Dude Cruise by Irons Bros. Productions and DC Shoes
Official Press Release:
Dude Cruise is the first movie from Irons Bros. Productions, the new film company formed by Bruce and Andy Irons, and the first-ever movie featuring the DC surf team and just the DC surf team.
It’s true that there are only three guys on the elite DC surf team. But between Bruce Irons, Dane Reynolds, and Ry Craike, who else do even need in a surf movie these days? Combined, the crew stands at the forefront of modern progressive surfing. The boys have earned a rep as some of the best rippers on the planet, all the while keeping unique styles in and out of the water.
It’s those unique out-of-the-water styles that make Dude Cruise so damn interesting. We all know that sometimes on surf trips (or a Dude Cruise, as we’ve dubbed this one) things can get weird with a strange brew of testosterone, cabin fever, and ale. Dude Cruise offers a look at the type of weirdness that goes down with individuals like Bruce, Dane, and Ry in the mix, plus, of course, plenty of footage of the boys shredding spots worldwide.
Dude Cruise also serves a new take the standard surf video; you know, the atypical two-minute quick-edit parts seen in nearly every surf flick out there. Directed by Matt Beauchesne (previously residing in Taylor Steele’s camp, now heading up Irons Bros. Productions), Dude Cruise shows sessions start to finish–not just the banger clips–to offer a more realistic look at what happens when you’re just out with your friends having a good time.
Sheesh. Now this is what pisses me off about computers–and technology in general. I spent an hour (read: thirty minutes) ranting and raving on this blog about the current state of the surf video business, just like I always do. I actually got a little more specific: the lowly retail buyers are the slipshod gatekeepers who are supposed to be protecting the consumer from crap product, most surf videos today are like bad pornos from the 80’s (hot chick on the boxcover and snaggle-toothed hags in the video), yadda, yadda, yadda. Of course, I save the damned thing to the Drafts file, went to a friend’s wedding in Florida, come back to finish the post and all that’s sitting there waiting for me is the official press release that I copied and pasted into the beginning of the post. So, all of my creativity has been swallowed up by the cyber-void once again. And to tell you the truth, the press release is pretty straight-forward.
Bruce Irons, Dane Reynolds, Ry Craike and some cameo appearances make up the movie. Although the press release won’t mention it, the video is relatively short by surf industry standards. At approx. 25 minutes, it falls quite a bit short of the average TRT of 42 minutes. Since I’m feeling a bit weeded after losing my original rant, I’ll just lay it down:
Yes, Bruce Irons still rips and is one of my favorite surfers to watch. Unfortunately, I don’t know whether he needs to knock off a little WCT three-to-the-beach formatting in his surfing or if he’s just not as dynamic as he used to be, but his surfing in Dude Cruise didn’t excite me the way he did in Magnaplasm. Maybe he’s matured, maybe Dude Cruise is “Sonic Temple” to Magnaplasm’s “Electric”, but it just wasn’t the same. The magic’s still there, though, and I’m hoping that time away from the Tour will bring back the full force of animal aggression that defines his surfing.
Dane Reynolds: I’m not a hater, but I’m probably one of the only people I know that are not completely blown away by this guy’s surfing. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Does he rip? Definitely. Is his style impeccable? Surely. But there’s something missing here. Could be the same reason that I like Taylor Knox’s style, but can’t seem to appreciate Bobby Martinez. Too polished? Possibly. He definitely doesn’t surf like a robot, but it’s possible that his “Devil-may-care” attitude is projected in his surfing. I’m absolutely certain that the guy loves what he does, but for some reason, it doesn’t convey the same sense of urgency that I get from Slater, AI or even Fanning. Regardless, every other person on the planet loves this guy’s style and will therefore love his Dude Cruise Sections.
In my humble opinion, Ry Craike is the sleeper star of the video. Sure, some of those waves are tow-ats, but they’re still the most ridiculous frontside roundhouses I’ve ever seen in my life. This guy’s built for surfing. Just like Occy and Tom Carroll before him, he’s a stocky bastard with a low center of gravity and will bash any lip that comes at him. In my book, his section alone is worth the price of admission. Bonus Fact: Ry goes right in this video!
I’m going to keep the accompanying rant relatively short. This video alone exemplifies the utter bullshit that has become of the once-revered SURFER Poll Video Awards. Year after year, the graft and corruption has become so bald-faced that a good number of independent producers I know won’t even submit their titles anymore. Now, I’m sure that the good people at SURFER don’t register the importance of their little awards show to surf film makers–or maybe they do. In any case, the flagrancy of the paybacks for marketing dollars has reached its peak in the last several years.
For the layman: SURFER Magazine announces the nomination process for their annual SURFER Poll Video Awards each year and with that announcement comes a list of qualifying rules for consideration in the awards including, among other things, the stipulation that in order for a title to be considered, it must be for sale by a certain date. Know this: this and any other rules do not apply if your title is a corporate marketing piece bearing the following logos: Quiksilver, Billabong, Volcom, or in this case, DC Shoes (owned by Quiksilver–double whammy!).
In the past three years, we’ve seen the following award-winners: Freebie dvds shrink-wrapped in SURFER Magazine in marketing co-ops with Billabong; titles that are available for sale–in Australia!–but will not release in the States for another eight months; Movie of the Year winners (on more than one occasion) that released a month or more after the awards show.
Well, in this case, what was originally a likeable and fun short video garnered the prestigious Breakthrough Filmmaker award–and my ire. No offense to Matt Beauchesne. I don’t know the guy and he’s done some great work on Taylor Steele’s vids in the past. Likewise, I’ve already said that Dude Cruise is a fun little video. But Breakthrough Filmmaker? C’mon. At best, it’s a short romp tied together by a sophomoric prank (Bruce Irons rolls their rental car on the beach). I know I’m not alone in this, either. Virtually every person I’ve talked to has agreed that the car-rolling incident was funny–the first time they showed it. But they used this bit as the glue that holds the whole video together and it gets old, fast.
The only thing that makes any sense here is that Rick Irons and the rest of the boys at SURFER were either on glue when they bestowed this award on Dude Cruise, or more likely, they were looking at the ad revenue that the combined forces of Quik, DC and specifially, all of the double-page Dude Cruise ads represented. I could go on, but this is so on-its-face ridiculous, that I think you can decipher whatever else I haven’t spelled out for you. (Just in case you can’t: Art is dead. Cash is king.) All hail the Bible of the sport. All hail Quiksilver (Current stock price at the time of this Blog: $1.18)
MSRP: $24.95
Tags: surf, Surf DVD Press Release, surf dvds, surf industry, surf movies, Surf Videos, surfboards, surfers, surfing, surfing dvds, surfing videos
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February 4, 2009 at 1:13 am
Ha! Who ever said money can’t buy you love obviously hasn’t seen the hordes of 13-15 year-old “surfer” girls and boys who live for the Polls, rock Holister, and think Zumies is the most core shop EVER. Revolutionary meant something once… the first punk sound track… the first “section”… the first film to end with Slater… the first Surfer Poll would even qualify. Of course we, as a society, have a sickening reaction to a lack of something new (give me one other country that would understand the term, “retail therapy). Whenever revolution is lacking we simply drag out the old, slap a new coat of paint on it, and claim it like hell. It is a self supporting addiction and everyone pulls up and puts out to get that feel good feeling of having been there and seen that, but just like an old concert tee the color starts to fade after a few washes. I back ya brother, but thanks for keeping the rant so “short”.