With Yi-Wo, Thomas Campbell sends surfing towards the surreal

The Darwinian Theory of Evolution is always summarised as a gradual change. As the strongest survive, the lineage takes on the genes and characteristics of the dominant, those most adapted to a constantly shifting environment. The science is actually more complex, with large step-changes leading to quantum leaps – harsh famine decimates a species of bird except those who, by a genetic roll of the dice, have beaks better suited for digging and foraging. So it has been in surfing. Think the advent of the fin, the shortboard, twinnies and so on, these have resulted in an overnight spike in the performance arc. And in those documenting and shaping the culture, there have been filmmakers whose work has jolted the paradigm so that everything that comes after is viewed through that lens: Bruce Brown, Jack McCoy, Andrew Kidman & Jon Frank, then Thomas Campbell. 

This week sees the release of Campbell’s much anticipated fourth surf movie Yi-Wo. 10 years in the making, this ambitious, audio-visual spectacle arrives a quarter of a century after his seminal feature The Seedling dropped. Shot on 16mm, Yi-Wo sees Campbell’s trademark style step-change into a more energised, artistic, creative space. It is a visual collage of pure, stylish surfing of every genre and on every type of wave, all driven by a meticulously curated score – not the soundtrack of a cruise down a wide California boulevard with the roof down, but the theme tune to a band of wild mustangs being coerced towards an unknown destination – with moments of serenity interspersed with the dust and sweat and energy of the bolting herd.

Campbell is a quietly spoken Californian who grew up in the coastal heartlands of Dana Point, sandwiched as it is between Laguna Beach and San Clemente. From an early age he was drawn to the glide – skating was a first passion that was soon supplemented by a passion for surfing borrowed longboards at a time, in that late ​’70s era, when these crafts were in the death spiral of cool. But this meant spots like Dana were pretty empty as the shortboard crew chased snappier waves elsewhere. Sure, he liked to shortboard, but there was also something about the trim and glide of these big boards that drew him to these quiet spots. 

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“My friends and I, we rode shortboards,” Campbell explains. ​“We rode longboards, we rode ​’70s single fins, and we rode whatever. And that wasn’t very normal, you know. We had a very good longboard wave right by our house, good shortboard waves, we’d go skateboarding in Laguna, you know, and I just tried to document what I liked. But I came from skateboarding and my creativity specifically came from skating culture.” These early experiences set Campbell’s aesthetic and the multi-layered strata of skate, surf, glide, art, pottery, filmmaking and more that followed, which has infused his work going forward.

Campbell is a prolific artist whose momentum seems to plough ever-forward, whether his medium is pottery, photography, or filmmaking. His first feature The Seedling lifted the curtain on a nascent traditional longboard scene reborn, 2004’s Sprout celebrated the emerging crew of surfers who eschewed the trend towards tiny Thrusters and tilted instead towards the joy of alternative aspects of waveriding culture. Then The Present in 2009 was the fully formed box of surfing delights. Yes, we have Indo barrels threaded on Thrusters, but we also have the pure, holistic experience of walling points trimmed on wooden Alaias – surfing stripped back to its ancient roots. This trilogy is a vision of a place that ignores the industry trends, an invitation, set to a meticulous soundtrack, sprinkled with a dusting of subtle humour.

“With the first three films, I would say that those were more educational, at a point where people didn’t have access to knowledge about riding different types of equipment or craft,” Campbell says. ​“And I kind of spelled it out pretty clearly, like, ​‘Hey, you could do this different stuff, if you want to do that, ride this,’ that kind of stuff. I felt they were set in a pretty traditional surf movie template – somewhat in the vein of like MacGillivray, Freeman, Witzig, Bruce Brown and stuff like that, but I tried to modernise it. My last film, Ye Olde Destruction was a skateboarding film and I found a new voice, which, I think parlays into this film.”

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For Yi-Wo, Campbell has still assembled a diverse collective of the most stylish surfers you would want to watch on the big screen. ​“A palette,” is how he describes it. ​“I just try to think about it like, what different colours will work good together at different times for different trips.” They range from graceful to classy, with a hatful of the sport’s greatest, including the likes of Ryan Burch, Craig Anderson, Alex Knost, Lauren Hill, Trevor Gordon and more riding the full gamut of wave riding vehicles. Dave Rastovich on a surfmat? I mean who doesn’t want to be immersed in that?

While there’s the trademark Campbell fun and joy of the glide, there’s also a deeper, layered texture to it. ​“I just wanted to go into a more creative space,” says Campbell. ​“I played with different themes, and stretched into places that can honour the depth of our existence. I just wanted everything to feel very unknown, like, you don’t know any of the music in the movie. I really wanted it to be like, kind of breaking away from the space station and floating away, you know, so like, there’s nothing there to grab onto, ​‘Oh, I know this’, or, ​‘I like this’. It’s like, ​‘Whoa, this is all completely new, like all of it’. And so that was a real focus.” 

“The first 20 minutes is quite intense, and relentless, in a way that really gets you moving… it’s a ride,” says Campbell of the energy and momentum of the film. ​“There are so many different layers to it, but I think the intensity really comes from the music. You’re going through your emotions and everything is very heightened.” 

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If his first trilogy of films were all about evolution within the culture, what is it that’s framed his latest feature? ​“With the intensity of life in this country, I feel like the whole political spectrum is really a sham, and it’s really owned all the way across by big business. And it’s just the intensity of what’s happening here is pretty heavy. It’s not that this film’s directly, obviously political. But I would say that the intensity of life over the last eight or so years has inspired some deeper thinking and then I think also some of the poetic prose that I put in the movie… maybe, you know, that’s more like the idea of it – kind of opening up questions, more than giving answers.”

As part of the YI-WO World Tour, London Surf / Film Festival is hosting four exclusive screenings here in the UK taking in London, Devon, Newcastle and Cornwall from September 15 – 18. Details & Tickets here.

Chris Nelson is a journalist, filmmaker and creator of The Big Sea documentary. Follow him on LinkedIn.

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