Nalu in the News

Watch: Flashback to the Momentum Gen Surfing Pipeline 30+ Years Ago

"The Momentum Generation mixed in with local heavies."

The North Shore is known for its high concentration of pro surfers living among the civilians. But it also has a handful of long-standing surf photogs who've made a life, and a career, shooting surf on the Seven Mile Miracle. 

On February 9th, earlier this year, the surf world lost a legend.

Larry Haynes, longtime Hawaii-based surf cinematographer, passed away. He collapsed after a surf session at Laniakea on the North Shore of Oahu.

Just weeks before, he was in the water at massive Waimea Bay, filming the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational, and just hours before he was in the lineup at Pipeline. Haynes was a fixture on the North Shore, and worldwide, and his loss was deeply saddening.

Winter on the North Shore officially kicked off earlier this month when we saw Koa Rothman and John John Florence surfing Rocky Point during the first swell of the season. 

But the North Shore is truly emerging from its summer slumber thanks to the huge swell hitting this week with waves reportedly reaching 25 feet tomorrow with a "fair to good" rating for Pipeline.  

In the spirit of the notorious lefthander, here's some throwback footage of all-time Pipeline 10 years ago. 

The North Shore's Shawn Briley is a Pipeline barrel-riding legend. 

Briley, or "Briles" as friends call him, is notorious for going all-in at huge Pipeline, or anywhere he surfed, in the '90s.

He's known for his fully committed approach when surfing the world's heaviest waves and his show-up and blow-up mentality. Briley was a full-blown Pipeline hellman until he got "the one," the wave he could never beat, and walked off the beach, away from Pipe, and didn't look back. 

"Segment from Fluid Combustion 2K: Pits In Paradise, a Larry Haynes Film. Tahiti Pro 2000 filmed by the legendary Larry Haynes."

"The chargers of the new millennium bust out the moves in the sickest pits ever, from the hardest Carving to the gnarliest drops & insane wipeouts..."

The clip features just under five minutes of footage from the Gotcha Tahiti Pro at Teahupo'o in 1999 and 2000. Naturally, it features the top surfers of the time like Andy Irons, Bruce Irons, and Kelly Slater. The edit offers lots big bombs, some epic underwater and POV shots, and most importantly, lots of big barrels. 

The surf report for the upcoming SHISEIDO Tahiti Pro may not look good, but in the summer of 2013, Teahupo'o was huge and barreling. 

Since the world's best surfers are in Tahiti right now waiting for the contest's holding period to begin on Friday, it's only fitting we looked into our crystal ball to watch firing Chopes 10 years ago. 

The film was shot by the late and great cinematographer Sonny Miller, who passed away the very next year after this surf vid was made.  

In 2006 John Florence was 13 years old. 10 years later he’d win his first world title. Today he’s still (arguably) the best surfer in the world.

Watching this edit back, could you have seen it coming? Sure, John is shredding J-Bay alongside his Mom, Alex and his brothers Nathan and Ivan. But at 13 John wasn’t otherworldly good yet. He wasn’t sticking huge airs, and he was still developing the strength and power for his patented frontside wrap.

“Andy’s back is blown out, and my brain is blown out,” says Shane Beschen in the beginning of this clip from 23 years ago. “But hey, we’re gonna go out there and try to put something together.”

This never-before-seen raw footage is from the Op Pro Boat Challenge, during an era when a surf comp like this would happen and we’d have to wait two months for a magazine to hit our mailbox to find out the results. A time when surfboards were too narrow, boardshorts were too long, and brands plastered massive logos on every piece of clothing.

Searching for Tom Curren is the cult film that crystallized Tom Curren’s transition from world champion competitor to trailblazing free surfer. Under the auspices of The Rip Curl Search, Curren laid down timeless lines, explored new wave zones and experimented with alternative equipment. The film mythologized Tom Curren and is also credited with ushering in the renaissance of the fish design. There’s a reason why surfers like Mason Ho still have ‘Searching for Tom Curren’ on high rotation – it’s just so good.

Remastered 25th Anniversary Film “Searching for Tom Curren” Available Now
Nalu.TV is excited to announce the release of the 25th Anniversary digitally remastered classic surf filmSearching for Tom Curren in Loving Memory of Sonny Miller.
Rip Curl first presented the late great Sonny Miller’s film,Searching for Tom Curren, in late 1996, and in 1997 it won the Surfer Poll Awards for Best Movie. The Collector’s Edition Blu-ray/ DVD/ Photo Booklet and Streaming options are available at Nalu.TV.

In our little subcultural enclave, Sonny Miller’s Searching For Tom Curren, is a sacred document.

For years, Sonny Miller’s homage of the Most Stylish Surfer Of All Time, Tom Curren, was unavailable in any quality form, save for the occasional VHS on eBay, or low quality digital rip from the infamous Search box set that was briefly available in the early-00s, then disappeared entirely due to legal issues around music clearances, amongst other complications.

There’s nothing like stylish surfing shot on 16 millimeter film. Acclaimed surf filmmaker Sonny Miller was a master of the craft, and got plenty of practice doing so, leaving behind “thousands of pounds of film reels” when he passed away in 2014. Since then, those reels have sat, untouched, just waiting to be rediscovered by the surf world. Like this one featuring Shane Powell, who finished second on the 1994 ASP World Tour, along with two of the baddest cats in surfing, Miki Dora and Johnny Boy Gomes, far from their respective homes, at J-Bay.

Searching for Tom Currenis almost certainly the finest surf film ever made. It stars our little sport's most eccentric surfing genius at the height of his powers, and it was made by the late Sonny Miller, another of our maestros, also at his own artistic zenith. Plus, it was filmed in the mid-90s, and maybe this is just the nostalgia speaking, but has there ever been a better period for non-ironic soul-tinged edginess merged with balls-out progressive surfing? I say no.