Article by Zander Morton from Surfer Mag
Remember “Innersection”? The video contest by Nathan Myers and Taylor Steele a decade ago wherein the surfer who submitted the best section won $100,000? It was an entertaining concept, and became the platform that first introduced the world to the freakish talent of little-known (at the time) surfers like Albee Layer and Matt Meola.
“Snapt 4”, the latest in the Snapt series from Logan Dulien, is a lot like that, but not just anyone can enter. Instead, Dulien is inviting 17 surfers to take part, except this time, rather than Dulien himself spending a year-plus on the road filming, the surfers will each go out and create their own 3-minute rip clip. Best section wins $40,000.
Simple enough, but there are some rules, like: The waves in each section must be unseen (no releasing them on Instagram first), and the section needs to be finished and turned in by July, so it can make the August 1 premiere at next year’s US Open. From there, the film will be released online, at which point the public will help decide the surfer who deserves the $40k.
Speaking of surfers, 13 have been decided already, with three “wildcards” still vying for the invite via social media. The 13 in the film are:
Mason Ho
Jack Robinson
Seth Moniz
Josh Moniz
Clay Marzo
Asher Pacey
Ian Crane
Parker Coffin
Benji Brand
Eithan Osborne
Carlos Munoz
Sheldon Paishon
Dakota Walters
On paper, the concept sounds like a great one. And the $40,000 should be plenty of motivation for each surfer to spend a majority of the next 8 or so months stacking clips from around the world to build a banger section for the film. On the flipside, “Snapt 4” also provides a couple of unique challenges. Like, in this instant gratification world we live in now, will the surfers actually be able to resist posting clips on social media as they happen? And how much money will they actually allocate on trips and filmers to create something super memorable for the film?
At the end of the day you gotta spend money to make money. And, considering “Snapt 4” is offering the biggest non-WSL prize purse in 2020, it makes sense the surfers taking part will throw everything they have at the film. Either way, this will be a fun one to watch.
