Simon Hetrick Stars In, Produces, And Edits “GLITCH”

What is the best single indicator a quality surf flick?

Is it the on-wave performance, the winding narrative, a stellar tracklist, or some intangible entertainment quality?

As more of a function over art guy, I tend to lean toward performance. Typically, I’d rather watch someone do the biggest airs, lay the hardest turns, and negotiate the deepest tubes over any subjective quality metric. But Simon Hetrick’s most recent film foray has made me second-guess this logic.

Simon, who is 19 years old and grew up in Maryland, USA, is never going to make the Championship Tour.  He probably won’t land the biggest air or lay the hardest turn you’ve ever seen either (though he might surprise you in the tube). Simon is a very good surfer, but not someone whose performance alone would leave your jaw agape. For that reason, you mightn’t think that a 12-minute vignette of his surfing would entice the masses.

That’s where Simon’s secondary skillset—creative filmmaking—comes into play. 

Last year, with his self-edited, self-scored piece EXPOSED, Simon drew thousands of eyes and, if you believe Google Analytics, kept them glued to the screen for most of his 13-minute film. This year, Simon is applying those same skills (plus some digital reinvention) to his 2019 piece, GLITCH, which you can see above.

We also had Simon explain the inspiration behind GLITCH and detail some of his favorite parts, below.

From Simon:  

Matt [McQueeney] and I came up with the idea for the film when Matt was tinkering with AV test equipment and an old tv in college. He ran a clip of me surfing through his self-made setup (seen at 11:34) and sent it to me, and we both flashed back to VHS age Volcom movies like Creepy Fingers and 156 Tricks. I wanted to make something like the films I grew up on, and put our own twist on it. 

The first section is last fall at home, Waco, and a fun trip to Mexico with Tom, Shane-o, Kai, Dylan, and Tromberg. We didn’t score anything nuts but got fun waves, saved a turtle, hit some ramps, and had some laughs. Dylan’s a beacon of fun when the waves are bad and it was sick surfing with him outside of PR.

Portugal is my favorite place in the world—food, waves, culture, the place has it all. I went there last November with Jeffrey O’Neill, Brad Flora, Seth Conboy, and Sean Santiago. We perched above Coxos at our Airbnb and soaked in the fireplace after surfing our brains out daily.

Adega Bar had a sick little premiere for Brad’s part and a video I made of Gony and I from the trip so far, and it was so cool seeing the whole little community under one roof, screaming “GONYYYY” haha. We had a sick night getting swept around town by the old heads and talking story, and had a really good run of surf the last week I was there.

Then we went straight into some good old fashioned Outer Banks road trips. The simplicity of that place is what makes it great. Camping, surfing, and bullshitting with the same faces you see every swell. What I love about the east coast so much is that sense of community every state seems to have. The last section of the film was mainly a day spent rotating between Delaware, Maryland, and Mcdonalds, never surfing with more than a couple friends. There’s a couple Jersey clips spliced throughout, my favorite is the water clip by Alex Dephillipo where Kelly is paddling over the shoulder hooting during his trip to Jersey with Sam Hammer.

All in all, It’s hard to put a film into words, a film’s life and energy is shown in the feeling it gives you when you watch it, and we hope this is a good one.