Surf movie: Here & Now (2012)
A Day in the Life of Surfing
What would you say if we told you that there was a way to surf the world in a single day? To dive into the different lives surfers all around the world are living? Director Nathan Myers and filmmaker Taylor Steele have made this possible in their 40-minute production Here & Now.
The movie brings the best surfers together with musicians, photographers, and board shapers – some of them very well-known, some lesser-known – who all share a day in their lives. From dusk till dawn, all footage for the movie was shot in a single day, on 2nd May 2012 in different locations all around the world. The final cut shows anonymous wave riders, free spirits living the dream, musicians, and world champions. As such, it covers all aspects of surf culture. It even addresses the fact that sometimes, the sea is pumping, other times, it is just flat.
“Here & Now is a movie about that connection. This is a movie about real surfing. Adventures. Road trips. Wipeouts. Getting skunked. Going camping. And finally scoring.” (Nathan Myers)
All the people featured in the movie had been given one simple instruction: film yourself the whole day from the moment you wake up and go surfing somewhere.
When the producers chose the date, 2nd May, it was totally random as there was no day in the year that would guarantee good surf conditions all around the world, from Australia to California. In fact, it was the biggest unknown in the making of Here & Now.
Whom you can see in Here & Now
Here & Now really brings all aspects of surfing together: from competitive surfers heading to the next contest to free spirits who simply enjoy life by the beach with music and BBQs.
The movie shows a day in the life of surf champions like Kelly Slater and Stephanie Gilmore, surfers currently competing in the WSL championship tour like Conner Coffin and Ezekiel Lau, big wave surfers like Albee Layer and Alex Gray, cold water surfers like Peter Devries, aerial surfers like Leif Engstrom, longboarders like Alex Knost, former pro surfers who were competing for world titles like Brad Gerlach and Rob Machado as well as those who stand for the relaxed vibes the surf lifestyle carries with it like Dave Rastovich and his girlfriend Lauren Lindsey Hill. Rasta hairstyles, music, and bonfires play an integral part in the movie – without those, it wouldn’t be a true representation of surf life.
Also featured: Jay Davies, Dane Gudauskas, Ozzy Wright, Jared Mel, Albee Layer, Matt Meola, Garut Widiarta, Steve Sherman, Junior Faria, Andrew Serrano, Grant Baker, Paul Patterson, Dede Suryana, Reubyn Ash, Gabriel Villaran, Cristobal de Col, Gilbert Brown.
They all took a day of their lives and recorded it. Without them, the movie wouldn’t exist. But it doesn’t end here, all that footage had to be brought together to turn it into a well-rounded movie. Now imagine 20 people recording themselves for 24 hours…well you can do the math yourself, but it was a lot of raw material the producers had at their hands for Here & Now.
The making of Here & Now
It was indeed raw material that had been sent around the world to a little beach house at Byron Bay in Australia. This is where the team around Nathan Myers and Taylor Steele gathered to bring Here & Now to life.
It started with a pile of hard drives, some of them arriving late due to the distances they had to travel, and it ended up being a 40-minute movie dedicated to surf life. For almost 2 weeks, the production team spent day and night working with surf footage. If a hard drive arrived late, it meant they had to go over everything again because the movie is structured in a linear way from the morning to the evening in the life of a surfer.
All imagery in the movie came from those hard drives sent by surfers from different locations around the world. Nothing was sourced outside. The music that accompanies the images was made during those two weeks in the beach house at Byron Bay which had a room full of instruments. Nathan Myers said in an interview that some of the people who starred in the movie like Kelly Slater even stopped by to contribute to the music production. The behind-the-scenes-footage supposedly is the equivalent of a 2-week-long jam session with surfers frequently dropping in and out. Will we ever see that footage?
The spirit of surfing
One thing we can for sure say about Here & Now is that it is real. You can see the surfers waking up in the morning in their beds, brushing their teeth and what they have for breakfast. In this instance, although surfing is what unites them all no matter where they are, surfing comes second. The movie is about humanizing these surfers. As such you can for example see Conner Coffin getting in the car in the early morning not even trying to hide how tired he is, but the contest is on that day and he is on a schedule. (If you’re interested in surf competitions, maybe check out what Charlie wrote about the Quiksilver Pro 2019).
Some of them are heading to the surf spot in the early morning and you can see them fuelling up on gas before dawn, others have a chilled morning and head down to the beach later. Rob Machado however decides to make a surfboard first. You can see how the board is shaped and how it gets its colour before he makes his way down to the local beach break. He’s surfing the 3-hour surfboard and is the only one in the movie who surfs a board that was made that day.
Some of them are driving in the car to the beach, others have to travel a bit further and even take the subway. Kelly Slater made it a bit special. Instead of surfing in Australia where he had an appointment with Taylor Steele to record his surf, he jumped on an airplane and changed the plot completely. You can see him arriving at the beach with a board bag and some luggage before scoring some big ones. Others are stopping to buy fruits in the streets on their motorcycle before arriving at a tropical beach break or even going on a little hike in a remote surf spot. Whilst some return home in the evening, others camp on the beach. The movie, as well as the day, ends with a bonfire at the beach.
There is very little spoken word in the movie and no sound of the waves. It is all about great images and music that transmit the true vibes of surf life around the world. It is all about those scenes that capture the vibe of the day in the best surf spots this world has to offer.
Director Nathan Myers points to his favourite scene as being those where they didn’t score waves and instead started goofing around in a tiny swell on longboards. That’s what surfing is about – even if the circumstances don’t play along, simply have a good time!
