When it comes to the award for the most barreled surfer of the year, Tosh Tudor can comfortably throw his name into the mix. Even actor turned detective Jonah Hill was forced to confront the goofy footer on his foam ball frolicking; “We know about the tubes,” said Jonah as he sat across from him in the interrogation room.
“I’m just a simple pocket rider, I don’t go anywhere near the tube or the barrel,” Tosh responds.
The short skit between the award winning Hollywood star and San Diego’s alternative craft connoisseur forms the start of Tosh’s latest movie ‘Tubefession’, written and directed by Kalani Minihan, which premiered at the Solento Surf Film Festival last week and has now been dropped on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.
The title of the film gives it away. The 20 minute flick features 69 tubes and three turns to be precise.
In recent years the 20-year-old has made a name for himself in the big and hollow stuff, putting extensive time in at waves like Pipe, Desert Point and more recently Teahupo’o. A lot of that work was on display in his last project ‘Tube Therapy’ and his latest offering continues to build on his success.
We caught up with Tosh earlier this week to get the lowdown on his relationship with Jonah Hill, what boards he’s been riding and scoring empty Chopes during one of his first sessions at the end of the road. Check it out below.
Before we get into the surfing, tell us a bit about that skit with Jonah Hill. How did that come about?
Jonah is a really nice guy. I met him up in Malibu one time while surfing and since then I’ve seen him a lot around Encinitas as he would often come down there to escape LA and go for a surf. Over time we’ve formed a friendship and then when we had this idea for a skit for the project, we were thinking about who we could get to do it and Jonah sprang to mind.
I reached out to him and fortunately he wasn’t weird about it. He’s grown up making skate vids with friends and it was so lucky that he was so cool about it. We ended up shooting this sick little scene with him and it was just cool to sit across the table from him in that kind of setting.
As for the film, how did everything come about?
I made tube therapy about two years ago and that whole process was so fun. I’ve always wanted to make my own surf movies and do premieres, the kind of stuff you would froth on as a grom.
In February this year I was in Ireland and got really lucky with waves, we scored over there. That was kind of the catalyst for making the movie. After that I spent the next nine months chasing swells in Indo, Australia and Tahiti.
Is there any thought process that goes into deciding on the location of a strike mission when you know you’re filming for a movie?
For sure. Once Ireland happened, that was most cold water left slabs. After that trip I wanted to get a better variety of waves so we went to Krui which has so many different options from slabs, to right tubes, beachies and left points. I’d like to say I had a solid plan but you can’t plan too much with this sort of stuff. You do have trips where you’re like ‘I’ve got loads of lefts, so I need to surf more right to make the movie well rounded’. One thing that never came to mind was that I needed to go and do more turns. One of my friends counted and there’s 69 barrels in the film and three turns.
What’s been your go to boards for the tube and during the process of making this movie?
I’ve been riding a model called ‘the therapist’ by Thomas Surfboards in all different sizes from 5”10 to 7”2, that’s pretty much been my go to for any type of tube anywhere in the world. I’ve ridden it at Pipe, on wonky slabs in Aus and on the perfect walls at Deserts.
Fortunately growing up and having access to dad’s board knowledge I’ve always experimented with different outlines, including that classic thicker single fin outline. As I’ve got older, I’ve wanted to refine and modernize those outlines so that they fit into the same curves on a wave that the top guys are in. I want to have the confidence in my board but also want to enjoy the type of stuff I grew up on.
How do you decide what type of board to pull for when going for a surf?
I’d say it’s 75% based on the conditions and 25% on the mood I’m in at that time. Growing up I was taught to ride whatever fits the waves at that time. I’ll take a log out on the small days, a twinny for the fun days and then sometimes a twinny in heavier stuff if I’m feeling experimental. Or, like I said before, I’ll reach for my therapist when it’s pumping.
How do you think you’ve become so comfortable in big barrels?
My dad always spent so much time in Hawaii and in his era if you didn’t go in heavier surf, you were kind of looke down upon. I feel like that was kind of put onto me but my dad, there’s wasn’t an option to be scared, although I definitely do still get scared. Luckily, I do think I like being in the bigger stuff.
You recently scored your first sessions at solid Teahupo’o right before putting out the film, how was that?
Kalani had just come out to Cali with me, we were editing the film and had most of the parts finished and ready to go. We saw the swell in Tahiti and were like ‘Fuck, we gotta go’. I didn’t expect to stack clips for the movie there, I just wanted to try and get a couple of waves, because that place is intimidating.
We got so lucky. It was later in the season and the crowd was mellow, the swell actually over performed and some of the waves out there were only really tow ones.
You were out there at the same time Mike Stewart attempted that crazy drop, right?
Yeh, that was the most unbelievable thing I’ve ever seen.
Did you get any psycho ones like that?
I didn’t get close to as crazy a wave as what was out there but I gave it a go. I actually managed to get a session on my own out there at one point and I got the best wave of the trip during that session. That’s actually the ending wave of the movie so it was pretty special.
What’s next for Tosh Tudor?
I’ve spent a lot of time saving up clips recently, so I’m going to focus on putting out some more regular stuff on my ‘foamballed’ channel. In terms of trips, the Hawaiian winter is coming up so I’ll put some more time in out there and try to get some waves. Haha.
