“Life is Short.” and: “Focus Power!”

There was one thing we all learned on that trip: „Life is short.“ And: „Focus power!“

It was the first time, we were going on a surf trip with another goal but surfing. We were in France / Belgium / Denmark to shoot our short film „Cyan“ that is a documentary about Artists and Designers that are working in and around surfing.

There was a development in the past ten years in the surfing scene based in Europe, that shows a change in the european identity. It has grown apart from traditional surf cultures like the Californian, Hawaiian or the Australian surf culture and developed its own Style and aesthetic values.
We went to the south of France every summer, autumn, winter, spring and even in between for the past 10 years but we never actually got to know the place really well.

When you focus on surfing, sometimes the culture and the people are in second spot. But this time it was a real pleasure, because we were actually there for working(sounds strange when you write that sentence!). So we kind of didn’t have a choice but meeting the people who live there, where we always go just because there are waves.
We had two weeks and appointments for interviews and filming with three Artists in the BAB-Area (Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz). The first quote „life is short“ we learned from Cesare Ancelle-Hansen who is a photographer and a doctor in the emergency room as well. For him the aspect of time is an obsession, because he sees people who die every day. Its his job. So on the other hand he needs his photography, so he can stop the time, at least picture wise. „Life is short“ is a sentence, that has been said so often, that it nearly doesn’t have a meaning anymore. But when you hear Cesar speaking about that aspect you really start thinking.

The other quote „Focus Power.“ is from Mr. Miagi, who teaches Daniel-san a lesson for life. We watched the movie Karate Kid on our trip and we became disciples of the wise old Japanese man as well. Because when you have to do: a photoshoot at sunrise(because of the good light) and a quick surf afterwords (before the trade winds start) an interview at lunch, a sponsor-appointment in the afternoon and a surf at sunset… – then you really have to focus power!