Billabong’s Blow-Up

“It’s all hip hop,” Jack Freestone tells me over Facebook chat. “And a few club bangers.” You’re fucking kidding me? Call me a music snob if you will. Fricken sue me. But club bangers and hip hop have a time and place, and I don’t particularly feel that time and place is on a surf film anymore. I fired up a favourite iTunes playlist and spent the next half hour watching Billabong’s new film, Blow Up, with Vimeo muted. Once I reached the end, I decided to have a lil’ skip through and see if it’s as bad as Jack said. It was then that I realised he’d swindled me. The soundtrack is fun and diverse. A little cheeseball at times, sure, but for the most part, awesome. And truthbetold, a little on the Riles’ Blakeway tip here and there. Goddamn, what a relief. ‘Cause while I sat there, for that half hour, with my iTunes playlist rolling, I thought, the surfing in this film is ridiculously good. The biggest highlight is that Ryan Callinan air. You’ll see it at around 5:04 in. It also appears in Lost Atlas, from the front-on angle, but here we’re treated to a more down-the-beach angle. It ends his section, so if you’ve not seen it yet, prepare to be proper wow’d. Ryan’s part in general is Stab‘s pick. We’ve been singing the kid’s praises for a while and maybe, now, it’ll have been well-founded. Second biggest highlight, Laurie Towner’s behind-the-SUP barrel at Chopes, which rolls through at 27:46. But don’t skip to it. Enjoy all in between. Actually, Laurie’s whole section’s a bit of a highlight, too. We ain’t seen much of the man with a penchant for liquid-mountains lately. Jack summed it up well: “My favourite part would have to be Laurie’s, purely ’cause of his surfing. He rips in all conditions and he’s literally the nicest man alive.” Jack didn’t do too shabby either – Blow Up was his first proper video part and was mostly filmed during a recent trip down to Mexico (his first there, too). “That was one of the funnest trips of my life,” he says. “Just friends, good times and sick waves. You really can’t ask for more than that.” No you can’t. And that’s what Blow Up‘s kinda all about. – Elliot Struck