Stab Edit Of The Year: Noah Lane in ‘Blow in’

Noah Lane has a unique story. 

Born and raised in Rainbow Beach, Queensland, Noah was first acquainted with the Emerald Isles in 2013 while on a Cornish holiday. Joel Gray, an English friend, asked if he wanted to join him in Ireland at Bundoran’s surf and music festival.

Following Joel’s suggestion, Noah did just that and ended up winning the event and pocketing some prize money. Then he met Tara (now his wife), a local lass from Ballyshannon, just 7kms from Bundoran. They fancied each other. Soon after he decided to drop anchor in Bundoran, choosing to squeeze into 5mm Yulex over surfing in trunks on the Sunshine Coast.

June, 2023 marked 10 years since he first moved to the Emerald Isles. 

“Everyone kind of knows everyone in Ireland,” says Noah on a redeye layover from Singapore airport. “It’s super supportive and friendly and I guess the cliches exist for a reason — it’s true to a degree. Something really unique is the relationship between boogs and surfers, particularly in the slabs, which are most of the premier waves here. They’re completely integrated and there is zero animosity, which is pretty wholesome. A lot of it can be put down to the size of the community (small), and the weather too (cold, grey), which selects for a certain kind of person.”

Noah has no plans to leave in the near-future.

“By doing a bit of everything,” is how Noah has serviced a living as an expat in Ireland. In 2016 he won a $20,000 prize for his stellar ‘Winter Sessions’ edit. Not long after he and two Irish mates, Adam and Gerald, opened ‘Foam’, a popular Aussie-style coffee shop on the main street of Bundoran selling various brews and organic seasonal food. 

Noah is an “absolute legend” says Wade Carroll, who shot several waves in this film, and often stays with him when shooting with Mikey Wright. “He’s got incredible taste in music and he’s very passionate about his coffee. Pretty sure he flies to South America to meet the bean suppliers and stuff. His cafe is mental too. Just an all round lovely human being and a great host.”

“I try and reciprocate what I experienced when I first came,” laughs Noah. “I feel like I’m probably a nicer person now because of living abroad. You learn a lot when you move to a new place. It means a lot when people take you under their wing and show you around a bit.”

“This was initially to be a Cult of Freedom part for Globe,” says Andrew Kaineder (AK), who co-directed the film along with water-cinematographer Joao Tudella. “But as you all know they transitioned themselves out of the apparel game, so João came up with the name ‘Blow-in’ while we were editing, and I just thought it was perfect.”

Last Saturday night, ‘Blow In’ was crowned best short film at the Irish Surf Film Festival down in Galway. “That was cool. We actually had Tom Curren in town on Friday and there’s a really great pub in the town next just over from us. Tom was keen to play music so I asked the owner and he was like, ‘Yeah, sure’. So Friday night was kind of a sort of fairly informal Tom Curren gig, which was pretty random. Then the next night we went down to Galway and won the best short surf film. So it’s been a fairly big weekend with lots of Guinness deleted.”

Speaking of Andrew Kaineder, it’s been a busy month for him on Stab. From starring in the Best Surfing I’ve Ever Seen, AK went straight into producing two SEOTY entries: this one, and another with Russell Bierke titled Outer Edge of Leisure which will be go live Nov 27 on Stab Premium.