“One thing that really makes me happy is when sometimes I’ll be surfing around town, and local guys or some cool family will come up and give a compliment, like ‘My kids are really enjoying your videos!’” laughed a salty-eyed Mason Ho. “I’ll be like, seriously? I didn’t think your kids were watching your videos. Now, I gotta make more because I want to stoke the kids out.”
In this episode of “Meet the Vloggers,” SURFER’s video series that takes you behind the scenes of some of the more popular productions on the internet, Mason and longtime filmer and friend Rory Pringle share insight and some of their best clips to grace their channel, @BarrelKilla. It’s real, often raw videos of one of the most creative minds in surfing.
This time, it’s Mason who gets behind the camera, offering insight on the music (“We want my mom to be all stoked on it”), his favorite sessions (Brazilian backwash, Pipeline, and sketchy reefs on Oahu’s West Side) and the origin of the Ding Report, which is particularly humorous.
“People would assume I was ruined by boards,” Mason said. “And I was always offended because I wouldn’t ruin my boards, usually. I usually get away with it.”
Related: Mason Ho’s 2023 Highlight Reel Will Make You Want to Go Surfing
I remember the days of Mason’s “License To Chill” clips on Vimeo in 2016. The series authentically captured his unique style and skill in a way that resonated with the larger surfing world. It even won Best Series at the 2016 Surfer Poll Awards. Today, however, Mason and Rory have turned their full attention to YouTube and become a powerhouse in the surf sphere, amassing nearly 91,000 subs and more than 30 million views.
Whether it’s jamming with Tom Curren on the streets of San Francisco, switch-grab pigdog at Third Reef Pipeline or packing a dry-reef slab in Scotland, no one does it like Ho and Pringle.
Related: Meet The Vloggers: Behind the Scenes of Lakey Peterson’s YouTube Production