Peter Devries covered up at home in Canada. Photo: Jeremy Koreski.
Well, he did it again. Canada’s go-to guy, Peter Devries, won Innersection’s spring round, just like last year. In the past few years, the world seems to have recognized Canada as a legitimate surf destination, thanks mostly to the incredible surfing of Pete D. and the camera work of Canada’s consummate surf lensman, Jeremy Koreski. Accenting rubber-clad power surfing with stunning visual imagery, the trio (Peter Devries, Jeremy Koreski, and Adam Chilton) put together a two-minute, 46-second clip that garnered the attention and votes of surfing fans around the globe. I called Pete up to talk about his win, the editing process, and, of course, what he’d do with a hundred grand.
Hey Pete!
Hey, how’s it going?
Good, buddy. So you won again, eh?
Yeah, bit of a surprise.
You were surprised?
A little bit. You never know. It’s hard when you put a clip together, because you’ve seen it so many times. It’s probably a bit different when you see it for the first time. I guess everybody liked it, so I’m stoked. There were some really good clips from the other guys in the round. Tonino’s and Torrey’s were really good in terms of high performance surfing. Those guys were ripping. It’s so subjective. You just never know what kind of response you’re going to get.
Do you think being the only Canadian helped your cause a bit?
Oh, for sure. We’ve got a different scene up here that hasn’t really been seen–in terms of video–so it’s still pretty fresh to people. If you’re going to the Mentawais or Hawaii, you have to be doing some pretty incredible stuff to really stand out.
Do you think that’s why you got that SURFER cover?
Yeah, I’m really stoked on that. That’s one of those things I always had in the back of my mind as something that I’ve always kind of wanted.
I was wondering about that shot, did you guys plan that out, or was it just a freak beautiful day and great wave?
Well, I mean at that spot, there just happened to be a lot of snow. That was at a camping trip in the middle of winter. It was pretty cool, it was just me and Raph (Bruhwiler) out, and we were just sitting there, kind of tripping on how crazy it was. Where we were, it was cloudy, and above the mountains it was super sunny. It was a really moody day.
How involved in the editing process are you?
Really involved. My wife Lisa got me to get the ball rolling, so I went through all the clips, put them in a timeline, and picked a song. Then I sent Jeremy and Adam a somewhat put together edit before we’d even talked about entering. Once they saw it together, they got stoked. Adam’s really into editing, so he was pretty keen to work on it. We did the whole thing over Skype, because he moved to Vancouver recently.
How many of those clips are new?
They’re all from the past year. A lot of them are just random clips. I went through them, and they fit pretty well. We haven’t been shooting that much lately. The waves haven’t been great, and everyone’s been pretty busy, but now we’re pretty fired up to get some new clips for the final.
Your two winning clips were pretty similar, format-wise. For the final, are you planning on switching it up, or are you going to stick with what works?
Well, I mean, I don’t know if we’re going to do any trips away from our area here. We haven’t really discussed what we’re going to change in terms of music and the vibe. It’s something we need to think about, maybe talk to Nathan and Taylor about and see if they have any different ideas.
When you start thinking about your entry, do you have a game plan, or does it all come together in the editing room?
It depends. For the intro, we had an idea. We shot that specifically, but with the surfing, we just take the clips that we like. Last year, we had zero lefts. The last week before the entry deadline, we went out and shot any left we could find, just to round out the part a little bit more. You want to mix it up, but still play to your strengths.
What do you think your strength is?
I don’t know… going frontside? (Laughs) I don’t know if I have one real strength. I want to be a well-rounded surfer. That’s what I work towards. I love getting barreled, that’s my favorite thing. I love doing airs; I love doing turns. I just want to get better at everything.
You’ve never done a full-length film before, right? Ever think about doing one?
Well, Jeremy’s done movies in the past, Numb and Shrink, and I was in those. I was still figuring out the whole surfing thing. There are some cool clips in there. I’d love to do something a little more current, but it’s hard to make the commitment, for all of us. It’s a ton of work, especially for Jeremy. He’s got a lot of other side projects on the go. It’d be really fun to do a mini-movie on the area up here.
I’d watch that. Ok, I’ve got one more question that I don’t want to ask, because everyone does, but I kind of have to. What would you do with the $100,o00 if you won?
Oh, I’m not even thinking about that. I know you guys have to ask that. I don’t know, a nice vacation with the family, I guess. Jeremy and Adam would get their fair share. Maybe someone should ask one of those guys.
That’s a great idea. Well, congratulations, Pete. Thanks for your time.
Thank you, good talking!
