A New Independent Surf Film Is Coming. It’s Called Fairy

Since being dropped by Hurley amidst their month of mass layoffs Jamie Krups has been a busy boy. He and Seb Raubenheimer launched their own brand, and now Jamie is in the editing bay stitching together digital files in anticipation of the independent surf film, Fairy.

Truly independent, multi-surfer films are a scarcity in our modern surf climate. Not often (Rage is the best example I can think of) since Kai Neville’s decade defining films have we a bunch of like minded surfers come together to work on a film removed from their own sponsors interests. Fairy has been in the pipeline for a few months, if not a year now, but it will be seeing it’s first premiere this Friday at the Park House in Mona Vale, Sydney. 

“Fairy has been in the works for 12 months now.” Jamie told me over the phone. “It’s a project we’ve been working on entirely for the love. Mostly it’s just myself and a bunch of Australian surfers you mightn’t have heard of, but we’ve got an American cameo in there for good measure.”

A backside-rote for some likely disinterested onlookers.

Another backside air for a slightly more enthused onlooker, Jamie Krups.

Shot by Oscar Oshea and Dav Fox, the film has been gradually pieced together over numerous trips around the globe. While Fairy is mostly shot around Australia’s East Coast, there’s also a number of trips to Europe—mostly France and Portugal— and the surf trip staple that is Indonesia. 

“It was pretty months 12 months on the road, but this isn’t a big project with companies bankrolling us. It was us pretty much stringing together a trip every few months whenever we could afford it. To me, that’s what makes it special though. We just wrapped up our final trip to Forster a week ago.” Jamie continued. “Highline is helping us put together the premiere on Friday as well as print a handful of books and tee’s, but other than that it’s all being self-funded. We did this for the love. Purely for the sake of going on a trip together and trying to chase some good waves.

“In saying that it’s not easy to get everyone together on one trip. A friend of mine from home [on the Northern Beaches] Ben Penny is doing a trade apprenticeship. Fraser Dovell is studying architecture. Letty Mortensen and Kalani Ball are doing the Q. And then Noah Collins lives over in LA.”

While Jamie is one of the films ‘stars’, he’s also the person who pieced the majority of it together. “Oscar Oshea spent the last week cutting a bunch of it now. This week I’m just adding in some final adjustments. It’s at 95%, but I’m not going to feel like it’s complete until the final wave ends at the premiere this Friday.”

Jamie is however aware that the surfing in this film isn’t quite of the caliber from those films that inspired him and friends. Rather than making a 15-minute piece featuring the best waves from the trip, the film has a loose sort of narrative to make you feel as if you’re partly there on the trips themselves. The best waves, the blunders, and all the other antics anyone who’s eve hopped on a road trip will fondly remember.

“If you wanted to watch a pure surf porn clip with the best, hi-fi surfing then you would go on Vimeo or watch one of Kai’s movies. It’s going to be gnarlier than what we’ve got in terms of surfing—although Kalani and Samson do some pretty mind blowing shit in it.” Jamie said. “Initially, this is the angle we were heading towards, but I soon realised so much good footage would be left on the [cutting room] floor. Instead, we opted for a feature-length film which is trying to give you something more than just surf porn. The shit that you never see in films but once you’ve been on a few trips you realise is always happening. I wanted to bring some transparency to the process of making a film and going on trips.”

An often overlooked feature of surf films is the soundtrack. If you’re making a low-budget movie you can always risk it by running well-known, but unauthorised tracks, but once you’re touting a big budget and corporate sponsors don’t be surprised if you inbox suddenly floods with requests for compensation for a track you didn’t buy the rights too. Jamie and co. could’ve opted for the unauthorised route, but instead opted for a tracklist which mimicked the surfers and the project as a whole.

“Oscar live in Melbourne and is in a band himself. He also knows a bunch of good Melbourne bands—that I hadn’t heard of at the time—and after I listened we ended up running with all these local Australian bands.” Jamie said about the soundtrack. “They’re all made by a bunch of really young, mostly unknown artists and I feel like that reflects the film—it’s kind of the same way.

“The temptation to just run a whole Joy Division album was there, but that’s not how it’s going to go down [laughs].”

Fairy is premiering this Friday at the Park House hotel in Mona Vale from 6-10pm. 

The film features Kalani Ball, Samson Coulter, Seb Raubenheimer, Ben Penny, Letty Mortensen, Noah Collins, Ben Howard, Fraser Dovell, Kael Walsh, Jamie Krups, Holly Wawn, and Harry Bryant.