Last fall in conjunction with Stab Magazine we launched a wild contest that would let some creative individual become the creative director on a Stab Mag cover shoot. We called it The House That You Built and the idea was simple; send us your craziest surf shoot concept that brings together the worlds of film, art and surfing for a chance to win $10k and the opportunity to bring the concept to life.
We received hundreds of submissions ranging from installing a children’s playground structure in a secret break to towing in massive diving boards for some synchronized diving. There was no shortage of harebrained ideas. The winning concept, submitted by Mick Kelleher, a sort of explosion of flower petals that would rain down on a surfer at a secluded break, was not only beautiful in its concept, but also ticked all the boxes bringing together the worlds of film, art and surfing. Taking inspiration from his childhood growing up with a mother who was the president of a flower club in Dallas, TX and a commercial for televisions that has been forever burned in Kelleher’s memory (bordering on obsession), the germination of what would become "In Bloom" aka Flower Boy featuring Noa Deane had sprouted.
Read the full feature, ‘Noa Deane is In Bloom (An Extravagant Gesture of Colour)’ on Stab’s website…
Shot for what was probably 1/100th the budget of the aforementioned big budget tv commercial, a ragtag crew descended on a remote beach break on the south coast of Australia armed with leaf blowers, buckets, trashcans, a ski and enough flower petals you’d think they were decorating a parade float, to pull off what would become the cover of Stab’s first issue of 2017.
