Why Chapter 11’s Doors Are Shut + Why Former’s Output Is About To Spike

For now, the doors of Chapter 11’s brick and mortar shop in Ventura are shut. 

“We’ve got a lot on,” filmmaker Hunter Martinez tells Stab. “So we’ve temporarily closed the shop while we work on the Former film and find some new employees. It’s cut out for a kid going to college needing a gig for beer money. We’ve had a lot of funny applications. But it’s a real job. I think a lot of people go, ‘Oh sick, I’m going to be surfing with Dane everyday.’ It’s like ‘No. We’re going to go surfing when the waves are good, you have to sit here all day and make sure everything runs smoothly.’

The last feature film Former released, ‘System is Yours’ came out in 2022, starring their core nucleus of teamriders/co-founders: Dane Reynolds, Craig Anderson, Droid, Ben Howard and Kaito Ohashi.

In the time since, the roster has grown significantly. In March 2023, Shaun Manners graced the covers of Surfing World and TSJ, released a stellar Cult of Freedom part with Globe, and topped it all off becoming Former’s first major signing on good cash.

Then came Dion Agius, Jay Davies, Jake Kelley and some Gen Z recruits — more on that below. 

“Former’s a legit brand with a lot of momentum,” says Hunter, who splits his time between maintaining the quality of Chapter 11’s online presence, while stringing together all the A++ clips for Former’s forthcoming feature, which promises to be their best yet. 

“It’s called Defect for a reason,” Martinez explains. “They all got injured.”

Here’s a brief retroactive health report on their team.

• Dane broke his foot and cheese-grated his face across Indonesian coral.
• Craig tore his Lisfranc ligament, then had a syndesmosis injury on a two-foot wave in Chile.
• Shaun Manners took a head knock in Ireland, and felt a slew of post-concussive symptoms for months afterwards.
• Dion busted his lung snowboarding in the Alps.
• Jay’s had a recurring case of the shoulder measles.

“All the best footage has gone into Defect,” Martinez continues. “It’s a bit more work than Chapter 11, but communicating with Dane, Craig and Austyn everyday makes it easier. I feel like there’s a lot of implicit trust in Dane’s vision that goes back to the Slow Dance days. Craig is super honest in his feedback, which tracks because most of the footage is of him. He’s dished out a few tracks that I’ve been so stoked on. Heavy shit. Which is exciting because he’s mostly surfing huge, heavy slabs.”

Hunter continues, “Dane is great to run things by, and in a way his naivety to what’s trending is his strength. He’s like ‘I’ve got a family to deal with and on Zoom calls 24/7, my opinion is obsolete.’ I don’t think his process has changed too much since the Marine Layer days. I feel like everyone is wondering ‘what’s next?’ in media. Us included. I suppose it’s walking the line between keeping clients happy, hopping on certain trends but not going too deep into the rabbit hole that it clouds your judgement and loses quality.”

Now for the nuts and bolts of the matter. 

Defect will be touring in June the world over, with an online release slated for July. In the meantime, they’ve got some Dear Suburbia-esque “prequels” for us. Extended cuts from various trips that deserve a little more breathing room. “Not just quick cuts and crescendo moments to surf porn,” says Hunter. “It’s letting everything breathe a bit more, which is refreshing. I reckon you can lose your edge jamming everything into shortform content.”

No diet storytelling.

He continues, “Dane’s just finished cutting up Craig and Ben Howard’s extended cut from South America, which will probably drop in the next few weeks. Then we’ve got one with Dane, Dillon [Perillo] and Jake [Kelley] in Puerto Rico. More boardshort energy, just a completely different look.”

Then there will also be a welcome-to-the-team snippet for Timo Simmers and Gabe Morvil. Oh, and a Jay Davies part. 

All in all, expect a belt of ammunition to be unleashed from Former over the next few months.