When legendary surf filmmaker Taylor Steele first made a name for himself in the late 1990s, the name of the game was VHS. Any surfer of that generation worth their salt remembers watching and rewinding Steele’s films countless times in their VCR. But technology quickly evolved to DVDs and later online streaming like Netflix and YouTube.
The days of showing up at your local surf shop and spending your (or your parents’) hard earned on the latest surf flick may be over, but Steele’s films remain fully entrenched in the surf film canon. And if you’re anything like us, the recent release of Momentum Generation may have you feeling nostalgic for the 1990s and early aughts.
Lucky for all of us Taylor Steele knows what the people want and recently launched a repository for lost footage and chopped up video parts from classic films on a YouTube channel called “Momentum Files.”
“Cleaning out my storage I found hours of behind the scenes, secret videos and lost footage that needs to be seen before the tapes crumble away,” he explains. “Welcome to THE MOMENTUM FILES. After three decades of documenting progressive surfing, surf travel, and everything that goes with it there’s a lot to share. We’ll be posting new vids every day, starting with the Momentum era and moving all the way through Proximity.”
Here are some of the first few clips Steele uploaded. Thankfully, it sounds as if there’s a lot more to come:
Kelly Slater in Momentum II:
Shane Dorian in Momentum II:
Taylor Knox in Momentum II:
