Gallery: Ollies Del Dia

We go away on these trips to create surf films.

We have four cameras documenting every last move; when we get home, we squeeze hours of footage into four minutes. Less than one percent of what we shoot sees the light of pixels.

Instead of shelving the footage, especially the photography, we thought we’d mix it up and present our content in real time. If you follow Stab on Instagram, you’d know that we’re in Mexico chasing a swell and battling government regulations for the Dock 2.0, the follow-up to The Dock film we shot in Bali in 2017.

The goal with the Dock 2.0 was to evolve the concept. We wanted to get The Dock in big barrels, so we chased a swell to Oaxaca.

Like most of these projects, a few twists and turns we didn’t foresee presented themselves. First, the swell didn’t materialize the way we thought it would.

“There’s this moment of levitation when you take off.”

“That’s the boys wishing we had an esky (USA translation: cooler) on the dock.”

“Noa’s on his normal board, I’m on the cook here on my Drag bodyboard Christian James model. I kept my distance because when the wave steepens up, you started hooking and I would have bowled him over. It’s not as easy as you think sliding down a plastic ramp on a boog.”

“We did the same thing as the previous shot. Dion ran in front of me, I maybe. I actually hit that dude’s ankles there. That guy paddling out. He was like, ‘Sorry, amigo! Sorry, amigo!’
I said: ‘Nah, dude it was me.'”

The second, a municipal battle, which was how today started. We got in tight with one group which we thought had jurisdiction over a break. As it turns out they weren’t the only ones, and two groups have the rights to the spot. The next issue was the two groups don’t particularly get along; trying to mediate an old riff (which had nothing to do with us) to get the two to come to an understanding proved futile. 

After five days of negotiations and months of prep work, we were surprised and pushed firmly on still shooting at the original break. Mario, our local host, was frank: “Cero percent chance,” he said. “These guys are crazy. As in will-kidnap-you crazy. We need to forget about this place.” When we approached, there were 20 people, two of which were carrying machetes and one with a baseball bat…

Mexico is a funny place. One that at times appears free, a country where you can do whatever you please with minimal consequence. That is until it isn’t. When it isn’t, a slew of hurdles present themselves. And the next thing you know you’re in the mayor’s office attempting to convince him to allow you to rent an excavator and move sand to build a manmade bar in order to anchor your 180-cube floating dock in the middle of it, all in the name of a surf film.

“This was the Dad push I gave Dion first go. It worked pretty good. We want to do this when it gets bigger. We’ll be absolutely hooking. That’s a sick photo.”

“Noz tried to ollie the dock first. No one’s made it yet. It was bumpy and really hard to get a clean line at it. I’m thinking someone should pull this. The courage is there, there were just too many holes in the wave.”

“I got creased here. Thing slipped out completely underneath me.”

“This is when Dion pushed me. Starting at the back to the dock, when the wave comes he gave me the running push and the wave picks you up and you ride the momentum. It’s like the old school when your dad pushes your tail when you’re paddling for the wave.”

We got State approval but not Federal. 50 percent of 100 percent is, and always will be, a failing letter.

So we changed surf breaks and floated our 180-cube dock once again. Our boat captain didn’t want his vessel anywhere near swell, so we had to take a gamble and drop two anchors with 100 metres of Dyneema attached to it and hope it ended up on the wave. It wasn’t perfect but the boys were able to ride some waves, and we’re optimistic about the day.

“It’s like when you first get on a boat,” said Noa Deane, who dominated the sessions in Bali back in 2017. “You need to get your boat legs on. Took a little while to acclimatize.”

The goal today looked to be the boardslide and the ollie over the dock (1.7m wide). Two acts that yielded promise, but little success. You can see the aftermath of an ollie-gone-wrong with Eithan below.

“Sliding into the rope that time. That’s when I got my side all cut up.”

“He nearly made this. His tail was right up. You’ve gotta be hooking. You’ve got no idea how fast they’re coming at the dock when you’re standing there. You’ve got to be macking, they’re going really quick and they’re still not clearing but it’s probably the wind. If the wind was coming at you, it would help you get the lift.”

Here’s a snapshot of a long, warm day on the beach before the sun went orange and the full moon rose into the sky. We sat on the beach reflecting with lukewarm Modelos in hand.