, the media was there to record it, and to get barreled like that and come out was emotionally overwhelming. It was like winning a lifetime achievement award. When you throw your morals out the window and put everything on the line and make it, it’s an incredible feeling.”
Since Fletcher’s return to the surf spotlight more than a decade ago, that feeling has become his guiding light. His location at any given moment has been dictated by the swell patterns of the Pacific, traveling on a moment’s notice to Mavericks and the North Shore in the winter, Mexico and the South Pacific in the summer—the bigger the wave, the better.
“Nathan’s an integral part of the evolution of big-wave surfing,” says Greg Long, who has emerged as the spokesman for a generation of chargers who have largely turned their backs on tow-in surfing and its reliance on technology. In fact, the genesis of the anti-tow movement can be tracked back to the morning of December 6, 2008, when Fletcher and Kohl Christenson showed up at Mavericks on a cold and foggy morning without any tow-in equipment on a day that was considered “too big to paddle.” The two considered packing up and going home, but Nathan remembers Kohl turning to him and saying with a smile, “I may never come to Mavericks again, we gotta go out there an at least get pounded on one.” As the tow-in circus swirled around them, the two battled current and dodged sets for hours, until, in close succession, each caught a bomb.
Their groundbreaking session was largely ignored by the surf media, which was focused on the death of big-wave legend Peter Davi, who drowned that same day while surfing Ghost Tree, but the inner circle of the big-wave community was watching. The session became a call to return to big-wave surfing’s roots.
“Nathan and Kohl’s foggy day session was definitely one of the pivotal moments in the paddle-in movement,” says Greg Long. “When I saw those photos, I thought, ‘If those guys are catching waves like that in those conditions, what else is possible?’”
Do yourself favor and read the whole thing over at Surfer Magazine.
This recap of John Florence’s incredible season finale in his backyard is well worth a watch.
A few days after Oahu’s 19-year-old John John Florence won Hawaii’s Triple Crown of Surfing, he took a moment to reflect upon being the youngest surfer in history to earn this coveted title. John John talks us through what it means to win in front of family and friends and, most of all, in his own backyard.
Chris Bryan has just released some insane Phantom footage from the ridiculously gnarly August day at Teahupoo last year. Scary doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Update: The original video hosted on Chris Bryan’s Vimeo was pulled but the above YouTube embed is the same clip that someone else has uploaded.
The above shot of Christian Redongo by Zak Noyle in Tahiti was just voted Surfer Magazine Photo of the Year. It’s certainly a lovely shot, no doubt about that, but I would be hard pressed to have to pick between that and the ones below. One thing is certain however – this years finest surfing photography was mas o menos owned by the talented Zak Noyle and Chris Burkard.
2011 was certainly a good year to be in Tahiti. One of the best water photographers in the biz, Zak Noyle, left his home island of Oahu with a small crew bound for Teahupoo. Talent is great when it comes to photography, but a little bit of luck never hurts either. Nature provided for this shot with a perfect peeling tube ridden by Christian Redongo, and the kind of rainbow that postcards are made of.
Derek Hynd finless at J-Bay by Alan van Gysen
Former pro surfer turned journalist Derek Hynd is one of surfing’s most enigmatic characters. This is why we sent Steve Shearer to learn what he could about Derek and his cult-hero persona and profile him for our October issue. What Shearer discovered that Hynd’s crusade against friction allows him to attain unnatural velocities. Here we see Derek reaching terminal velocity on a wide-open wall at J-Bay.
Iceland lineup by Chris Burkard
When most surfers think of their dream surf trip, they usually don’t picture throwing on a 5/4 wetsuit with booties and gloves in Nordic waters. Luckily for Chris Burkard and a small crew of surfers, this meant that they had all of Iceland’s frigid perfection to themselves. Burkard spent his stay shooting perfect, empty lineups and some of the most awe-inspiring landscapes that you could ever hope to find on a surf trip.
Jesse Merle-Jones from below by Zak Noyle
Nothing matches the calming effect of the underwater world. Even just a few feet below the surface things move in slow motion, colors are muted, hard edges become soft, and quiet envelopes everything. “I love this perspective because it gives surfers such a different view of what they normally see,” says Zak Noyle, who spent an entire day swimming on the reef with just a camera and a pair of goggles. “There’s so much going on below the water that’s hidden to the viewer above, from how shallow the reef really is to the way that the wave barrels and turns inside out on itself below the surface. It’s so beautiful. I kept forgetting to come up for air.” Photo: Noyle
