It really does feel like a lifetime ago when surfers only saw glimpses of their favorite pros in full-length films. Packed theaters with people throwing popcorn and hooting nonstop, all for a single segment dedicated to each featured individual. Pros’ best waves from an entire year could be packed into a two-minute sequence and then poof, they were gone until the next film, the next magazine feature, the next cover shot.
It goes without saying (which, ironically, we’re now saying anyway) that things are nothing like that now. Nothing’s exclusive anymore. Few things feel rare. And what once required a feature-length film for any one surfer to get screen time has all been traded out for those single segments, packaged and distributed by athletes themselves. Aside from needing a body on the beach to hold the camera, your typical surfer can almost be a one-man band in the production world.
But some surfers love the process. “I don’t like passing on all my hard work to someone else,” Maui’s Braiden Maither told us, only “to end up not liking the final product.”
Maither spent two months filming his latest self-made edit, pink nausea. If the name doesn’t tip it off, there’s a heavy dose of a certain shade featured in the piece, all aiming to capture the essence of winter on Maui. He tells us he hopes it’s not too jarring (all the pink), or hopefully it is, he admits. The offhand joke is a nod to the creativity surfers get to share in today’s landscape. If they choose to. And for Maither, being hands-on with the editing is crucial.
Plus, with Maui being fickle Maui, putting together an entire edit has its own challenges. Inconsistent swell windows and conditions kept Maither on his toes, stacking as many highlights as he could when it was on then waiting for his next chance. In all, the surfing was compiled over the course of about 12 sessions, he says.
“Throughout the winter, I’m constantly placing clips on the timeline and changing songs around trying to create the vibe and package I want to present with each new project,” he tells The Inertia. “Easily the most rewarding part for me is the creative side.”
