I draw a lot of inspiration from full-length surf documentaries, more than the shorter web clips. For example, I love to watch surf films produced by Taylor Steele. Basically, the New Zealand surf scene hasn’t got the big name that it deserves. It has such beautiful landscapes and such talented surfers to match. This is what inspired me to showcase this in my feature film LEMONYIP LIVIN.
I had such an amazing experience living with Ricardo in his home country of New Zealand. Most of the time we were on the road traveling around in a van with fellow Kiwi Billy Stairmand, Tim O’Connor and international surfers Andrew Mooney and Albee Layer. Ricardo has lived in New Zealand his whole life, and having him acting as a tour guide, I think we all learnt a lot about the country and got to see first hand how raw the land is.
The most difficult part of filming our project was shooting the intro city scene. It was actually a public holiday so the city of Auckland was packed to capacity. Directing Ric to walk around streets filled with business man and the shopping rush was chaos.
Travelling around and camping out wherever we ended up in the van was definitely a highlight of my trip. Ricardo, Mooney, Billy, and I traveled around New Zealand in a camper van chasing swells over the west and south coast. Picking a location and hitting the road overnight and arriving early morning to pumping waves with the boys was for sure the most fulfilling part of the trip.
To tell you the truth, I was only supposed to be there for a 10-day-maximum road trip around the North Island with Ricardo, Billy, and Mooney. After five days, we started to speak to each other about doing a feature film. We knew we could do it. Two months later I was back home in Australia with two full hard drives. Looking back and reflecting on our trip we both don’t regret anything and are blessed to be able to accomplish what we did.
We hope that the audience who view our film get motivation and do there own trip and go enjoy life through adventure. Getting a group of mates and adventuring through unknown territory chasing your passions is way better then sitting in an office five days a week.
To see more of the boys’ adventures, follow them on Instragram: Owen with @owenmilne and Ricardo Christie at @ricardochristie. And check out Owen’s Vimeo page as well.
