“I’m in the middle of the vortex of the premiere party,” said Logan Dulien, independent filmmaker and founder of the Snapt surf movie franchise. “It’s not just making popcorn in a movie theater. We’re having a Jumbotron, stadium-sized LED screen built on the beach. Andre Nicatina performing, there’s a lot of moving parts to it.”
The effort Logan described is underway right now at SeaLegs in Huntington Beach, which will soon host the global premiere of Snapt5, the fifth and final iteration of Logan’s high-octane, feature-length surf films. You can buy tickets now here for the screening on August 2. After the premiere, the movie will take a three-month world tour. If the trailer below is any indication, it’s A-grade stuff.
A lot has changed personally and professionally for Logan since he hit the red button on his camera 25 years ago and recorded the sessions that became the first Snapt. He’s overcome drug addiction. Family members have passed away. Last year, he got robbed while surfing his home break, then wound up helping authorities catch members of organized crime and got on CNN for it. But one thing has remained true for Logan, no matter how busy it gets in his editing chair. He truly loves surfing. It saved his life. When things got dark, he channeled creative energy into his work, fulfilling not just his own interests, but those of surf fans worldwide. And seeing it on the big screen next to like-minded souls makes it all the better.
“It’s all about the energy they bring when you gather people together,” he said. “When you watch a surf movie together, everybody’s psyching. And for me, that’s why I make these movies. It’s not about storylines or rainbows and butterflies. It’s strictly good surfing and to get people psyched to go surfing.”
Snapt Surf/YouTube
I’ve felt that energy courtesy of Logan firsthand during a 2022 screening of Snapt4 at my hometown bar in Half Moon Bay. Watching high-level shredding on a big screen surrounded by bombastic music and surfers practically foaming at the mouth was something I’ll never forget. Nearly three years after the previous film, Snapt5 will be bigger and longer than any of its predecessors. The runtime is 1 hour and 15 minutes (by comparison, Snapt3 is 35 minutes). More than 50 surfers (including a competitive grom part) are featured across 19 sections. If soft-spoken documentaries are one side of a surf media spectrum, this is the opposite. Snapt5 is a bloody surf slasher. Sharp blades included.
“Selecting the talent is tricky,” Logan said. “Believe me, I’d like to have so many more guys in the movie. There’s much good talent out there. That’s definitely the most challenging part, picking the talent and why. You can only allocate so much time in the movie. And we’re pushing it with this one. But at the end of the day, it’s my last movie. So why not?”
Logan also made it clear how much he liked the duality of the established stars and the lesser-known but ravenous youngsters. Guys like Mateus Herdy, Dane Henry, Luke Tema, Steve Roberson, and Legend Chandler may not be household names, but their parts in the film speak for themselves.
“It’s cool that we got this next crop of youth in the movie tied in with guys like Yago Dora, Jack Robinson, Mason Ho, Noa Deane, Harry Bryant,” Logan said. “This is the strongest cast with diversity and generation gaps that we’ve had in a surf movie. I feel like this is a buffet. It’s all you can eat. And I think everyone will be full when it’s over.”
Related: Watch: Taro Watanabe, Parker Coffin and Levi Slawson Drop “Snapt5” Breadcrumbs
One thing I have long been curious about with the Snapt films is who decides on the soundtrack for specific parts: the surfers or the editor? “With each guy, it’s different,” Logan explained. “For a guy like Mason Ho, it’s like autopilot. He edits so much of his stuff anyway. I let someone on that content tier pretty much run with it. He’ll pretty much turn in his sections. There’s so much that goes into organizing trips for this and his other obligations with Rip Curl. But he does a good job of putting away his best clips without it being a conflict for his other sponsors. At the end of the day, I let Mason pick his own song. And he grew up watching these movies. If you play surf cinema trivia with Mason, he’s going to do very well.
Out of the 19 sections, Logan picked 14 of them. Guys with experience making their own films, like Mason, Harry Bryant, Noa Deane, Parker Coffin and Ian Crane, have their playlist approved. “With new guys like Bronson Meydi and Taro Watanabe, they’ve seen my movies and usually say, ‘You pick,’” Logan said. “So I try to go over it with them and make sure we’re both happy with the song. If we’re not happy, we’ll keep looking.”
Related: Gallery: Micronesia Mission With Asher Pacey, Benji Brand Filming For Snapt5
It’s not easy to create a project of this nature. In addition to organizing trip and editing, Logan has a particlart standard for every surfer in the film, regarless of tier of experiecne — the video parts must be unseen, unpublished clips. Nothing that has been posted on Instagram or YouTube previously. For the audience, this makes for a fresh buffet of entertainment. But in an era where surfers are increasingly pushed to share their best content immediately, it gets harder to save video for independent movie projects. This is largely why Logan is stepping away from the undertaking. He doesn’t want to put pressure on surfers (and their friendships) in a way that complicates their careers.
Logan’s not checking out completely. He’ll be touring the film and taking some much-deserved R&R, ideally in the form of a surf trip. Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because Snapt rocks.
Click here for tickets to watch Snapt5 on the Jumbotron on August 2 in Huntington Beach.
Related: All the Parties, Music and Surf Films Going Down at the US Open of Surfing