Jamie O’Brien On The Limits Of Fun And ‘Who Is JOB 6.0’

Now entering its sixth season, Who Is Job is by far the most successful surfing web series of all-time. We spoke to the show’s namesake about the future, the five seasons past, and the key to its success…

Stab: Tell us about the journey of Who Is JOB so far…
Jamie O’Brien: It’s just been a fun… ongoing… fun. It’s just fun, man! And it’s just getting better and better, cause we’re getting to invite more and more of our friends on the trip. When you travel a lot you only get to see your friends when you come home. Now the whole crew’s involved and we’re all travelling together, so we’re getting into more trouble.

Do you have pinch yourself moments where you realise you have your own TV show and an entire production crew following you around? I trip on the fact that it’s still going strong after five years. Usually a web series comes and goes, but it’s been surreal and really cool, I feel blessed that the fans really like it. We keep pushing the limits of big wave raft surfing and backwash surfing (laughs). Just, I dunno, pushing the limits of fun, really. Pushing the comfortable levels of having fun. Like, how much does it take to scare us to a point where we’re not having fun? That’s what we’re trying to figure out, really.

Any blowback from past stunts? Ah shit, there’s always ups and downs, girls’ butts on camera and people getting mad… There was a moment a couple of months ago with Poops and I in the hamster wheel, and the wave fully barrelled over us and crunched us pretty good, we were both getting squashed upside down, full scorpion, and it was like, wow, is that really how I’m gonna end my career, in a fucking hamster wheel?

Who are the main influences for the show? I really liked all the CKY stuff, and the old Volcom videos when they used to be savage and have fun, they created that fun vibe. I feel like there was that core moment when videos were really funny and savage, and Volcom flew that flag really high in the beginning, like Creepy Fingers vibe.

Highlights from the last few seasons? Big wave rafting in Mexico last year, on the biggest swell to hit Mexico in like 10 or 15 years was pretty fricken scary man. Caught some of the biggest waves in the raft, got Hippo (Ryan Hipwood) in there and he was like, “You motherfucker,” and I was just laughing my ass off. That was insane. I thought soft topping at Jaws was pretty insane, and I feel like puddle surfing was pretty funny. I guess that Tahiti fire trip was one of my all star moments (laughs).

It’s a crazy program but doesn’t seem to be distracting you from surfing – you still got wave of the winter last year. I’m just having fun and I’m happy, I don’t have to go travel and surf contests, I can be myself, have fun, get a good social following, I have have great sponsors who back me… it’s pretty fun man. It’s gotten easier, I don’t have to go jump on a surf trip and prove myself.

And where is surfing for JOB? We’re pushing the limits of soft top and raft surfing (laughs). I dunno, I definitely wanna get barrelled all winter, and have surfing parts come out, and just surf and do my job.

What can we expect from season six? We got on the road and travelled more, we got to go to Ireland, California, Canada, we just put ourselves out of our comfort zone (Hawaii) and went looking for new places to have fun. I think the filming and production value went up a lot. And… I think it’s funny, man. There’s some classic moments, that I think people are going to be stoked on. Hopefully they like it.

And Poopies is still alive, right? Yeah, he’s still alive, he’s just hanging in there every winter. He says he’ll die every winter, but he’s still alive.

Watch the trailer for Who Is JOB 6.0 here and don’t even pretend like you’re not gonna watch it.