“Joe G and I have been working on Dark Hollow for the past few years. It’s grown and evolved over time, but it has always taken its core inspiration from my home state of Tasmania. The film is our vision of how the world could be if we looked after it, and features appearances from some of my best friends, including Craig Anderson and Chippa Wilson.”
– Dion Aguis
"That board felt like the starting point for a new life."
The inner mechanics of Russell's mind.
Sniffing out the bounty on land and at sea.
From a day with a low wave count yet high consequence.
Like a hundred social media clips joined together but not on social media.
Seeking darkness on a sunny day.
And Matahi lifts the bar yet again.
Bite size humans in king size waves.
Comments
That was sick! Epic work Dion and Joe.
Yeah , well done gents , that obviously took some effort to create . Way interesting .
Some epic surfing and imagery.
But really...
I think I missed something in the Translation?
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Where’d your excellent comment go Stu?
Saving it for the Flyer?
Aye.
When i saw the words Dark Hollow & Tassie, i was thinking this might be good.
But sorry that was just downright terrible, so dragged out and full of just crap dark filler, then zoomed in short one wave airs and slow mo's
And the soundtrack OMG
Could be cut down to less than 5 minutes of decent footage.
Well considered and well written response Stu.
I read a comment somewhere else so I'm going to bring it in here as well.
The opening of the vid makes a strong point about climate change.
Fair enough.
But I'd put money on the final waves being jet-ski assist.
Corporate greenwashing?
Rank hypocrisy?
AndyM, I'm struggling to understand your point here.
Is it the use of fossil fuels per se, or is it the use of fossil fuels for something discretionary that you see hypocrisy in?
If it's the former, then everyone who's concerned re climate is a hypocrite because it's impossible to remove fossil fuels from the lifestyle of the 2020s, unless of course you live in a cave and have no fire.
If it's the latter, I'm not clear on what your gripe is - do you think it's hypocritical to be an advocate for change when you still utilise the things you advocate against simply because the alternative doesn't exist or you can't afford it?
"Is it the use of fossil fuels per se"
No.
"or is it the use of fossil fuels for something discretionary that you see hypocrisy in?"
No.
It's preaching about climate change, which as I said is more than fair enough, whilst in the very same piece using a jet ski, or at least trying very hard to not show the use of one.
We all use fossil fuels, that's not the issue. The issue is the use of them in a surfing segment in this vid.
It shows a real tin ear for a story or a message and cheapens the whole thing, gives it a bad smell.
Fair enough.
Would you be OK about them using an electric ski?
To my way of thinking, I see equal if not greater hypocrisy in the use of boards, wetties, wax and travel all using fossil fuels. Especially when there are greener options for some of those things.
I suppose I better watch it before I keep going, just couldn't find the requisite half hour for it yet....
cheers
I really enjoyed the energy in this film. A lot of focus on style with Ando on the fish, Dion is mental in the air and on the face. I can understand how some people wouldnt dig the creative expression throughout the film, but it was a welcome treat during another lock down in Vic.
It’s awesome, then again so am I.
This was made for surf shop tv's.
Still I don't mind it, noting wrong with a bit of creativity. Surf vids from the late 90s/early 00s had heaps of this artsy stuff... and probs still do but I wouldn't know because all the youtube/insta stuff is pure surfing footage.. hard to argue against that, but can't we have both?
Still feel like im standing out the front of City Beach though
Absolutely no idea what vision of how they see the world could be can be derived from this - without substance.
Really enjoyed this... thanks and keep shredding.
so much tripe it could be info’s
But near the end, they dropped XTC's Complicated Game, and it all made sense ;-)
What a cracking track from my misspent youth that was
Did it get your Senses Working Overtime?
Did it get your Senses Working Overtime?
Pretty good I reckon. But when you watch an extended artsy clip like this, you pretty much have to compare it to Wade Goodall's pentacoastal. Not quite in the same ballpark for mine
bit too dark and hollow for mine
Actually thought we might've seen a little of dark hollow.
Yeah same
Naysayers be damned! Unbelievable stuff - makes the Brazzos' air games look ho-hum. I reckon this is as good as it gets. Well done boys.
Awesome!!!!
Dion's best airs are so clean, fast and precise. His face moves are surgical. Now if he had got stuck in the Mentawais for 6 months during covid and surfed super high quality waves with the dreamy tropical backdrop the surfing images could have been other-worldly and sublime.
As it was, two sessions really allowed him to fully perform. Closeout airs are technically clever and filled some gaps but were not inspiring like the fast left session speed runs with airs and the breakwall right power carves.
Overall, if you watched it first on a bigger screen with no time pressure (i.e. not on your mobile) you would like the whole thing a lot more than some appear to have.
Good for stoners that clip.
Provide your own soundtrack.
Fucken bang on mattlock!!
I made the mistake of watching that fully straight at about 10am....
The surfing was sublime and some of the tracks were cool but all that artsy stuff I didn't get- it almost became annoying. Maybe I'm not deep enough.
But- that last XTC track combined with that surfing and camera work, blew me away. Made it worth it.
Got to that masterful backdoor at 4:45 and was a little confused where all the cynics were coming from! I That was fantastic. With surfing like that and the fact its a multi year project - bloody good on em. Nice work I say.
I'm still with the idea that if this is the result of a multi-year project with the general vision of showing "how the world could be if we looked after it", then they've come up quite short.
It looks like a standard (though high quality) surf clip but brings basically nothing of any depth to the table.
Great surfing and beautiful footage but nothing worthy of Dion's stated aim.
spot on
I have been reading this blog on and off:
https://balisurfstories.wordpress.com/
Themes the writer comes back to over and over are:
- the relentless pressure tourism (and surfing) popularity bestows on some destinations that in the case of Bali (and Indonesia) has led to over-building, pollution, traffic jams and crowds in the water.
- how one photo or video or a visit from surfers who can't wait to brag about their great surf or new discovery can "ruin" a spot or at least create an almost permanent crowd at a secret spot or just an overlooked one.
He mentions spot after spot that used to be low key that in a matter of months and even days becomes "on the radar" (often from just one photo) leading to resorts or just non stop attention from visiting surfers from across the globe.
This came to mind when watching Dark Hollow, which hints at the usual easy targets of supposed environmental "villians" i.e. forestry and mining as being the problem.
Well it is not so simple. Tourism is presented often as the clean, green economic option. However, in Bali, tourism is the problem. Surfers are part of the problem. Videos, photos, selfies and the mad "look at me" motivator that drive so much travel across all modern cultures are the problem.
Showing the world beauty can foster the desire to protect precious places among some but is it also another meme with an unintended consequence of stimulating desire to visit, build, exploit and overrun?
https://www.worldnomads.com/responsible-travel/make-a-difference/planet…
After reading about the spot by spot overcrowding in Bali I have a lot more sympathy for the grumbles of locals and low key visitors who don't like exposure of out of the way or overlooked surf spots.
Those published photos or videos do matter - they plant an intention to visit in thousands and even tens of thousands of surfers' minds. The consequences can be semi permanent.
The cat is well and truly out of the bag but maybe a lot more people should not take that snap, post that image or create that video. Stay home sometimes if your main intent is travel to places without a deep desire for experience but because you want to "tick them off the bucket list".
Surfing above almost all other activities suffers most from popularity.
Of course, I am part of the problem as a viewer of content and occasional traveller. But as Gandalf said "Keep it secret. Keep it safe." still has merit as an imperfect reference point to guide your actions as spots still get overlooked and some can fade out of the limelight. Surfer's are often sheep who follow the herd.
For those who try to make a buck through mass audience exposure videos, whether overtly like Tim B or dressed up in some other creative garb (maybe get a real job and have a clearer conscience?), I think it does matter where and what you shoot and how you do it. Another video of the already very exposed Cape or Shipsterns probably does not have consequences but plenty of other locations do. I love pulled back shots but accept in tight can be for a reason.
In Dark Hollow's case, Dion fortunately found a lot of good closeouts and exposed no great alluring secrets that I could see.
A thoughtful post, frog. Yes, tourism isn’t a ‘green’ industry. And how many people earnestly subscribe to the ‘leave only footprints’ ideal. As much as Bali and places are alluring, I much prefer a local jaunt but you won’t get the wave quality. Even then, I drive, so it’s hardly green either.
Is there a precise term for the Era when globe-trotting surfers whose personal carbon footprints would melt a Greenland glacier tell other people how to live a clean, green life?
Are we still in that Era?
Is there anyone alive who swallows it?
Otherwise, yuck. Way too pretentious and Faux-edgy.
You obviously just saw a shiny silver car whilst those deep thinkers amongst us recognised it as a powerful metaphor referencing the infinite struggle betwixt super ego and id.
betwixt conformity and bad taste
On the shiny car - early 1980's Toyota Camry or Mitsi Galant/Lancer?
deffo not a Camry.
I'm calling early 90's Honda Accord, with a chrome wrap.
Looks fucking stupid imo.
I’m surrounded by philistines.
Are they from Manila?
Come on Dion, We are wasting our talents on these people. Let’s take the shiny silver metaphor car somewhere that we can be appreciated. I’m thinking Studio 54 , New York in 1978.
Wait.....that thing doubles as a time machine doesn’t it?
Zen your rogue-ish side is showing again :)
Andy, I'm not the one that pulled from a Singapore flop house gratis. Mine was more a play on words.
Just sayin'...
(btw, great effort though)
Haha, damn your good memory.
Looks like it's got an extra window behind the back door. (Shiny) grey import ?
"What is this.... a freakout ?"
2/10 from me.
Actually, make it 3/10 for bringing back on a mushie trip i had a couple of years ago up in the high hills of Lorne.
I'm intrigued by the car - surely it's a story of it's own waiting to be told?
The Tassie crew know how to treat 4cyl 1980s cars - while I was working there local lads got in trouble for filling one full of fertiliser and blowing it up out the back of Hobart.
What kind of car are you calling it VJ? I reckon late 80's early 90's Accord but not entirely sure.
I was thinking the Mitsi Galant/Lancer - there was a late 80's/early 90s Camry 6 window liftback kind of thing (a friend's parents had one new) but I can't remember the name of the variant. With a lot of Japanese designs they have so many different bodystyles/variants in the home market that we don't see, so maybe it's a grey import?
Any Japanese car forums you know of Zen that would be able to ID it? Gotta admit it's hard once you angle grind all the paint and badges off...
Edit: could it be a Cordia? Sis in Law had one of the first Cordia turbos in WA and reckoned it flew for the day.
Looks like a Daewoo Espero
Ha ha spot on, well done.
Looks like a few of us were chasing our Japan car youth..
Not Cordia I don't think, they were more coupe style. This is a 4 door sedan.
Stance reminds me of my old 92 RS Liberty turbo with a heavily modified front end.
But the rear window has that forward divider thing. Bit of time on Google, early 90s Nissan Stanza? Either way front end heavily modified so tough to tell (kind of like the Mad Max 70s Falcon looking part 80s Commodore).
Velocityjohnno
I had a cordia turbo back in the day brought through a friend at auction
and it was super quick but man it was dangerous and that was when I
was racing cars anyway my 1st drive down the coast after it tried to kill me
a dozen times I traded it in a Mitsubishi Starion turbo one of the best cars ive ever driven owned it for 7years. That buy trade and buy was done within 36hours. I ew I was going to die in that cordia.
driven.
I'd believe that evosurfer - our rellies who had it said it had mad acceleration that forced you into the back of your seat. They also said as it was special and a bit rare, all the Cordia drivers would wave to each other when they saw another.
Run the plate thru Tas rego check..almost read able @14.08
Daewoo Espero ?
Surely not..
Ha ha! This thread has morphed into a 'name that car'. Definitely not a Cordia though.
Lostdoggy might be very well on to it with the Daewoo. After a Google image search looks very similar.
But seriously, who would do that?
What better way to contemplate the profound Tasmanian wilderness, than in a car that reflects chrome like a UFO?
(Tourism tip: in the West of Tassie there's a unique wilderness experience that VJ can strongly recommend. You get to go see the incredible Huon pines, the majestic tree that lives to nearly 2000 years old (and can clone itself, so one example may have DNA that's nearly 10,000 years old!). Amazing properties - a scent that is unmistakeable thanks to the methyl eugenol inside that preserves the trees for thousands of years, and makes for one of the most prized timbers in the world. You get to see saplings as big as a thumbnail, and magnificent elder trees. These are icons of conservation. To get there, you take a thumping massive power boat with a 383 Chev up a river and throw spray everywhere. As it corners you get thrills aplenty, and it sounds awesome. You get to experience some Gs and listen to a V8 on song, and then marvel at nature preserved.)
Fark! Pause 10:20, Lostdoggy called it I reckon. Split rear quarter window, nailed it.
Well done Doggy.
https://images.app.goo.gl/LRBjtsuuwV1dBZocA
Beside the dark imagery, the gothic undertones and the weird soundtrack....They could have gained serious credibility if the car was a 67 Mustang....or Camaro...or Chevelle.......or Phase II GTO........
So many options..
Sunbird
Slumbird
lol a NZ mate taught me that one
Sorry to say this no doubt it will upset a lot of artistic people but that
movie was just plain boring.
Im going with a subaru liberty
Surfing was pretty good i guess a few too many airs and too much arty farty stuff...not into it.
Prefer arty culture films like castles in the sky...movies that make you feel like you're travelling there..
even though there's no big waves in castles in the sky mostly crappy waves the bits showing vietnamese boats etc and people in india etc makes for a much better film than this one. 5/10
Not a suburu liberty evo i had one of those..sold it to a abackpacker when it was on its last legs, for $400 and next thing i see is it parked red stickered in a town 2 hours away from where i live.
Poor girl she didnt seem like she had much money left for her trip and bought another shitbox which broke down on her before she bought mine.Good cars though, im after another one as my current car is getting rusted out but runs great.
I had no idea he was so good. Hate to be his osteo, though - that back knee looks primed for a blowout. Do like his own take on style too.