Noa Deane’s Cooked UPDA Storm

After Noa, Chun, Wade and Jaleesa won Stab Highway they came into the office for a surprise celebration. Chun, stuck in WA, couldn’t be there physically, so Stab’s production team taped an iPad to your author’s face with Chun live on FaceTime to surprise the other three. We wanted Chun to be tangible. I hid in a cupboard, clad in 4/3 neoprene (as Chun had worn dutifully for six days), sipping tequila through two conjoined straws waiting for the crew to arrive. 

Long story short: Noa went to the wrong place, miles away, and I got drunk, sweating bullets in total silence with Chun on the other end for an hour, punctuated only by the occasional slurp of an empty cup. 

Later that evening, we drank beers and the yarns began to trickle out. Noa had lots of them. Good ones. One about an iconic Hawaiian surfer punching someone’s lights out before his heat in the boardroom at the Volcom Pipe Pro was memorable. Another one about the aftermath of the 2016 Surfer Poll ceremony where a young Noa stumbled onto stage, accepted his ‘film of the year award’ leaned into the mic and said “Fuck the WSL,” whereafter he received death threats and hid for three days in his room at Turtle Bay.

Noa, son of the legendary surfer and shaper Wayne Deane, a hall of fame inductee who passed in 2018, is not someone I know well. His surfing? Oath. Seen it heaps. Raw, fast, big, exciting. What struck me though was that he had real character and a gift for telling fucken funny stories based on what he’s been through.

“I wanted to show all the other aspect of his life. The things he gets up to. The music, animals, and art in his life. The things he’s built, the places he goes and the old crew he hangs with,” says photographer and scribe Phil Gallagher. “He’s got a bit of that old soul thing about him. He’s kinda grizzly and hardcore but also totally loveable and genuine. It feels like he likes to put himself in a place and give it his everything. He’s probably the best surfer I’ve worked with because of how invested he was in nailing this.”

UPDA was put together with Phil Gallagher during a run of good waves, where a lack of travel commitments and too much time sitting around led to an idea, which quickly became an outlet for the duo to direct their respected skills. The result is a quality collector’s item in the form of a 138-page book crafted around the concept of showcasing Noa’s surfing but also his life lived out of the water. His passions, his pets, his favourite pub/s. Noa opens up the shed and share some of his treasures and the personal stories behind them. Can confirm they are highly-amusing.

It is some of Noa and Phil’s best work, and all of the 1000 limited edition copies come signed by Noz. 

You can get your hands on a copy here.