The texts started like they usually do – a handful of crew tapping their thumbs; eliciting cryptic messages without much unison, trying to find the balance between ‘let’s go’ and ‘low key’ , not telling too many people and playing it mysto – unwritten codes of communication. 

Fortunately, this one came together organically. I’m working on a feature film project with the Walters brothers – Dakoda and Harley – which we’ve been chipping away at between their comp commitments; trying to tap any windows we can while zig-zagging around the ‘Changa’ (Challenger Series) and ‘Queys’ (QS) .

Spying an auspicious forecast for King Island that coincided with a contest gap, Kodes hit me with a text: ‘I think it’s gonna be fun – you keen?’  We linked in with Soli Bailey and Zac Skyring, who were eager to get waves whether they were filmed or not. Soli had just returned to the brine post-injury and was desperate for some water time and rehab away from the crowds on the north coast.

The typical strike mission juggle ensued – lining up flights that had no available seats and making sure we could land before the notorious KI storms swept in.

There was one other minor logistical issue – Harley was a few hours down the coast camping with mates in a national park and had no reception, so we were just winging it, booking his tickets and hoping for the best.

We eventually managed to get hold of him through a mate’s Snapchat; safe to say he’d had a few, but he was like, ‘Yeah I’ll make it work, let’s go!’ This correspondence arrived about 6pm and we were leaving around 7am the next day. Harley ultimately convinced his parents to come find him in a ...