Thrills, Spills and What Not

It was no coincidence that Dane Reynolds first spoke about his ambition to make a short indie surf film during the final leg of the Modern Collective’s journey. It had been a tough trip for the Venturan. Not since the movie’s first trip to France almost a year earlier had he logged a single clip (due to an ankle injury he suffered on the excursion) and Dane hadn’t been pleased with how he’d been surfing on the Gold Coast. Secondly, while the Modern Collective would go on to be the greatest compilation of performance surfing ever, at the time Dane was sick of the style of surfing he was being asked to perform and how narrow the niche for surf films had become.   “I have an idea for a film. I’m bored with surfing. Things are slow as hell. The film is going to be me venting all my frustrations for all the stuff that people make me do in films. I am fed up with how perfect surf films have become. How elitist they are and how only the best shit gets in there,” he had said, his legs crossed as he sat in front of the TV. With considerable prompting, Dane went on to outline his plans for what we now know to be Thrills, Spills and What Not. “There is no direction. I don’t want it to be scripted or formulated. The only thing for sure is that I will use film as opposed to digital footage. I think film carries so much more feeling. There are 24 pictures a second flicking through the screen. I want to film everything and anything and put it together,” he said. It would offer a different ambience to the loud, brash and performance oriented direction of most modern surf films. But: “I won’t say there won’t be an air in it. All the surf films lately have been based on the technical and competitive aspects of surfing and who surfs the best. Mine will follow the actual reasons you go surfing but hopefully not in some cliché way. I like things that are artistic to a certain extent but turn in on itself and make fun of itself. Sort of like what Ozzie does. Ozzie is so sick,” he said. As for his reluctance to open up about the project, he countered, “I don’t want it be promoted or anything. I’m not planning to make any money. I’m making it purely for myself and to show a certain side of surfing.” You can read the full interview here. Stay tuned for more details on a possible release date. – Jed Smith [showvideo]