SEE HOW STAB MAGAZINE AND VOLCOM PULLED OFF ONE OF THE MOST INSANE SURF STUNTS EVER IN THE MAKING OF ‘THE DOCK’.
This has got to be one of the sketchiest things we’ve ever done. I mean, would you pull the trigger on this concept and put some of the world’s best surfers at risk? We’re in an age where everything’s been done. Where content gets exported by the dozens. Where repetition and derived ideas seem to be the norm. What breaks through clutter and what gets lost in 24 hours? There needs to be something more. So, we met up with our friends over at Stab and started talking about some potential ideas. When you enlist Stab’s wizardy and sunburnt minds to discuss surfing’s next move, you get oodles of high-to-higher outrageous, yet dangerously entertaining ideas. We labored over many of those ideas and found a winner. What was once a long and arduous process has finally come to fruition. And we’re truly passionate about it.
THIS HAS GOT TO BE ONE OF THE SKETCHIEST THINGS WE’VE EVER DONE… WOULD YOU PULL THE TRIGGER ON THIS CONCEPT AND PUT SOME OF THE WORLD’S BEST SURFERS AT RISK?
What are we talking about? We’re talking about "The Dock." A 100-foot floating dock that we put in the middle of a surf break and invited a select crew to try out. We knew it was time do something different. Something new. Something which our team riders would be stoked on, and something that we would have fun doing and showing to our audiences. It’s part of our DNA to keep things fun and embrace the strange. It’s a grocery bag full of first-time stunts and wildly-entertaining fails. The strenuous journey of anchoring this floating dock in the middle of a surf break can take its tolls, but it was all worth it.
While dangerous, unpredictable, and unsecured, towing this 100-foot piece of equipment out into the ocean at 4am in a foreign land feels like you’ve already won. Were you sitting at your desk editing a two-to-four-foot beach break clip or sitting on the beach filming perfect barrels? No, you were near the pinnacle of an out-of-left-field concept that no one thought was possible. But you were there, and you made it, although no one said it was going to be this hard.
Did we say it was dangerous? There was the obvious threat of the dock breaking off and crashing into you, but there were others. There are wires, ropes, tons of waves, other surfers / surfboards, and the dock itself whipping around freely as if it had no boundaries. As Noa recalls, "It kicks like a snake. It does this weird snake thing and it whips right at the end." Balaram had a near-serious injury when he was trying to make his way to safety after jumping off the dock over a wave: "For a split second, time slowed down and I was like, ‘I’m about to die, I’m going head-first into this thing!’"
But, it was all in good fun. It was a team of guys experiencing a first-of-its-kind, further stretched from their comfort zones than ever. "I like the chaos of everybody there going, ‘where are we going, where are we going!?’" said Ozzie. It’s always fun until it’s not. One of the scariest parts of the shoot was when a huge set rolled in and the dock snapped off the anchors and floated into shore, nearly tagging Ozzie and Imai. Luckily, our dudes have cat-like reflexes and managed to escape sure-injury. Imai recalls, "I dove under it and the thing went over, and my board was on the side and I had to take my leash off underwater because it was stuck." After some minor repairs, the team got the dock back out into position and finished off their three-day mission.
We should’ve known Stab would think of a gem-of-an-idea like this. We never thought this would actually be possible. We didn’t think we were really going to go through with it. But, we did, and we are sure as hell glad we did. Thank you to Stab, our team riders, production, the crew, Candock, and everyone else who was apart of this project. We hope you enjoyed "The Dock."
