The Best Surfer-Filmer Duos in (Recent) History

The four most desirable, and mostly platonic, two-ways in surf!

There’s a symphony between certain talents that creates more than the sum of their parts. Can you imagine Maroon Five without Adam Levine? Or pro surfing without Kelly? It just don’t have the same zing.  Whose clips, whose films, do you hunt and wait for?

Here, in the game of surf, are the four sharpest surfer-filmer combos.

Kai Neville and Craig Anderson

When you’re the thirty-something filmmaker Kai Neville you don’t have to look far for inspiration. Ever since he worked with Taylor Steele to make Taylor’s best movie Stranger Than Fiction, Kai’s been the guy you go to when you want to brand yourself as a surfer a little out of the box.

High-performance, sure, Kai is about your moves first, but also the surfer as a character, someone you might want to have a conversation with. But filmmakers have their favourites, and Kai’s is the South African-born surfer Craig Anderson. And if you were to watch Kai’s latest film, Cluster, you would probably go for Dane Reynolds or Jack Freestone.

Not Kai. It’s Craig. They’ve travelled and worked together for close to a decade. There’s a connection. Craig Anderson says his five-year contract with Quiksilver is what it is because of his surprise cameo in Modern Collective and his more significant contributions to Lost Atlas, Dear Suburbia and Cluster.

“I definitely does mean something to a company. Kai’s movies are the be-all and end-all. They’re as good as it gets.”

Jimmy Lees and Julian Wilson
Best friends first, personal filmer to Julian Wilson second. The dynamic between the pair works because, unlike a lot of other combos, there’s no weird alpha male thing going on. If Julian steps out of line, Jimmy’s going to say so. It also works because Jimmy brings a dirty skate vibe and the eye of a man who drags his influence from well out of the surf spectrum to Julian’s ultra-hard surf candy look.

Swamp Duck from Julian Wilson on Vimeo.

Mini and Dane Reynolds

Jason “Mini” Blanchard is the Ventura pal of the surfer Dane Reynolds. And while it ain’t a helluva lot different to shooting the proverbial salmon in a barrel when you line up Dane in your lens, it takes a certain personality, and hardened skills, to become the favourite of a surfer whose own sense of style is so strong.

Blake Kueny and John John Florence

From shooting little league to being on John John’s speed dial? And he’s only 24? California Blake Keuny met John John on a trip to South Africa. They got on. They became pals. A year later, while on a snow trip to Mammoth he was summoned to breakfast with John John and his mum, Alex. “Do you want to come film with us?” he was asked?

Eight months later, the movie Done was released. A one-man game changer.

& AGAIN from John John Florence on Vimeo.