Choreographing Ballet’s Newest Surf Film
Ballet Grip Company is about to drop a new film, and I don’t need to tell you that it’s going to be good.
With the company introducing new members, fresh grip designs and some very fine-looking capsule collections in the past year, it appears the boys behind the brand have been very busy. We belled half of the Ballet brains Jamie Krups to squeeze as much information out of him as we could ahead of the premieres next week.
Hey, Mr Krups, I’ll jump into this straight away because I know you’re a busy man. Let’s kick off with an intro for the film.
Well, the film is called Ballet. Not much creativity going on with the name, but I think the reason why it’s called Ballet is that it is the first proper thing we’ve done. It introduces the whole team and gives a little bit more insight into what the company is behind it.
In terms of where it was shot, it was a pretty collaborative film because everyone chipped in on their own accord. The business is still so small that we could only really afford one trip. We managed to get a few of the team riders who had free slots in their schedule to come and hang together in Indo with me and Seb in May last year. We paid for the accommodation, and that was pretty much it. But everyone still made it happen, which is cool.
I guess for a normal surf film that a company or a brand puts out, the brand pitches four locations and then flies their team riders there and pays for everything. We can’t really afford to do that, so after the Indo trip I just kind of told everyone it would be cool to make a film that showcases everyone together, but if we want to make that happen, they may have to go do their own thing and throw us whatever clips they can. So everyone went to a few different places and filmed on their own.
Tom Morat and Nick Melanson went to Nicaragua with Noah Collins. Kobe Hughes and Tom were in Europe, so there’s some France and Spain stuff. There’s some East Coast Aus stuff from Connor Lee, Holly Wawn, Kalani Ball, and Letty Mortensen. Plus all the stuff from Indo with everyone, including Ainara Aymat, Lee Wilson, and the local guy that we sponsor, Made Deva. A fair few locations there, so I guess the challenge then was trying to sew it all together.
Well, if you’ve got anything to do with it, I’m sure it’ll look great.
Yeah, well, I think a lot of people will think it with be similar to Fairy or maybe better or whatever. I guess the first thing you put out lays the precedent for everything to follow. It is a little bit weird for a brand to put out a film but then ask everyone to make it happen with Ballet compared to a film like Fairy. With that, everyone was a bit more inclined to make it a collective thing with it being an independent film not tied to the brand, so there was just a whole lot more footage shot. Ballet was a little scarcer in terms of the resources available, but regardless, it is still cool to have this film show all the different faces and surfers apart of the brand. I’m making it sound like a sad story by accident here, but it’s actually a lot of fun to watch, I think.
Is the whole team a part of this film because there are a fair few of them on the roster now?
Yeah, so everyone is in there. The only person who didn’t get any clips, unfortunately, was the OG Brad Gerlach because he had a knee injury the whole time we were shooting, which was a bit of a bummer.
Who was best on ground?
I think that’s the one thing I get the most excited about or sort of appreciate about the film is that everyone surfs really, really differently. Noah has his own way of reading the wave and surfing, and then you got the really high-performance guys like Kalani, Letty and Connor. You got Holly and Ainara holding it down for the girls, plus Tom and Nick on logs and asyms. Kobe is on the asyms as well. Very mixed. It’s not just a bunch of dudes on short boards trying to fucking hammer the lip the whole time.
Ha-ha! Nope definitely don’t need more of that. So now that it’s done, what’s the feeling you get when you finally do release something that you’ve been working on for some time out into the world? Relief? Or sadness that it’s over?
I think with this one it’s a bit glass half empty kinda thing. I really believe in every single person on the team, and I know if we were a multi-million dollar business we could have the budget to spend twelve months on the road and put out something that we could be really excited and proud of. The reality is that’s not the case, though, so in that regard, it’s a bit half empty, but I’m also still really happy with what we’re putting out because, regardless, it does still shine a light on the individuals behind the brand and give a space for the company to sing its own little song. Hopefully, it positions itself in the little surf world in its own unique way. And I actually think it does that, which was my main goal. Half empty is still better than empty.
A million dollars would be nice. Okay, so trying to do some brand promo then, what is the most popular surf grip used by the team?
It’s a 50/50 split between the Black Swan and the White Swan.
The OGs. How old is Ballet, by the way?
We’ve got an easy birthday to remember because it’s the first of 2020, so we turned three on the 1st of January this year.
Wow, congratulations.
Yeah stoked, thank you.
I know last time we spoke you said that you draw inspiration from a broad spectrum of industries and art forms, but are there also brands you look to as well that you can note?
We make a pretty concerted effort to not look at any surf brands, but yeah, two running brands: Satisfy Running and District Vision. We like what those two brands are doing because they entered a space where running was viewed as a certain aesthetic or style, and they just came in and approached it in a unique way. That’s what we take inspiration from—going into a category, whether it’s surfing or running or whatever, and paving your own way regardless of whether that’s in line with the so-called norms of that category.
Design-wise, the house and techno music scene is pretty inspirational. They are both really interesting to look at in terms of graphic design, in particular their disco vinyl covers. The themes that evoke from house music itself are always good keywords to go back to as well. You know, things like inclusivity, love and energy. High fashion is always exciting to look at in terms of campaigns.
If you had to describe what Ballet is to someone who isn’t in the funny little surf world, what would you say?
Ballet is a surf company—started by myself and my friend Seb Raubenheimer—that acts as a platform for us to experiment with, make things and collaborate with people. Since starting it, we’ve sponsored a few of our friends as well as some other individuals who caught our eyes across the globe, and we now have a good little team together. And that’s it, to be honest. Because it's not our main job, a lot of the money just goes back into the business, which then affords us the ability to do more creative things which may be not so economically viable, but it doesn’t really matter because there are no salaries to pay, what matters is doing things which we think are meaningful and that we believe in. So, for now, it's just a fun little side thing to funnel creative endeavours and collaborative products, and hopefully that inspires people to go out and do their own thing too.
When and where can we catch the film?
There will be a couple of premieres over the next two weeks, each kicking off at 7 pm.
24th February at Surfboard Empire, Noosa.
25th February at Afterlife Store, Brunswick Heads.
25th February at 2-3 Fair, Los Angeles.
25th February at Blacksands Brewery, Bali.
2nd March at The Prince, Newcastle.
3rd March at The Steyne, Manly.
Any last shout outs?
Just an additional thanks to the filmers Harry Dott, Jackson Jones and Cole Walton that contributed a lot to the film, and the entire ballet team too. It was definitely a for-the-love project.
Thanks Krups, see you there for a beer.
