Coming Soon: ‘Friction of Perception’ — A Non-Reductive Portrait Of Liam O’Brien
“Are you who you think you are, or who everyone else thinks you are?”
It’s Friday night at Burleigh Brewing. The room is full, the smell of salt air still clinging to the crowd. Boards are leaned against walls, half-empty pints sweat onto tabletops. The projector hums, waiting. At the center of it all, Liam O’Brien–calm, deliberate, the kind of presence that doesn’t demand attention but inevitably draws it–prepares to unveil Friction of Perception, a film that is, in many ways, about seeing him differently.
Filmed across Hawaii, Australia, and Fiji–the latter the same trip that bookended R Cal’s Ripples in the Void—Friction of Perception is not a parade of slow-motion hacks and air reverses set to stock music. Filmmaker Darcy Ward, steering away from the traditional surf film formula, leaned into a more nuanced, documentary-style approach. Think Gay Talese, not Taylor Steele.
The film weaves together candid interviews, archival scraps, and an original score by O’Brien’s longtime friend and musician, Daniel L. The result: a portrait that feels lived-in rather than manufactured.
For those familiar with Liam’s previous cinematic efforts—particularly his Stab Edit of the Year entry, Wandering–this film marks a distinct shift. “Wandering was raw, self-made, a lo-fi love letter to travel and surf that Liam pieced together himself,” says Ward. This time, he let go. Ward took the reins, shaping something broader, more layered.
“I can be a bit of a control freak,” Liam laughs. “But it’d be pretty weird if I made a film about myself and then edited the whole thing myself.”
Ward saw an opportunity in that. To him, Liam’s public image–the one cultivated through WSL commentary and contest soundbites–had always felt reductive.
“Every time you hear his name on a broadcast, it’s, ‘He’s smart, he’s a nice guy,’ and that’s about it,” Ward says. “Which is true, but there’s so much more depth there. He’s headstrong, brash at times, super creative. Music, literature, film–he’s into all of it. At one point, we sat for 40 minutes just talking about books during his interview.”
To capture that complexity, Ward cast a wide net. He interviewed an eclectic mix of people–Liam’s mother, his brother, childhood friends, local boardriders, tour peers–drawing out stories that build a picture of O’Brien that’s less polished but more honest. And crucially, there are no talking-head interviews, no artificial set-ups. Instead, conversations bleed over visuals. Voices overlap. No one narrator dominates. The film lets Liam’s world, and the people in it, speak for itself.
One thread that runs through all these voices: his relentlessness. Liam, the quiet tactician, the studious competitor, the guy who never seems rattled. Beneath that, though, is something more consuming. An engine that doesn’t stop. Ward recalls days where Liam would surf Burleigh at dawn, drive an hour to Lennox, surf again, then return to Burleigh for yet another session, often forgetting to eat. “I couldn’t keep up with him in the water… and I’m on land. He’s got this pure froth for surfing that’s unmatched. A lot of guys at his level start to get jaded or ‘too cool’ for it, but he’s still just completely in love with it.”
With Friction of Perception, O’Brien and Ward aren’t just releasing another surf film—they’re shifting how professional surfers are presented. Moving away from the highlight reel and one-dimensional archetypes.
“Most profile films are made when a surfer is retiring or looking back on their career,” Ward says. “This one is different—it’s setting the foundation for who Liam is and where he’s going.”
And for those in the room at Burleigh Brewing this Friday, waiting for the screen to flicker to life, the story is just beginning.
