No Style Guide Needed For Crane-O in Bali

We’ve enjoyed watching Ian Crane’s ascent from underrated to unavoidable.

His output over the years has been consistently strong, and his presence in Stab productions assiduous. When he drops a new edit, we’re sure to bump it up on our queues.

Snapt5 is in its final stages of production — last-minute edits, tweaks, and adjustments — meaning we haven’t seen any of it. Yet.

You can’t really call these “rejects,” because a place was found for them to be watched and appreciated, though it still leaves us wondering how Crane will top himself next. His Snapt5 B-roll consists of a series of sessions shot entirely in Bali, with local goof Kalani Ryan in tow and surely taking notes.

While distinctly contemporary, it wouldn’t be too far off to say there are shades of Taj, Cory, and Bruce in Ian’s surfing, brought up to a new level of speed, flair, and intensity, likely forged by an upbringing amidst the world-class talent pool around San Clemente.

In her Stab Interview, Caity Simmers said, “A lot of people are trying to recreate what it was rather than thinking about what it could be,” speaking about surf culture. “It used to be if you’re good at surfing, people used to forget about your bad behavior.”

“Core” has devolved into a vacuous buzzword, peddling fleeting trends to an audience that believes they can pick up a lifestyle from the shelves of a department store.

Crane defies such shallowness, one could argue, and is as radical as they come while escaping the tired clichés of yesteryear, when “core” meant getting drunk on planes and behaving like a complete asshole for gratuitous in-between-surfing filler for the VHS/DVD era.

Anyway, this might just be the best thing you’ll see all week, from an individual we should celebrate more.

Ian Crane’s full catalog lives over at Beach Head, a web portal to exceptional surfing, which you might want to subscribe to.

Snapt5: The Final Cut will premiere at Sealegs in Huntington Beach on August 2, during the US Open of Surfing. Tickets can be purchased here.