Dane Reynolds was on location in Mexico with the Quiksilver crew this past season with Kelly Slater, Jeremy Flores, and Julian Wilson. Filmed by Curt Morgan on a Vision Research high speed camera. Surfline has the behind the scenes story narrated by photographer Aaron Chang.

The WTC finally gets back into some meaty surf. Owen and Joel got the barrels of the day, Owen having to drop out of the contest, a burst eardrum after a heavy wipeout, but still won his heat. Check out the live webcast at live.ripcurl.com, 8AM Portugal time for the final day. We could be seeing Mick and Joel meeting up for the final.

New Jersey surf photographer, Ryan Struck, posted a few pictures of a shaping session going down and a new board being born. Check out the full gallery on his website as well as some of his other work.

Still Filthy

Length: 48 minutes

Coming a little late off the heels of Filthy Habits, the 1988 classic, Still Filthy is hyped up to be the answer to everything we’ve been missing in a classic action filled surf film.

Winning best movie of the year before it was even released (judges got a private screening), watching the epic teaser trailer (see below), and seeing all the behind the scenes coverage, I had my hopes up. Did it live up to the hype? Kinda. My hopes had ultimately been set too high. The movie wasn’t everything I was looking for, but yet I keep coming back to watch it again and again. It’s growing on me for sure.

Best sections:

Joel & Andy playing with the heaving right hand Australia closeout slab. Great opening to the movie.

Laurie Towner. The mellow music of his section works so well, combined with his mellow style in the the sickest chopes and shipsterns barrels. Has some sweet jetski POV filming as well.

Shane Dorian on perfect Cloudbreak and Restaurants at Tavarua.

And section of the movie goes to Andy Irons. I first wanted to give it to Laurie but Andy’s section is just unreal. I don’t care if Andy quits the tour forever as long as he keeps putting together video sections like this.

Runner ups: Rasta, Wade, Taj, and Joel’s sections. Also the credits section.

Let-downs:

Donavon’s section was way too short.

Occy was relegated to the credits.

A lot of sections flow poorly and had unmemorable surfing & waves.

Footage not de-interlaced for digital consumption (iTunes).

Surfers:

Mark Occhilupo, Laurie Towner, Kolohe Andino, Dave Rastovich, Dylan Longbottom, Donavon Frankenreiter, Lee Wilson, Tamaroa McComb, Heath Joske, Nick Vasicek, Damien Fahrenfort, Dean Bowen, Mikey Brennan, Shaun Joubert, Reubyn Ash, Cody Thompson, Peterson Crisanto, Alejandro Moreda, Keanu Asing, Creed McTaggart, Dane Ward, TJ Barron, Granger Larsen, Sterling Spencer, Shane Dorian, Torrey Meister, Andy Irons, Wade Goodall, Taj Burrow, Joel Parkinson, Luke Egan, Tiago Pires, Peter Mendia, Greg Long, Grant Baker.

Music:

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Viva Voce, The Thermals, The Stooges, Black Math Horsemen, Whiskey Go Gos, Turbonegro, Band of Horses, The Black Angels, Mickey Avalon, The Faint, The Datsuns, Willy Mason.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Bottom line: Doesn’t quite live up to the hype, but still a pretty decent flick. Music and editing leans more to the mellow side of things, not your typical death metal high energy flick.

Where to buy: Support your local surf shop!
Kooks buy it here (We’ll still love you): Still Filthy (DVD)

Video footage of the 2009 Nelscott Reef Big Wave Surf Contest. Adam Replogle won the tow portion for the 3rd year in a row.

The WCT got skunked at Mundaka last week and moved on to Portugal where the swell was too big. Here’s what they missed back in Spain.

Aaron Lieber’s first film, The Pursuit, was the sickest movie I saw last year, and he’s hard at work on The Pursuit II. Here’s a sneak peak at some of the footage, Torrey Meister going big.

Surf photographer Kyle Sparks has a couple new shots from some surf sessions he’s been scoring. Check out his work at kylesparks.com

Everyone’s favorite New England photographer, Brian Nevins, has some photos of the first Nor’Easter swell to hit this season.

Yes, the gulf coast does get some surf sometimes. Here’s Sterling Spencer surfing the wrong side of Florida.