‘Buying Double Cheeseburgers, Acting Like He’s Hit Some Sections Today’

“We made a fair bit of cash selling grips at the pub, which is pretty funny.”

At the end of October, RAGE toured their new movie (this one) at four venues along Australia’s east coast from Melbourne to the Gold Coast. Slogging out 1733 kms over four days is pretty sobering, which is good because the four back-to-back premieres were not. “We were stoked on the tour, but flights home pretty much canceled out every bit of cash we made from the tickets,” Noa Deane told Stab. 

Strangely enough, you won’t find RAGE in the Australian Financial Review’s ‘Fast 100’ list of high growth companies in 2023. You will however, find it held in high regard by many close observers of surfing who love the brand’s honesty – they’re not here to steal your lunch! 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by RAGE (@ragetm)

“Being involved at RAGE makes me think about people who have proper brands. Like how is Dane running Former on top of editing and surfing? It must be so stressful because we’ve just got grips and stuff, we don’t have to go have reps and try and sell clothes… Kudos to anyone starting their own shit and turning their back on the easy route. I respect that hard,” adds Noa.

‘Welcome to the real world’ is a bit of an old chestnut jaded chiefs like to use sarcastically to put down the ‘naive’ and/or disappointed. I’d wager $5 on its use as a (sub)title here being ironic. “There’s a thing in Oz, where you have to be the same as everyone or you get fucking lit up so hard. If you’ve got tickets on yourself, your friends just fucking smoke you. Not everyone is equal in the way they surf or how much money they make and stuff like that, but in my friend group, everyone feels very equal,” concludes Noa.

Tall poppy syndrome rife in Australian culture can be thought of as the inverse condition to the unchecked, self-mastubatory exercise of aggrandising more prevalent in the US. 

Anyhows… aspirational surfing with good handycam fodder sandwiched in between. And, as always with Cregan clips, a bunch of songs I haven’t heard before that I’m adding to my Spotify.

Cop RAGE traction here.