Editors Note: Epic Moments is a series examining the most groundbreaking moments in surf history. Check out more historic moments (previously called the “Disruptors” series) here.
Date: December 20, 2011
Place: Interwebs
Moment: After some bad results and an utter ambivalence towards competitive surfing, Dane Reynolds decides to quit the Dream Tour.
Dane Reynolds could be the world’s greatest surfer, if he only gave a shit. But instead of pursuing the podium, Dane has taken a different route; he’s built a career around free-surfing and video clips. And without the constraints of an “established” criteria or the subjective minds of a panel of judges, Dane has been able to push the sport of surfing to the next level. He’s since become like the surf world’s Leonardo DiCaprio – one of the best there ever was but without the top honors (an Oscar in Leo’s case). He’s adored by fans young and old; he’s an innovator unlike the sport has ever seen; and he’s considered by most (Kelly Slater included) to be the unofficial best surfer in the world.
So when Dane quit the Tour in December of 2011, it felt like a crippling blow to surfing’s progression. But while it seemed terrible at the time, Dane quitting the tour was the best thing he ever did, both for his career and the sport of surfing as a whole.
Before Dane broke the surf community’s collective heart by announcing his resignation, the signs were there. He hated contests. He was overtly vocal about that. In his groundbreaking feature film First Chapter, Dane made it totally clear how he felt about contests versus travel and free-surfing. The film went on to win two of the top honors (Best Male Performance and Video of the Year) at Surfer Poll, justifying his deserved crown as the world’s greatest free-surfer. On top of the feature film, Dane went on to start one of the first surf blogs, MarineLayerProductions.com, which would help usher in the digital renaissance of surfing.
Dane Reynolds slammed the door on the Tour a few years ago. He left it at the altar and took free surfing to the dance.
The free-surfer was nothing new. They had existed pre Dane Reynolds. But Dane’s resignation from competition, his “Declaration of Independence” as he called it, made free-surfing a viable career option. His popularity made him a valuable enough asset to his sponsors to where they agreed to continue paying him a livable wage while he roamed around the world and at home, documenting it all. And that was Dane’s second most lasting contribution to surfing. Nowadays, you can’t open your phone or your computer without coming across a new clip from some new surf phenom at some new crazy wave. Dane started that. Or at least, he helped make it a thing.
Lest we forget Dane Reynolds’ most valuable contribution to the sport: he’s a freak of nature on a surfboard. And without the bounds of a jersey, he was free to explore the boundaries of surf progression and his own vast imagination. Below is an excerpt from his letter, which is a brilliant meditation on surf competition and the industry as a whole. You can read it in its entirety here.
“and so here i am. 26. officially off tour. wasted talent. blown potential. refusing responsibility. ‘all he wants to do is sit at home and play with crayons and ride fucked up boards.’ but wait! but wait! that’s not true! don’t listen to chris mauro. he’s a dinosaur. doesn’t get it. this may be the end as a wct contender, but its also a new beginning. i feel like a baseball. the skins been carefully pried off and there’s a thread and i’m gonna pull it and i’m gonna end up a pile of string on the floor. but then maybe i’ll be knit into something more useful, like a sweater.“
