Watch: Luke Hynd in “The Set Menu”

Passion is what makes a good short. And that’s what the nearly 12 minutes that sit before you was fueled by. “I can’t stand to see a clip with 25 air revs all shot from the same angle,” the star of this film, Luke Hynd, tells Stab. “To make a good web clip”–since feature length surf film’s are slowly withering away into near-obsolete is the norm–“You have to be passionate about what you’re doing. Without that, you won’t create something you’re truly happy with.” 

And with the internet being the go-to platform for surf films, we asked Luke what’s the best part about sending a film to the online masses, “The best part is people telling you they really enjoyed it. At our premiere, a few people asked where and when they could buy it so that they could watch it again. That makes it worth it to me. The worst part is putting yourself out there and at the mercy of being judged and ridiculed. Although, I do get a kick out of what people have to say.” But nobody would do any ridiculing on this here site. Not here. 

“We made our first trip for this in May to Indo,” continues Mr Hynd. “Then we kept our eyes on the maps and kept the ball rolling. Luckily for us, we scored two good winter swells and had enough footage to be happy. We had three waves we wanted to shoot for the making of this project. We wanted contrasting landscapes, so we started with cold and in the snow. Then went to the desert in Australia and ended with Indonesia.

No complaints here. Photo: Andrew Sheild

“Everything ran pretty smooth for the most part” he says. “Other than a few skunkings and me blowing it when the waves were pumping, the only real problem we ran into was in Desert Australia. We drove around for hours looking for a wave I’d been to before, but I only had a blurry memory of how to get to it, and one photo on my phone. We ended up losing the whole day of waves by the time we found it. Then of course, there’s the anxiety of surfing by yourself while the men in grey suits swim below. Even if the waves were pumping, I was in by 5 pm. Being in the middle of nowhere with no reception while surfing in Great White territory by yourself is pretty darn scary.”

“I wanna thank Darcy (Ward), he sacrificed more for this clip than I,” continues Mr Hynd. “He put off paying jobs and had a lot of late nights editing, colour grading and organising for which I’m very grateful. The only real sacrifice I made was a lighter wallet and giving away my Splendour in the Grass ticket to chase a swell.”

So, take the next dozen off and dive into Luke’s aptitude above fibreglass and fins filmed and edited by Darcy Ward. It’s a proper time killer if you’re looking to kill some time.