Gallery: “The Dock”

In May, along with some of our favourite Volcom riders, we towed this 100-foot dock out into the middle of a Balinese lineup. Our intention was an experiment in alternative wave entry-a paddleless lineup. But, turns out, alternative water entry has its pitfalls. Six-foot faces slamming onto a half tonne block of plastic is a recipe for injury and fortunately for us, not disaster. Although, it had a penchant making surfboards look like they’d fallen from the roof of a car madly swerving down a highway. Watch the short film here! 

“I’ve been jumping off the dock,” said Noa when we asked a rhetorical question. “I’ve got the same feeling when you’re getting barreled so much that you kinda go brain dead because you’ve been having so many crazy and fun times.”

“Everything about the dock was dangerous: The whole idea, the ropes in the waves, giant plastic heavy duty industrial blocks coming at your head,” photog Tom Carey, who sat, flopped and waddled on the dock, snapping photos, dodging waves and occasionally swimming deep for cover told Stab. “It’s a miracle no one got hurt. There were some close calls but everyone walked away unscathed.”

“Running around that thing with flippers on was almost impossible,” said Tom, who you can see here, bailing stage left. “I looked like Bambi trying to walk and shoot on it. You have to get clear of it when you fall, it’s so scary!”

“I was thinking recently, I can’t believe we pulled that off. Looking at the footage, everyone almost dies at one point or another. If that dock bitch slapped someone they’d probably get knocked out. It’s no joke. But, this was by far the most fun I’ve had shooting in a long time. We had a fucking blast.”

We shot the dock over a three day period. Each morning before sunrise, we towed the plastic mass a few breaks south of Keramas. The dock had a slickness to it, but the plastic grooves gave it just the right amount of traction. The first day we towed it out, the waves were a little too big. It was scary. We wondered if this would be a classic case of good vision, poor execution. It wasn’t until the second and third day that things started to come together. 

Yago Dora was the first to dial in the Dock, but he had to leave early–swept away to Fiji as a CT wildcard. Followed by him, Tom Carey told us, “Noa and Imai took to it real easily. It’s kind of slippery and they were just going for it. Balaram too.”

When our completed our research into this sans-paddle world. We towed the entire dock back to Benoa Harbour for the last time. We stripped it down block by block and packed it into a container. We then sent it back to its home at Can Dock in Canada; where it will sit individual cubes, until its next chance to link and snake again.