duncan and mom

After a fun day surfing a right point we stopped to visit Duncan's mom in her home village. It was a surprise visit and she was really surprised and excited to see Duncan. I remember when she saw him she put her hand to her mouth and kept saying, "my son". In the first frame of the sequence Duncan is combing his hair with his hand as we walk down the path. Duncan's mom and aunt were really hospitable, their place felt peaceful. It was a wonderful visit.

From the moment I met Duncan on the beach 5 years ago, he took me in like a brother. He's like that with just about anyone. I met all the other local guys I've filmed with through Duncan.

reentry

Daniel Jones, atmospheric entry.

the next breath

I never truly felt mortal until I experienced getting worked by a powerful wave. Underwater, reaching a place where I realized, wow, I could die under here. It's only happened to me a few times. When it does happen, there is nothing that matters except the next breath. It's an amazing thing to experience.

the long road there

Passing by a farmer's hut on a bumpy road. Feeling the warm breeze. Eating snacks with msg.

sunlight

Bleronk. Super 16mm film frame.

down the line

Hi-res wallpaper, click to enlarge, and save:

Daniel Jones bonzering in Indo.

tonyo

Darmaputra Tonyo of Padma, Bali. If you've surfed Padma Beach, there's a good chance you saw this kid and his twin brother, Bleronk, getting lots of waves. They're 19 now, so not really kids anymore. But they still kinda act like it. Though Bleronk is a hit with the ladies now, and he drives. Tonyo doesn't drive. He usually sits in the back.

Up on the current banner, that's either Tonyo or Bleronk in that shot. I'm not sure which one, its from over four years ago when they surfed beat up boards, and were in the water most of the time. They're still in the water most of the time. The thing that always struck me about these brothers and their friends, is they just always seem to be having fun. Its awesome. Their crew is almost like a little tornado, wherever they go there is just this unbridled raw energy. I think tourists are a bit intimidated at times. They're always on the verge of doing something ridiculous, like randomly pinching the butt of a local massage girl or humping a car. When I walk into a warung with them, they storm in, all barefoot and walk behind the counter, and the look on the warung lady's face is like, "uh-oh, here we go again..."

The best thing about these guys is its just all smiles all the time.

Tonyo is ranked number 16 now on the Indonesian Pro Surfing Tour. They did a great short video piece on him here: http://vimeo.com/17513576

I see they spelled his name Tonjo...I'm going to go with the way I've always seen him spell it, which is Tonyo. Probably both are correct...

the surfer, the fisherman, and the barrel

Super 16mm film frames of Daniel Jones. The super refers to the wider 16mm film format, where the film gate is wider, and thus the edge of the film that used to be reserved for sound in years past, gets exposed also. And you get a native widescreen image. My cousin Rob and I converted my old Bolex camera to super 16 last year, and this footage is from the first trip I took after that. For the most part, it worked really good. A few rolls were all blurred though as I threw a few things off internally on the camera when I tore it apart to convert it. Had the camera serviced by Dieter Schaefer at Procam earlier this year and it works great now. I should mention that this camera filled up with salt water a few years ago in Kiribati, when the small boat I was on nose dived. WD-40 kept it working on that trip, and its still going strong, though it has a bit of rust.

I have a habit of getting my gear soaked in the ocean. While filming Daniel at this spot above, his last wave of the trip, he went over the falls and broke his board in two. When the front half of his board floated in with an oncoming rush of water over the reef that the fisherman is on, I went to grab it. I forgot my ipod was in my pocket. It got soaked and never worked again. My girlfriend had given that to me for my birthday. I was so bummed. If only it operated on a wind-up spring driven motor like my good ol' Bolex from 1967.