Momentum Turns 20

Once upon a time, surf movies were renowned for beautiful drawn out turns, perfect waves and heinous soundtracks. Then in 1992, a relatively unknown Californian Taylor Steele released a 35-minute VHS film titles Momentum that boasted a formula of fast punk rock music, (some) crook waves, tail slides and airs and a cast of buddies that would later become the best surfers in the world. Now, on the eve of its 20th birthday, some of the original cast remark on the film that forever changed the landscape of surf movies.

THE BEGINNINGS

“Taylor and I both grew up surfing Seaside (California). He actually lived one town south of me only, about five minutes away. We’d both surf Seaside every day. We were pretty young and would’ve been aged 14 or 15, but then he broke out a video camera when we were about 16-years-old. You never saw people videoing at the time. It was kind of a big deal. The rest is history.” – Rob Machado

“We knew each other before Rob was even looking at being a pro-surfer and before I was videoing. It was a friendship before we worked together. I guess a lot of my success can be attributed to Rob’s rise. I was looking at all the cool things he was able to do and I was figuring out how to film with the scope I had.” – Taylor Steele

“Taylor made two movies before Momentum. One was called Seaside And Beyond. The next one was called One Step Beyond. Seaside And Beyond was shot all at Seaside Reef. It was basically of all the guys who surfed there. When he made One Step Beyond, he branched out a little bit. That first movie was actually his high-school project.” – Rob Machado

“One Step Beyond was something I was making in school, but the biggest difference with Momentum was it was my first project that wasn’t a school project. It was a real job.” – Taylor Steele

“I guess it all came together from there like most peer groups do and we started doing trips together. It was really organic and easy.” – Pat O’Connell

“I was friends with Rob, who was friends with Taylor and it went from there. Taylor was just always around filming and it became an organic process.” – Kelly Slater

MEXICO

“I think the breakthrough moment was when we did a trip to Mexico. We put a big group of guys together. It was Kelly (Slater), Shane (Dorian), Ross (Williams), Todd Chesser, Pat O’Connell, Vinnie DeLa Pena and myself. It was a cool little crew, everyone was going down to Puerto and we were going to hang down there for a little bit. We told Taylor to come down, but he was super hesitant. I was like: ‘You don’t realise how stoked these guys will be if you come down…’ But he didn’t want to barge in. At that point we were 16 or 17-years-old and progressing a lot. Everyday you’re trying new shit and trying to better your surfing, but it was also a big deal if you could see yourself surfing. I talked him into it. He came down, got into it and all the boys were instantly fired up. He was the same age and blended into our crew seamlessly. He was part of our posse.” – Rob Machado

“Rob had to actually sit me down and talk me into going to Puerto Escondido. That was the first real trip for the movie and it set up everything. I got to know everyone well and it was a really pivotal point in my career. I remember there was a swell forecast and Rob said: ‘You need to come on this trip, there’s no way you’re getting out of it.’ I was all: ‘No… I don’t know those guys. I don’t know if I want to go.’ In the end we were all pretty happy with what went on to happen from that trip.” – Taylor Steele

“I remember Taylor came down to Puerto Escondido in Mexico and Taylor was there with his white Canon or something. It was one of the first video cameras. And if you went back in time before that, which makes us all seem really old, guys would shoot film that you would never see for weeks or months or sometimes never. It was so cool cause Taylor would film the section and we could go back and sit there and watch it. Either he’d put it on the television or you’d put your eye on the cameras eyepiece and watch it through. That was what made it look so cool to us, that Taylor would let us watch our footage. Even Kelly at time was doing those big trips with Quiksilver and they were shooting film a lot. I don’t think he was watching much of his footage before then either.” – Pat O’Connell

“A lot of the movies shot at the time were shot on film. What Taylor wanted to do was so different. He was like: ‘Look, I have this shitty little video camera that my parents bought, it’s so low quality and I’m gonna find music no one is listening to. We’re not gonna travel far. It’s funny because it’s gone full circle to what he’s doing now. When you look at the movies Taylor is working on now, like Castles In The Sky and Sipping Jetstreams, they were the movies he despised when he was 18-years-old.” – Rob Machado

“That first movie was limited, but we got some good waves in Mexico and that gave us a good taste of what it’s like to travel for a movie. At that point we were just filming to get good clips, it wasn’t so much an adventure. A few years later we realised it was also about travelling and getting good waves, not just clips.” – Ross Williams

NORTH SHORE

“I didn’t know anyone in Hawaii, so when I got there I bought a van and slept in it for the first month and a half. Rob came over after that and he introduced me to Benji (Weatherly) so I could charge my batteries at his place, so I wouldn’t miss a session at Pipe. It evolved from there. Then Benji said I could stay for one night and I started doing chores to keep my place in his house as long as I could. From then on… I lived there at his house.” – Taylor Steele

“That was a different time for sure. We were all pretty much crashing on someone’s floor. There were no team houses on the beach. Taylor bought a piece of shit van and was living in it. Benji felt bad for him and told him to grab his shit and move into his family’s house, which was already packed with people.” – Shane Dorian

“He was quiet and just went about his thing. He’d let us watch the day’s footage at Benji’s house and he slept in a van on the street out front I think (laughs).” If he didn’t like what we said about his filming, like a tripod being crooked or him missing a wave, we didn’t get to see the footage that next day or week until we apologised. He was a little sensitive back then.” – Kelly Slater

“Yeah I remember that winter really well. It was really rainy and the water was brown, the Volcom house was actually Benji Weatherly’s house at the time and we were all hanging there. Taylor and another one of our good friends came over and they had a place, but got kicked out after a week. Next minute they bought this van and lived in it until Benji took them in and let them sleep in his living room. The vibe was pretty intense at that time. You had guys like Johnny-Boy (Gomes) and the Ho brothers (Michael and Derek) out surfing Pipe a lot and we were right there on the beach, just a bunch of California kids trying to paddle out and catch waves. It saved us being there, because we could pick our moments. When four or five of those guys paddled out, you’d just go make yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and watch. The lineup would thin right out when they’d paddle out. Then all of a sudden, they’d all come in and there’d be this moment where we’d scramble out and try to get a few waves before the crowd turned back up.” – Rob Machado

“It was a good time for us. It wasn’t as crazy as it is these days. Nowadays, there’s more people, more surfers, more media. Back then was right on the tipping point, there was still a bit of innocence left on the North Shore where you could get surfs in without too many people being around. These days it’s more of a circus. We were at that age where all we did was surf which made it a really fun time for us.” – Ross Williams

FRIENDLY COMPETITION

“The vibe was awesome, but it was very competitive. If you interview other guys they’ll tell you it was all hugs, but now we’re older we can giggle about it. I think it was all fun, but there was a lot of ego and testosterone built up and we were fighting for the dream of being a pro-surfer. “ – Pat O’Connell

“Taylor had a really good way of pushing guy’s buttons. He would use other surfers to make you surf harder. He’d come back from a session and say something like: ‘Shaneo was ripping, he got clips today.’ Or: ‘You should’ve seen what Ross did.’ Then he’d tell you that he couldn’t show you because you weren’t there (laughs). It almost put us against each other, but in a good way. It was cool because we were all super involved in the movie. He kept us in the loop as far as music and waves and if you didn’t like them… Then you’d have to argue for them and he’d take them out or find something you like better. I always thought that was pretty cool. I think we also stirred a lot of it up amongst ourselves. I think we knew the importance of his movie and knew that you had to have a good section so you had to work as hard as you could. When you heard about other people’s good waves in different spots, you knew you had to go work to get clips and make your part good. Back then it was just as important as anything you did on tour. You had your tour rating and then you had to focus on your movie part, because you knew you only had a certain amount of clips to put together a solid section.” – Rob Machado

“It was competitive, but it was more of an undertone. It wasn’t serious. It was a healthy thing, but Taylor hyped that up as well saying things like: ‘Whoever gets the best section goes last…”It was almost always Kelly, but Taylor always set it up so we were competing against each other in a healthy way. I think we were all confident in our own surfing, but it was definitely a motivational tool.” –Ross Williams

“We all just wanted to have a strong part. It became like a contest to see who had the sickest part, song, waves, etc.” – Shane Dorian

MUSIC

“Taylor built a relationship with everyone in the movie. It wasn’t just the surfers either, he built relationships with all the bands like Pennywise, Bad Religion, Offspring, Sprung Monkey, Unwritten Law and Blink-182. I believe this whole other part was monumental because it got to the point where these guys were going into the studio to record new songs just to try and make it on the movie. It was heavy. He’d have bands coming up to him asking: ‘Hey Taylor, when does your movie come out? We’ll go record a few songs for you.’ Are you kidding? That’s unheard of. That’s another piece of the puzzle that I completely forgot about. It’s really what bought it all together. And the tours he was putting together, these guys were stoked to jump on tour. They were all: ‘Dude, you’re touring your movie? We’ll come play.’ So, you had all these crazy bands playing movie premieres.” – Rob Machado

“The music played a massive part. If it were something like Sarah McLachlan I don’t think it would it would have gone as far (laughs). I go back and think of movies like Mad Wax and there was music like GANGajang and it was so fuckin’ cool. It all went in perfect harmony. I think music played a big part, but it was also the mentality behind it. It changed things and the punk music was just one aspect of it all.” – Pat O’Connell

“I think Taylor just liked that music and it fit the approach and age group and idealism for everyone; rad bands sometimes making music for the films and being a part of a movement. That inspired everyone.” – Kelly Slater

“I think that was part of his success. That music was not cool when he started using it, but it was what he liked to listen to. He single handily made that genre popular in the surf world.” – Shane Dorian

“Being from Southern California, the punk feel was definitely Taylor’s influence. It was really cool. It hadn’t been done in surf movies before ever, it was really raw. I think it resonated with all of us. None of us had any gripes about the style. We were all in agreement. We liked it.” – Ross Williams

“That time was magical for me because I became really good friends with the surfers and then good friends with the punk bands. I hung out with them, they stayed at my house when they came to San Diego. They were part of our group that was taking on the world. They would watch the movie and talk about Kelly or Rob’s section, so it created synergy on all levels.” – Taylor Steele

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