Don’t Call It a Comeback Julian Wilson inspires us with his new film.
Sure, he was once crowned Pipe-Master. But today surfer Julian Wilson has an even more important title – Dad. Newly back on the scene after some time out of the spotlight, a journey documented in his new film directed by Robin Pailler. When you have some of the surf world’s most coveted awards on your trophy shelf, it could be easy to let it all get to your head. Luckily, Julian’s not the kind of guy to have a trophy shelf at all. That’s what makes him one of our favourite surfers.
Dillon’s one of my favourite surfers of all time, but he wouldn’t believe me if I told him that. We travelled together extensively filming for various projects right up to when his sponsors pulled the pin. I was kind of a jerk, when he asked me if Former would sponsor him I said we could use an accountant as a joke. The truth was we were just in no position to sponsor someone as a barely fledging business. Dillon flipped the script and went back to school to study economics. I didn’t see much of him for a few years and when we did see each other I’d make frat boy jokes and I still don’t know if he hated my guts but he says he never hated me when I ask.
Hunter and I have been talking about making a ‘Searching for Dillon Perillo’ film for a few years cause he vanished suddenly from the spotlight and obviously it’s a parody of one of my favourite films ‘Searching for Tom Curren’ but we’re both huge fans of his surfing and wanted to do a chapter 11 vid on him to update the surf world. Then he came on this trip with us and here we are.
I didn’t see Dillon on many waves in person on this trip, I cut my dome during best part of swell and I rarely saw his waves from the front when we did surf together. When I saw the footage I was blown away, not many people surf like this. His style and technical ability are an insane combination. Stoked to showcase his surfing and tell his story, hope you enjoy!
Mickeys Smiths Dark Side of the Lens, perhaps the best surf film ever made, certainly from a surf photographers point of view up there with Greenough’s classic ‘Crystal Voyager’.
And in these times of war, divisive politics and corporate greed Mickeys words resonate more than ever.
“If I only scrape a living, at least it’s a living worth scraping. If there is no future in it, at least the present is worth remembering.”
Sit back and take it in, it only gets better the more you watch.
Mickey now plays with Ben Howard and in his own band Blaze of feather.
Dark Side of the Lense
“Me ma always encourage us to open our eyes and hearts to the world. Make up our own minds for experiences and be inspired.
“I see live in angles, and lines in perspective, slight turn of the head the blink of an eye, subtle glimpse of magic other folk may past by, cameras help me translate, interpret and understand what I see, it’s a simple act that keeps me grinning.
“I never set out to become anything in particular, only to live creatively and push the scope of my experience for adventure for passion, that still all means something to me. Same as most anyone’s with dreams.
“My heart bleed Celtic blood, and I am magnetized to familiar frontiers, raw brutal cold coast lines for the wave riders to challenge. This is where my heart beats hardest. I try to pay tribute to that magic through photographs, wherever in the endless storms for rare glimpses of magic is winter. It’s both a blessing and a curse I relish. I want to see wave riding documented as the way I see it in my head and the way I feel it in the sea. It’s a strange set of skills to begin to accrue and it’s only achievable through time spent riding waves, all sorts of waves all sorts of crafts, more time out learning in the water, floating in the sea among lumps of swell, you always learn something. Life long classroom teacher of sorts and hopefully always will be. Buried beneath headless, shaping the coast, mind blowing images of empty waves burn away at me. Solid ocean swells powered by deep cold water, heavy waves, waves with weight. Cold creeping in to your core driving you mad, day after day, mumbling to yourself to wait for the next set to come. The Dark Side of the Lens.
“An art from silent workhorses of the surfing world. There is no sugar or cliche, most folk don’t even know who we are or what we do or how we do it let alone pay us for it. I never want to take this for granted so I try to keep my resented keep simple, real and positive. If I only scrap a living, at least its living worth scrapping. If there is no future in it, at least the present is worth remembering.
“Fires of happiness and waves of gratitude for every that brought us to the point on earth at that moment of time to do something worth remembering photograph or a scar. I feel genuinely lucky to hand on hart to say that I love doing what I do and that I never be a rich men If I live long enough I currently have a tale or two to the nephews. I dig the feel of that.”
“I love surfing so much. Therefore, for this episode, I naturally teamed up with surfer William Aliotti, my favourite free surfer and former team mate. The idea was to explore the similarities & connections between snowboarding and surfing by recreating some iconic moves on both side, in an artistic way.
Both riders are perfectly mirroring each other’s moves, on the same element – water – while playfully shifting between its frozen and liquid states. A vision magnified through a pure and simple black and white lens, accompanied by a dreamy soundtrack created specifically for the occasion by Dark Sky.” – Victor Daviet
Monster swell hits in the Hossegor region. We are relieved following these past two storms that the sand bank hasn’t been destroyed, on the contrary it is perfectly in place witnessing this XXL session last Saturday. – Enjoy.
🏄 Vincent Duvignac, Paul Prezat, Floris Figues, Louis Poupi, Jeff Lartigue, Scalp, Remi Cordier, Paul Duvignau, François Elharrar, Leo Etienne, Kyllian Guerin, William Aliotti, Enzo Cavallini,
“Waiting through gale force winds, darkness, blizzards, white outs and snow makes it all the more special when eventually the magic happens.” says Ian Battrick, and he would know about it.
Batty spends months of his life sleeping in his car or van, living on porridge oats, on freezing cold Nordic adventures, check out his Artic adventures below, Batty is indeed a classic. @ianbattrick@lunasurf
An arctic adventure with surfing nomad and underground ripper Ian Battrick. Batty is about as hardcore as they come, global solo surf traveller and super stoked, this edit was mainly self-filmed over time, using a GoPro or camera just left on a tripod. With over 20 years experience of surfing the Arctic, Batty will do anything for a strike mission as this edit shows…
Thank you for the additional clips from: Vilhjálmur Ólafsson Mike Cochran Baptiste Hardoy Ben Weiland (Dane’s waves) Steve Lewis Elli Thor Haukur Arara Gunnarsson
