The Budding Entrepreneur: Ian Crane On His New Film And Brand, Beach Head…

Ian Crane’s about to drop his first solo film project. Affectionately entitled “Beach Head,” it’s a compendium of footage him and his talented friends have gathered over the last 12 months.

It took some prying to get it out of him, but Crane-O has bigger plans. He doesn’t see “Beach Head” as a one-and-done project, rather the start of something. In conjunction with the premiere of his edit, he and buddy Gabe Garcia have also launched BeachHead.Fun. They’re not out to create another surf clothing company. They just want to help you have more fun. They want to make gear–umbrellas, coolers and the like–so you “can have a killer beach setup.”

Stab caught up with Ian the day before his big “Beach Head” premiere in San Clemente in San Clemente and Los Angeles over the weekend. Here’s where the high-flying entrepreneur’s head is at: 

Stab: What the origin story of “Beach Head”?

The clips are from the last year. After last Christmas I went on a little road trip with Kolohe, Griffin and Jacob Vanderwork, so there are some clips from that. The rest are from a couple trips to Indo. 

I was surfing a bunch and had all these clips on this hard drive and then lost them all. So then I got them all recovered, and once they were recovered, I was like, fuck, let’s just make something cool. That was a couple months ago. Then the thing fucking crashed, it sucked.

I went on two different trips where I paid a filmer to come along with me. It was all out of my own budget, which is different than a company trip or a contest trip, so I was like, fuck dude, all this money I’d put into getting clips was just thrown down the gutter. It sucked. Then I had to pay more to get it recovered. Whatever, hopefully it turns out cool. 

I’m sure it will be rad. Is it mostly your surf footage or do you have some stuff of the boys in there?

Yeah, for sure. Luke Davis is in it. We did a trip to Sumbawa together. That’s where he broke his foot. He left early, but I stayed and got more clips. 

Then I went back on another trip with Crosby Colapinto and we scored waves too. So Crosby got some stuff. 

And like I said, there’s a trip I did with Kolohe and Griffin, so we got them in there too. It’s like a buddy edit. There’s mostly my clips, but there’s a lot of them too. It’s fun, just a good vibe thing that I wanted to make with my friends.

Normally it’s them making shit and I’m in it, but it’s their view on how everything should look. So I’m excited that I’m the one in control on this go around. I like it, it’s my twist on things, whereas in the past I’ve always been a side piece in their videos. I’m stoked to have own thing coming out. 

But I put them in it too, it would be weird if I put out a video of just me. I think I’d be embarrassed. That’d suck. Especially because I’m trying to put together few premieres, so it’d be like, “Yo, come watch me rip!” Everyone’s got clips, so it’ll be fun. 

How’d you pick the music for it?

I had a couple of songs I really wanted to use. And Nick Green, he’s editing it all and he’s the fucking man. He works for O’Neill, but he’s from San Pedro. He’s the sickest dude ever, really fucking creative. And he had a song he wanted to use. We kind of brainstormed on a cool intro sound, a funny credits part, it’s pretty cool.

I just get psyched. I’m like a surf nerd. I watch, like, every video. I hate watching slow stuff. I like watching fast, fun stuff that makes you want to go surf. It’s more like that. There’s not that much lifestyle or slo-mo, it’s just surfing. 

And what’s the deal with the premieres?

I got the green light from Mike Reola to have a premiere at the OG Catalyst shop in San Clemente on Friday. It’s going to be in the side parking lot. I’m super psyched to have it there because that where they used to have old parties and bands and stuff. My house was right up the street, so I’d walk down, sneak beers and stuff. It’s the best vibe place for me to do something in town, so I’m super psyched that they let me have it there.

I’ve got a couple bands playing. There’s this band, Repeator, they’re a local high school band that fucking shred. And then Vagrant, they’re kids that I grew up that are just fucking rock ’n roll. And some of them actually work at Lost. This one kid Shea glasses boards, so it’s kind of cool that he works where we’re having the party.

I got some piñatas we’re going to blow apart. Kids and costumes. We got some special prizes. It’s going to be a fun, backyard party. 

Then I got one on Saturday at my friend’s place called Shit Art Club. They have a new space up in L.A. It’s like a studio front with back rooms that they’re going to rent out to different artists. They just finished painting the showroom and are going to let me have a party there. 

Roots surf movie premiere style?

Yeah, man. It’s been a long time working on it and there have been some ups and downs, so it would at least be cool to have a party when it’s done instead of throwing it on the Internet and it’s gone in a day. 

And there’s a ton of rad kids in San Clemente that would be psyched to just go to something. I know when I was a kid I was psyched to go to anything. This isn’t some crazy production, it’s only 15 minutes long, but it’s the perfect amount of time for somebody to hangout. 

But it’s not just a short film, right? You got more cooking?

Yeah, we’re calling it the Beach Head movie and I’ve been spray painting it on my boards for a while. And now I’m having a bunch of stickers made, I’m making a website and a bunch of stuff. Me and Gabe Garcia are trying to turn it into a real company. Not like a clothing company, but just some thing weird that does beach kit stuff…umbrellas, coolers, that kind of stuff so you can have a killer beach setup. The website is BeachHead.Fun…we don’t really have anything up there yet, we gotta make some stuff, but I have stickers and t-shirts to go with the video. Hopefully with all this stuff comes more. Even if it fails and waste my money making stuff, at least I’ll have gotten an education on how to do something other than surf.