Stab Exclusive: “Hail Mary” — A Balaram Stack Biopic

Hail Mary will be playing exclusively on (1) stabmag.com and (2) the Stab app for the next 48 hours before being released publicly on YouTube for the first time.

In 2022, Balaram Stack became a Pipe Master, marking the first time a New Yorker had ever surfed in — let alone won — tube-riding’s Super Bowl.

Hail Mary, a biopic by Ben Gulliver, traces Balaram’s entire career — from receiving his name from a guru in a Floridian ashram; to his mother, Mary, uprooting him and his brothers to New York as a single parent; to earning global recognition and putting New York on surfing’s collective atlas; to winning that fateful event at a wave he’s obsessed over for the better part of a decade.

Side note: Balaram just co-led his team to victory at Stab Highway East Coast (USA) Presented By Monster Energy and will star in an upcoming Stab production filmed at Kandui Resort. He’ll also be the subject of this week’s Stab Interview, airing on the Stab Podcasts channel (now live) and Stab Premium on Friday.

Hail Mary harkens back to surfing’s favorite profile films — Clay Marzo’s Just Add Water, Julian Wilson’s Scratching The Surface, Dane’s First Chapter, and so on. It features a completely bespoke soundtrack, following Noa Deane’s strategy — save money on licensing, spend it on trips, and make the music yourself. That’s right, Ben himself got in his home studio and cranked out the entire score with Logic Pro and some synthesizers.

That said, it’s been a long road to release. Balaram and filmmaker Ben Gulliver originally had a deal with Volcom to make the film in 2020 — including travel budgets, deadlines, the works — until COVID came along and shut it all down.

“I figured the project was dead in the water at that point,” filmmaker Ben Gulliver told Stab. “Balaram and I were 48 hours into a trip to Scotland and the shutdowns were just announced. For fear of getting stuck there we sent it home — me back to Vancouver and Bal back to New York — and started that whole shelter-at-home thing, which was especially strict in Canada.”

Ben is a professional videographer and filmmaker, having spent a decade in the skate, surf, and snow world before pivoting to commercial work for brands like Nike, Powerade, and Porsche. But surfing is still his baby. After the success of his cold-water surfing epic The Seawolf in 2018, Ben made space in his commercial schedule to focus on telling his friend Balaram’s story.

“Once there was a light at the end of the tunnel with COVID, Balaram and I talked and we were just like, ‘Nobody else is gonna make this movie.’ And he’s a good friend of mine and I still liked shooting surf, so we just agreed to start again,” Ben said. “So I flew to New York and just shot interviews with Balaram’s friends and family for a week straight. I had to really earn that opportunity to get close to them. Balaram’s people aren’t the kind of people who want to be the center of attention, so it took some time being put in to earn that trust and get the story from the people who really made his career possible — especially his mom, Mary.”

Balaram’s mother, Mary, stands at the center of this film. Bal was adamant that Ben focus on the people that made his career happen. “I owe everything to New York and the people around me,” Balaram said. “I know that I wouldn’t be where I’m at today with my surfing alone. I have a career because of New York. I’ve got to be honest about that.”

That said, for the average viewer, the centerpiece of this film will be the surfing — especially the Teahupo’o section.

How did a kid from Point Lookout, New York, learn to barrel ride so well? Fifteen years at the Volcom House, putting in countless hours at Pipeline — that’s how.

“Premiering the film in Hawaii was a dream come true for both Balaram and I,” Ben said. “Hawaii is like a second home to Bal. His mom flew out for the premiere and we had an amazing turnout and then he went and won the Pipe Masters 48 hours later. At the end of the film you’ll see Mary hug Bal and then thank ‘Mother Pipeline’ for loving her son. That was a real special moment.”

“I wanted to make this movie because I know Balaram personally and I felt he was being marketed as something he isn’t,” Ben said. “He was always marketed with the very New York push, obviously, but then with this street vibe of a gangster or something — with the flat brim Yankees hat and tattoos and all. And there are parts of that that are true. But he’s really a sweet, good guy at his core, who is loyal to his family and surfing community.”

“It was hard for him to be on camera for sure. Surfers are always afraid of drawing attention to themselves and are usually self-conscious. So, being able to put in the time to document him, his mom, and all of his people is what I’m most proud of. I’m excited people finally get to see a side of Balaram that hasn’t been out there before.”

Enjoy ‘Hail Mary’ above, and stay tuned later this week for our Stab Interview with Bal.