Karina Rozunko Wants To Make The World’s Longest Surf Movie

Karina Rozunko has one of those dream lives you get all glassy-eyed about in those moments you’re staring through the front window of your old, shaky Toyota while realising you still have to still to walk another 500 metres between the car park and your office, and it’s raining. 

She lives in Bali, traverses the globe, and is overall one of the coolest people to cross-step up and down some wax. Oh, and she’s also sincere, clever as can be, and has a biting sense of humour. That’s certainly better than somehow managing to step in a puddle so deep the water goes over your boots and soaks your socks. 

The San Clemente-born stylist is the epitome of elegance, and it’s always a treat when her presence graces our screens. If you’ve seen her shorts—Maybe Yesterday, Angel Gone, and Doll Riot, to name a few—you know this. Karina’s first full-length, Haiku, just dropped, and although we haven’t seen the final product yet, we already know it’s going to be good because it’s Rini. We caught up with her on the eve of the official Los Angeles premiere to talk Haiku, filming, travelling, and, well, everything else in between… 

Hi Rini! How’ve you been?

Really good! I’ve just been running around like crazy since I’ve been back in California. I’ve been living in Bali for the last six years, but it’s nice to get here and see the sun come out.

Sorry you had to come from Bali to our apparently perpetually bad weather here in California. At least you managed to avoid most of the storm! We’re very stoked about the premiere of Haiku, could you talk a bit about the movie? 

Well, I asked if I could do a film with Vans, and we were filming for, I want to say, eight months in total? I asked them about it last April and we kind of went in without much of a plan. I wasn’t really expecting them to say yes and jump on board, but then they did, and I was like, ‘Oh shit! We gotta figure out a plan (laughs).’ We went to Mexico, Sumatra, Japan, and Indonesia. A lot of it was shot in Indonesia and Japan. We had a great little crew come with us too. We had Holly Wawn, Alex Knost, Noah Collins, and Lola Mignot.

And your brother’s in there too!

Yeah! I invited Tanner to Mexico with us. It was super fun because he hadn’t been surfing in a while, so he was pumped. 

And Mexico is never the worst time at all. 

But he was stuck on a longboard trip with us (laughs).

Any good stories from the road? 

I’m not really sure… It was all pretty fun and just cool to bounce around. We had the same crew that was in Sumatra come to Japan, where we got a little skunked for waves, but we ended up making it happen. It was fun running around Japan, though, with everybody and doing karaoke and everything. Nothing bad or crazy really happened, everything was pretty smooth and natural. 

That’s a bit of a rarity for a film trip! But glad to hear weren’t any bumps.

It was really mellow and nice. Nothing weird, bad, or strange happened. 

Smooth as can be. Why the name Haiku? 

Well, a haiku is a type of Japanese poem, and in elementary school, we actually had a Japanese program in our class. I don’t know, but it always stuck with me. I love writing poetry, so it went hand-in-hand, really.

And Jimmy shot all of it, too, right?

Yeah! It was pretty crazy, the editing process toward the end was actually pretty hectic. We’d be butting heads on some things and would have to, like, leave the house and go in separate rooms for a little bit, then come back in and be like, ‘Okay, now we can work on it again.’ It’s hard mixing the relationship between work and personal feelings. But we had a good vision, and Jimmy's good at what he does, so I trusted it. 

Were there any specific influences you drew from creatively, or were you just improvising a bit? 

So, from the beginning, I really wanted to have a theatrical performance, but not have it over-produced. I was kind of influenced by Japanese commercials. I was going into all the YouTube holes of these old Japanese, like, 60s, 70s, and 80s commercials, and that’s where some of the inspiration was drawn from. We have a scene that is a little bit influenced by Twin Peaks too. But I just wanted something that I would want to watch. 

Are you mostly still surfing on Thomas Bexon’s boards? 

I still ride Thomas’ boards, but right now, I’m trying a lot of, well, whatever too. My friend Nick Melanson makes boards, and he’s pretty small; a few handshapes here and there. But I’ve been trying his boards because it’s always good to support friends. And I really like them! And then I’ve been back on some Dane Peterson boards too. I definitely still ride Thomas’ boards, but I’ve been having a lot of fun trying different things and mixing it up.

In your own words, what makes for beautiful surfing? Either in film or in person. 

Just when someone looks relaxed and not forced. It should be more natural. 

And what do you want people to take away from this movie?

I just want it to be completely open for everyones’ own interpretation. Jimmy and I wrote a whole story about it, but I want people to take away whatever they think they should from it. It’s not really supposed to make sense, so I want people to make something from it on their own. 

Are you already thinking of the next movie? 

Oh yeah! I mean, from the start, we had no plan, really. There are so many things that, looking back, I think I would have done so differently. But it’s such a learning experience, and that’s what’s really fun about it. I’ve never made anything longer than five minutes, so it was fun and the process was great. And if given the opportunity, I’d totally do something else that's completely different. But that’s just what happens, though, isn’t it? You’ll work so long on something, and you really learn and grow from it. If Vans never gave us a deadline for this… Well, I kept saying to Jimmy, ‘I can keep working on this film forever!’ That’d be so funny, just never deliver anything and keep working on the same film for 20 years. 

Make it like Jodorowsky’s Dune of surfing! 

That’s what Thomas Campbell does! He shot this one film so long ago, and I remember we went to Costa Rica for it and did some other trips too. But I just love that he’s holding on to it. It’s so cool. I was like an infant when doing that, and it’s so funny looking back. When it gets released, though, it will be very, very cool.

It’s always better to release something that you know is going to be done right than rush it because you feel like you have to. Are you going to stick around California a bit before heading back to Indo?

We’re actually doing a premiere in Indo, so we’ll fly back for that. I feel like I should be sitting first-class for all these flights I keep going on to go back-and-forth from (laughs). 

What are all those frequent flyer miles even good for!

I’m not even collecting miles! I should probably start… Oh, but we have a Duct Tape in Brazil in May, so I’ll be back on this side then.

Well, I think we might be all good here, anything else you want to add? 

Oh, yes! The music is done by Monde UFO, Brian and his girlfriend, Chau. They make really rad music, and they’ll be live scoring the premiere. I’ll be doing my poetry live during the film too! 

Well, we can’t wait to see it! Enjoy the limited sun here in California, and we’ll see you at the premiere.

See you then!