Shot during the past winter in Arctic and North Atlantic waters, this sumptuously filmed tale focuses on Australian surfer Fraser Dovell’s transition from the hard grind of the WSL Qualifying series to letting go of the dream and ‘getting a real job’.
Along with filmmaker Spencer Frost and photographer Guy Williment, he embarks on one last journey, to a far Corner of the Earth, to search for hollow slabs and reeling points in the wild beauty and treacherous solitude of the Arctic. Battling extremes of weather and close encounters with the majesty of nature, Fraser comes to a new appreciation of just what it means to be a surfer.
In advance of the highly anticipated world premiere of A Corner of the Earth at the 9th Annual London Surf / Film Festival on the 1Oth October (TICKETS HERE), CARVE caught up with filmmaker Spencer Frost to find out more about his project.
CARVE: Tell us about your filmmaking background and how this project came about?
SPENCER: I’ve been making films since I was a mini grom – it all started taking turns as filming each other surf – trying to make sponsor tapes, you know how it is, the full grom froth! But for a full time job I’d say it’s coming on 6 years now. I slowly started getting approached by people to make smaller business videos and now I’ve been lucky enough for work for Red Bull Media House, BBC Earth, BMW Motorad, Corona, The North Face and heaps of surf companies. This project sparked from a crazy desire Guy and myself had for years to go and explore and document the places shown in the film – cold water surf trips always seemed so appealing to me. And I think visually they’re actually quite appealing to a lot of your everyday people watching from the safety of their couch as well, because it’s such a foreign concept for most people and way too far out of their comfort zones to even consider it. We asked around all the kind of profile surfers that we knew and Fraser jumped onboard with the project. We really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.
CARVE: How long have you known Fraser? Being a QS surfer is a hard slog – but giving up on the Tour dream must have been difficult. Was there a precipitation point that lead Fraser to make that call?
I’ve known Fraser for maybe close to 10 years now, we grew up in the same town surfing together – I’m a bit older than he is, but I remember him being such a talented grom and it wasn’t long after he was blowing up winning a few Aussie titles. I think the tour just got a bit much for Fras. I’ve seen so many friends chase that dream for ages and it can really take its toll. A lot of it I think comes down to luck – when you’re an amazing surfer but its 1ft and there’s only 1 set in a heat it’s really anyone’s game – and after you emptied your bank account trying to get there I can see how it might give the boys a bit of stress.
CARVE: What was it that drew you guys to the cold north?
I’m still not entirely sure. Whenever I saw photos or films from up in the Arctic my mind was blown. After watching a few other cold water travel films Guy and myself made the plan to try to venture up there somehow – and that’s where the inspiration for the project started I think. Snow covered mountains, icebergs and northern lights made it a pretty radical place to go on a surf trip, but that was the angle we were going for.
We approached a few surfers and companies initially and no one as really too keen, we’d never done a project like this and also never travelled to anywhere in the world nearly as wild as this.
CARVE: Some films really romanticise the freezing surf experience – and while your film shows it in a beautiful light, it also shows the other side – the painful mind numbing cold. Did the trip turn out as you expected? What were the high points and were there any low points?
We definitely didn’t want to try sell a dream, but also not over dramatise it either. More just tell the honest truth about how it was, how we were feeling at the time. As much as you fantasise about running through snow fields to surf pumping point breaks surrounded by mountains with not a single person in sight – in reality it’s actually pretty gnarly, physically painful and can get really dangerous really quickly if you’re not careful. But in saying that, if this trip inspires some people to run as far away from their comfort zones as they can then I think we did our job.
There were so many things to take into account travelling to the Arctic in the middle of winter – stuff a bunch of guys coming from Australia really weren’t prepared for – like there was only 4-5 hours of light (on the sunny days). A lot of the roads and access to the waves were shut permanently due to too much snow, the weather can change in seconds and if you’re not careful it can get down to -20 degrees and 100km winds with no warning. These times made for some of the most testing, but also the best stories and memories we have of the whole trip. But you’ll have to watch the film to find out some more ha, ha.
In hindsight and looking back on the trip almost nothing we had organised went to plan. But I truly think we got so lucky on so many occasions (and really unlucky a lot as well). At the end of the day we somehow reached our overall goal and ended up making a full length film and a photo book, which we honestly didn’t think we were going to pull off numerous times on the trip.
9th Annual London Surf / Film Festival x VANS is hosted 9th – 12th October 2019 at the iconic Regent St Cinema, presenting a carefully curated line up of the very best films from across the globe that represent the pinnacle of contemporary surfing right now! Accompanied by Q+A’s and ‘Audiences with…’ some of the world’s most exciting surfers and creatives it’s a celebration of the cream of cinematic surf culture
Check out the full line up for 2019 >> HERE.
Tickets are on sale now via the Regent Street Cinema >> HERE
