The Swamp Dogs of Los Angeles Risk Bacterial Contagion in ‘Winter 23/24 LA’

Click here to watch Taro and more friends star in Zipper, our film with Monster Energy

What happens when an industry splinters, long-established careers are rendered disposable, and sponsorship deals afford you ice-cream and donuts instead of houses and pretty things? 

Well, most of us would be felled by crippling financial distress and a blazing anxiety disorder. But enough about my personal life.

Sometimes, an all-consuming wildfire can sprout fresh life from decrepit soil, and the latest 5-minute offering from Nonfiction Creatives and filmmaker Quinn Graham, candidly titled ‘Winter 23/24 LA,’ is a fervid reminder that a good surf edit doesn’t require a helicopter or tropical speed boat. The best art, generally speaking, comes from the gutters beyond the gates of affluence. 

“Now that money is becoming so much worse for surfers, they get to have more creative freedom and people aren’t scared to go out of the box,” says Frankie Harrer, who features here alongside Taro Watanabe, Shane Borland, and Andrew Jacobson. “I think it’s gonna be good for everybody in the industry, in the long-term.”

If watching Taro Watanabe vivaciously spray the entire coastline of Los Angeles with pathogen-infested water is anything to go by, then the surf industry is going to be just fine.