The South American Session Behind Ian Crane’s Magazine Cover

If you want empty lefts, South America has ‘em for the taking. 

We won’t be dropping pins, zip-codes, or swell angles here, but it’s common cultural knowledge that the western coastline between Patagonia and the Darién Gap is flush with goofy-footed treasures. 

A few years ago, Ian Crane, Noah Waggy, and Rasta Robb did an adventure to the deep reaches of the South Pacific — putting out an appreciable clip which reminded us we ought to be avoiding the equator on our next surf trip.

Now, nearly three years later, a moment from the trip — captured by Grant Ellis — has graced the cover of The Surfers Journal.

“Fucking so random but so sick,” laughs Ian, when I call him. “That photo was from the trip we did a couple of years ago. And then, a month or two ago we were all hanging out on another O’Neill trip. Grant Ellis, the O’Neill photographer is always on these mission, and he works at Surfers Journal. He fucking showed me the mockup like, ‘dude, you got the cover.’ 

“I was tripping, and it was Grant’s first cover with Surfers Journal too, so he was all stoked. It’s weird, one photo from a session three years ago can resurface and it feels crazy. I guess I’m not really thinking about photos anymore because that’s not really too much of a thing, so it was a sick surprise.

“That trip we had quite a few sessions where it was crowded and kinda hard to get the good ones, but then the wave that I got the cover at had no one out. It was just us and it was this fucking big left, open faces, perfect frontside waves. I remember it was the most fun session ever.”

Click above to watch the entire session, and head over to Ian’s Beach Head website in the next few weeks to keep up with the beginnings of his personal blog. 

“I’m planning on writing a story about that session and that trip, and then I was going to write another story about the board that I was riding,” he laughs. “Maybe no one will read it, but maybe someone will read it and they’ll be psyched.

“I’m always so geeked out on my own equipment and other people’s equipment and what people are riding. Full surf-nerd shit, so I’m going to try and write more stuff, and we’ll see where it goes.”