I first heard about Justin Adams 8 or 9 years ago. I was living in Santa Cruz, and a friend showed me a few clips of him from a previous Jack Coleman film. Tall, skeletal, and crouched. He surfed a wave like no one had even considered too.
Jack Coleman is the perfect film maker to show Justin’s surfing. A free form, lawless, and style of film making to mix and equal surfer. Contrary to many modern surf films which are action packed to the point of exhaustion; Jack Coleman allows moments to breathe and exist. Not just long waves, but real moments of sitting and waiting, happenings in the street, nature existing.
The description states that the surfing, soundtrack, title text, and art. Jack Coleman truly has created a vehicle and collaboration piece with Justin Adams. It is always interesting to hear what kind of music a surfer wants to accompany their surfing. With artists like Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra, and Mazzy Star alongside the crouched, nuanced approach; it just makes sense.
I would be curious to get a more in depth look of the quiver of boards ridden in this film. Luckily, a board list is included in the end credits. They all seem to be short, flat, and relatively thin. Looking at the list, none of the boards are that short, Justin is just really tall. No matter what they seem to work for exactly what Justin is trying to do with them. One board that stood out was this twonzer? I think that is what you would call it. It was ridden in a section that looked like it was filmed around Southern California and it looks so good under foot.
Jack Colemans’ films profile the cult heroes of surfing and ‘Disappear’ is no different. This is sure to be a stand out piece for anyone who is excited about new waves to ride waves. It will be interesting to see how many kids I see trying to surf like this next time I’m at the local.
