COMMITMENT ISSUES. WE’VE GOT THEM.
Traditionally, we’ve been told, magazines have a release schedule. Which we did, albeit loosely. But when the phone rangs and a soft yet suggestive voice asked if we’d like to throw a release party in South Africa in six weeks time, we said, ‘Yes of course’, and then wondered, ‘How?’.
An actual deadline we had to stick to. We used to take pride in missing them. We now had to commit to them. Is this growing up?
Anyway, in this case, growing up meant we had to get back to work, and who else to inspire us to do so than guys who shaped our (ongoing) grom hood, such as CJ and Taj. Seeing them putting so much energy into their own ventures, we found renewed vigour for our own;
And so we began…
Three quiet weeks in the library with the Volcom team in Portugal is always a good way to add substantial gravitas to the 27 Club theory. Being arrested and held at the Slovenian border with Sammy Montano whilst in our heads wishing we were back drinking Cidra in Zarautz. Watching Dane surf his own shaped boards at the very same Zarautz at the best lo-fi contest we’ve ever attended. Joining Skegss on their UK tour, described by our young Catalan reporter as being ‘utterly savage’. Pints in Manchester, jarras in Fuerteventura, vin in Biarritz, and rain in New Zealand. And suddenly, there were rolls of film being sent, we-transfers being received, pens being put to paper and another part of the process was starting. The actual making of it, which is a completely different story. Even more so when having to shrink what usually is an ongoing one-month process into one week, and each member of your team is away in a different country. But a deadline was set, and committed we were. Also, we would rather spend a couple of sleepless nights than having to face an angry Spanish printer. Trust us, you don’t want to deal with that.
And somehow, after a testing few days both physically and mentally, a small dose of chance and a large side of misadventure, a lovely guy named Alberto ended up dropping a large amount of boxes in front our warehouse, and Volume III was born, and one week later, the celebrations started in South Africa. Yes, J-Bay to be precise. We managed to fly some of the magazines there, and somehow ended up hosting the semi official-ish event closing party…
Then being in South Africa we couldn’t stop thinking about the Transkei, a place we discovered last year when filming for “Xhosa” and we couldn’t say no when Beyrick suggested to go back… and things got even weirder from there. Very weird… but you’ll have to get your palms on Volume IV to find out…
