As a new chapter unfolded in this surfer’s life, Dane rebounded, evolved and bounced back, continuing with career-making surf films, winning Surfer Poll awards and even getting inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame. Dane is also taking his film craft a step further with a recent directorial debut with the film ‘Slow Dance’ featuring fellow surfing wanderlust companion Craig Anderson. The Ventura local still competes in contests, with most recent endeavors being the recent 2013 Triple Crown Of Surfing events at Haleiwa, Sunset and a Vans wildcard entry into the Pipe Masters championship event. Dane also made a huge move in the social media realm in pursuit of a wildcard seed at the Hurley Pro Trestles earlier in the year. @sealtooth was revealed and the world’s undeniable support to see Dane Reynolds compete was justified in an online verbal cat fight and voting battle against unassumingly very popular East Coast surf junior Cam Richards. Long story short, Dane’s popularity as an international surfing icon trumped Cam’s eastside conglomerate, even with the help of that guy who played Ray Charles. Either way, it was a mildly entertaining treat amongst the nonsense on the Facebook news scroll. It all comes down to surfing and for the time being, Dane is a seasoned vet still in his prime and ready to do… something! We don’t know exactly what. But we sure want to be there when it happens… Just to see… And we’re still not completely sure why. While Dane was on the North Shore, we were able to sit down and talk Dane. The Freesurf crew was invited to the Sunset Beach accommodations, a few breaks away from his usual stay at the beachfront Quiksilver House. Dane was very pleasant, gracious and characteristically cool.
Interview by Mike Latronic Transcription by Lauren Rolland People have mixed views of coming to Hawaii, being in Hawaii, experiencing Hawaii and I’m sure for everybody there’s some good some bad. What’s been your surf experience in Hawaii? Coming here as a young, aspiring professional from California, you feel like you’ve got a target on your back and everyone wants to see you fail and wants to keep you off of good waves and… give you a bad experience. I’m not saying everyone, but it’s just the competitive thing. And maybe there’s probably some jealousy from other guys who haven’t been so successful at whatever, and think maybe you’re not
Nikki Brooks
knee injury that forced him to withdraw from the tour’s first 3 events. This contributed to a lack luster year and Dane’s eventual walking away from the ‘Dream Tour’.