You’ve Never Seen A Surf Movie Like This

One of Stab’s (very loose) creative philosophies is to take inspiration from outside of surfing — whenever possible.

So naturally, we were intrigued when Kalani Rivero’s opus slid across our Slack channels and we spent the first two minutes wondering which one of Quentin Tarantino’s fever dreams we’d fallen into.

“I get inspiration from lots of people outside of surfing,” laughs Kalani, when I call him. “Films, designers. I love a lot of snowboarding stuff, like what Travis Rice does. I grew up watching a lot of skateboarding videos, and I love Dave Chappelle. I guess we just tried to translate everything I like into this film. 

“Everyone who worked on the project — Andy, Christian, Gabe, and I — we all really have a love for film. We love Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, all the larger than life thinking out of the box type of creators. 

“And then, to be honest, my Pipeline part was really inspired by Jamie O’Brien’s original Pipeline part.”

As you’ll see, the film truly is a unique offering in the realm of surf cinema, and came to life as the combined creative lovechild of Kalani, Andy Woodward, Christian Habberstad, and Gabriel Caswall.

“The idea for the film came in 2022, that’s when we started working on it I guess,” says Kalani. “I got a couple Pipe clips that winter, but then I got injured. I was out most of the season and I only had a couple clips, so I figured it would be cool to just save them, like all the OG’s did back in the day. That way, you don’t see anything until it comes out and it kind of has this nostalgic feel. 

“Plus, being injured for the whole season definitely left me asking some questions — What do I do with my life? What do I do with my career? Who am I? I just want to have fun and do what I love, and it kind of just snowballed into making a project somehow.

“Christian and I were the ones who started filming,” continues Kalani. “We had a script and we were working on it and then Gabe came in and checked out the footage and decided to edit it. Then Andy shot a lot of the beautiful footage around here, he was the director of photography on the first scene, and he ended up coloring the whole project too. He’s an ace.

“All of these guys are just so good. They deserve all the credit in the world because without them it would’ve just been some surfer with an idea — and we know how that goes. Every surfer has ideas,” laughs Kalani. “It’s cool to have an idea and then have people around me that I’m comfortable reaching out to and who are capable of making something incredible.”

Interestingly, Gabe, Christian, and Andy all developed their professional skillsets outside of surfing. 

“Gabe is from San Diego and he grew up surfing, shooting, and filming, but then he sorta transformed his career to work on music videos and movies and documentaries,” explains Kalani. “Andy originally studied business at a university in Montana and was shooting skiing before coming to Hawaii. And then Christian is from New York, so he started up doing photography over there. Eventually he came over here and got involved in surfing and he just never left. He got hired by Eli Olson who showed him the ropes. After that, he was about to go home and I just said, ‘Hey, stay here. Stay with me. You always got a room. Let’s work on some dope shit.’”

As you’ll see, the film features a diverse array of familiar North Shore faces, all of whom Kalani grew up alongside in his house at Sunset Beach.

“Fuck, my friends are so sick,” Kalani grins. “They’re the best. They believe in me, I believe in them. It’s such a good support system that we have. It doesn’t matter who it is. If Makana is busy working on something, we’ll all drop something and work on that. If Noah’s busy working on something, we’ll all drop that and go work on that. Same with Barron. We’ll all just stop what we’re doing and just help get it done. Having people like that is amazing. 

“It makes me feel good about expressing myself, which I think we all ultimately want to do.”

And, how did the 24-year old fund a high-value production like this without a major sponsor?

“A lot of the cost was just out of my own pocket,” says Kalani. “I did get sponsored by Salty Crew for a bit, which helped. And then, since everyone who was involved are my friends, they kind of took it easy on me cost wise,” he laughs.

“Making something like this is definitely doable, but you have to be a little delusional. Even if you don’t have the money right now, just make it work somehow and it’ll figure itself out. You gotta take your chance on something in this life, so might as well take chances with your friends and do things that make you feel vulnerable and scared.

“Right now I’m pretty much just working a job. I help my mom out, I get random modeling gigs or an acting gig here or there, but it doesn’t pay that much because there’s not many jobs in Hawaii. I’m kind of just waiting for the next step, to figure out where I want to go and start going there.

“I guess I want to be a versatile person. I love to be on the beach, but I definitely have more aspirations.”