“The movies mean a lot more to me than just a surf movie. These movies are a reflection of my life. I’m super humble and grateful to be where I’m at, compared to where I was six and a half years ago.” ~Logan “Chucky” Dulien
If ever there were a good comeback story, Logan Dulien is living it. His latest movie, Snapt4, is days away from its world premiere — a premiere that was supposed to happen just over a year ago but, you know, public gatherings. Ironically, Snapt4 itself is not a comeback story. Everything that Dulien put into reviving the Snapt series in the past years represents his own personal revival but you won’t catch that narrative in the latest rendition because that’s not his jam. His jam, as he puts it, is just watching good old-fashioned surf porn.
I imagine that’s why there’s so much genuine excitement around the series. It’s a relic: segmented surf movies where each surfer gets the spotlight for a few minutes and a soundtrack to go with it. Rinse and repeat. It’s simple. It’s fun. And nobody takes themselves (or it) too seriously.
I think that last part is where Dulien’s signature is stamped all over it. And it’s a paradox that makes him a fascinating man. He has some serious stories, or at least a lot of really thoughtful insights into what we tend to consider serious topics. But he talks about anything and everything so freely that it’s just…easy.
People are obviously pretty familiar with Snapt. It has this cool identity and life of its own now and this is your fourth time putting one of these out so I’m sure you’ve learned a lot along the way.
Every single one has had its own elements and variables. Snapt3 was pretty challenging — I hadn’t done a movie in 15 years. You come back from doing anything after 15 years and people are gonna question if you’re able to pull it off. There was also a big transition with things going digital, Instagram was now in the picture. I think it was Kai Neville who came out and said independent surf films were dead, just based on how hard it was to make money off of them. Independent filmmaking was in a challenging state when I decided to make Snapt3 and that kind of was the intriguing part. I felt like I had nothing to lose.
At that point I was just coming out of a really dark place with my opioid addiction, so I felt like I really had nothing to lose because if independent surf films were dying, if they were dead, just stagnant or whatever, I had (been) too, personally. So I could harness both and basically, that movie was part of my recovery. As soon as we got that out I felt like okay, people believed in the project again. Behind closed doors, after that 15-year hiatus, there were definitely some people laughing at it, writing it off. And instead of getting bummed about it I just kind of used that as motivation.
I knew at that point we’d resurrected the brand for Snapt4. It was a platform people were stoked on and wanted to be a part of. From there, we got four months into it and then the pandemic hit.
Speaking of, the pandemic ended up handing down some pretty big promotion for the movie right away.
The most important thing was it gave us an extra year to film. And it also gave me an extra year to bump the purse up. When this originally started it was at $40,000. Then we bumped it up to $60. Then when I realized we still had a year left I was like, “A hundred’s got a good sound to it.” We had built up a lot of momentum and hype on the movie, so that additional money came pretty easy with brands coming on board.
So was there a pretty noticeable uptick in the intrigue when Simon (Rex) had his uhh, “moment” down in Costa Rica?
(Laughing) I don’t know. I think people were so confused by that whole thing. I think people were just blown away. Some were laughing. Some were pissed. It got taken every which way. I don’t know that that directly contributed to more funding for the movie but it definitely made some buzz.
Yeah, it felt like that was a big moment where a lot of people said, “Alright, I definitely wanna know what Snapt4 is gonna be all about this time around.”
And not to mention, Simon’s out winning at festivals for best lead actor in his new movie, Red Rocket. He could be looking at an Oscar nomination against Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Matt Damon. So he’s literally shifted into that A-list league. You’re gonna see Simon on the big screen — the real big screen. Honestly, that’s going to be a big thing for Snapt too. It’s not often you have a big actor in a surf movie.
And he’s ripping, pushing 50, isn’t he?
He’s almost 50 going on 30. And he’s surfing better than all the guys in the movie. And he’ll tell you. As he would say for the sake of being humble, he just likes to let his surfing do the talking. We’re super stoked to have him because I feel like he brings a different side to the movie. Surf movies these days, I feel like they’re pretty serious. I think everybody’s looking for intense cinematography, slow-mo, drones, beautiful angles.
That’s not my jam. That’s not Snapt. We just like rock, surf porn, and if we can throw some laughs in there then we’re all good. I just don’t think it needs to be taken that seriously. There’s enough of that already with the movies that are out today. I think it’s good just to have a good laugh, that’s what I always loved about the …Lost movies. Those really translated the real culture of what goes on in surfing and I’m just trying to bring a little bit of that back.
View this post on Instagram
Do you think that’s part of the draw to the Snapt flicks: just give them surfing. Whereas everything else feels like it has to be so cinematic.
To me, it’s a 1990s movie with modern surfing. I’m just trying to keep it simple, I’m following the blueprint I grew up on. The …Lost movies, the early Taylor Steele’s movies. Section based. It’s kind of a cross between those. For me, when I watch a surf movie I just want to watch the surfing and I want to watch it with good music. So that’s what I’m trying to deliver. It’s not about the crazy angles, the bells and whistles. I just like raw, hardcore surf porn.
It’s not about you, the filmmaker, it’s about the surfing.
Exactly.
And on top of that, you have this really clear boundary where anything that’s in the movie can’t appear on the internet beforehand. That’s obviously unique for the times.
That’s where I knew going into 4 I’d have to get creative. We ask these guys to keep their best stuff off the internet, away from their sponsors and media outlets. That’s a high ask. So for the high ask, we’re throwing out a high reward. And that’s the only angle I felt right about – making it worth it for them. That changes it up. It’s a contest within a movie. These guys know when one guy has a really gnarly part that doesn’t make a good movie. But when all these guys have gnarly parts, you do it cohesively, that creates some fireworks.
It sounds like there wasn’t any hesitation.
Where surfing is with contracts, marketing budgets getting trimmed or cut and all that, nobody wanted to pass on the opportunity to win that kind of money.
So now it’s finally here. It was supposed to come out in 2020. I’m guessing this thing has just consumed your life for quite a while now.
I feel bad for my wife. I put her and my kids through the wringer for this one because it becomes such an obsession for me. I care so much about it. Surfing helped me get my life back and when something helps you get your life back, you kind of want to repay that. So I live, breathe, and sleep it. Nights, weekends, and holidays. It was game on throughout the whole process. There wasn’t one day where I turned my phone off and said, “Oh, I’m gonna spend time with the family,” unfortunately. I’m not able to find that balance so I’ve been in high gear this whole time. For me, the only way to feel content is to know that I gave it everything.
That sounds like something you touched on earlier. You’ve said before, filmmaking is what helped you climb out of your addiction. It’s been a big part of your recovery. What have you pinpointed from that? Was it just having a passion? Did it change your social surroundings?
When I got into my opioid habit I quit surfing. And before I knew it I wasn’t hanging out with anybody, I wasn’t doing anything except chasing the dragon. I was so embarrassed of what I’d become and where my life had turned. I was completely lost. And I tried all the standard ways to pull my shit together and get clean but nothing gave. At that point, I was losing hope and people around me were losing hope. I’d done multiple rehabs stints.
I thought “Man, I’m running out of options, I might as well try anything.” Using surfing to get clean is kind of unorthodox compared to what I think a lot of people in recovery would like to see you do. I’d think your best odds are going through the program, which I’d done multiple times but it just wasn’t clicking. It wasn’t that I wanted to stay in (addiction), I just couldn’t get out.
And then somebody said to me, “If you want to get rid of a bad habit replace it with a good one.” The first thing I thought of was I needed to start surfing again because that’s when I was happy, that’s when I was healthy, and when I was surrounded by so many good people. Things just started clicking. My health was coming back, I was coming back to life through the salt, the vitamin D. Then I got to like six or seven months (opioid-free) and I figured, okay, I gotta keep evolving. I’d heard “independent surf films are dead,” shit like that, and thought fuck, I was almost dead too. I might as well put these two things together. Basically, the movie would become a reflection of my opioid recovery.
