Bigger, Badder, and More Mature

A Film By Isaac Chadwick

New Zealand surfer and filmmaker Isaac Chadwick shares his year long project, “Bask: Volume 2”. Isaac discusses how he’s grown since since his last movie, “Bask: Volume 1”, filming in ice cold water, and the adventure of a lifetime.

Dunedin, New Zealand

What is Bask: Volume 2 about?

Bask: Volume II is a surf/lifestyle film that documents to lives of Otepoti/Dunedin's finest student chargers throughout the 9 months of the university year. Returning with a vengeance from last year's success, this film is bigger and badder, featuring out-the-gate scenery and surfing it's sure to be a joy to watch for all.

Last year, you shared Bask: Volume 1 with Reckless. How is Bask: Volume 2 different from Volume 1? How does it show your growth as a filmmaker?

I think there's quite a lot more maturity in my filmmaking this time, there's definitely none in the shit we got up to though haha. Last year was a really interesting learning experience for me, for the first BASK I didn't really have much of a plan at all going into it, everything just sort of fell into place. This time I went into it knowing what I wanted to achieve with this film, we had the idea pretty early on that we wanted everyone to have their own individual sections rather than do whatever it was we did last time around haha. I'm super glad we went in this direction as simply repeating the same formula as last year is of absolutely no interest to me, I always want to be pushing forward and do something new and different, I'm not really one to sit back and repeat the same formula over and over.

I think the fact that I was able to film in the water this time gave the film a whole new aspect. I've always wanted to be able to film in the water and when the opportunity came up for me to switch from Nikon to Sony and be able to shoot in the water it was a no brainer for me.

I think in terms of my editing I've matured quite a lot in the past year as well, Oscar Hetherington was really good at constantly pushing me to change up the way I edited and to try some stuff that was more out of the box and to be honest, I think it's worked out brilliantly. Obviously, I'm super proud of what we made last year but looking back on it now you can definitely tell it's quite amateur, I think this latest film is quite a professional leap forward for me.

What were some difficulties in making the film? Favorite moments?

Coming to grips with a completely new camera set up as well as learning how to film in the water were definitely my biggest obstacles this year. I've never used Sony cameras before so it took me quite a while to figure everything out in terms of image quality and what works best for me. Then of course being in the water is a whole new ballpark for me. I kind of eased into it at first, just filming at mellow local spots and once I got the hang of that I started to go out at more gnarly spots. I really loved the challenge of this as it meant I wasn't just sitting on the beach all the time. It's pretty heavy though, putting on 6mm of rubber in the middle of winter with gloves, hood and booties, the whole lot and all while it's probably no warmer than about 7 degrees celsius. There were definitely a few hairy moments, especially swimming farther south than Dunedin where the waves get properly big and heavy. I remember towards to start of the year where I took a 6ft bomb right on the head, spent ages getting ragdolled underwater and then when I started to swim up my calf started to cramp up which definitely didn't help haha.

I think moments like those are some of my favorites because once you come out the other side you feel so stoked and lucky to be doing what you're doing. I've been incredibly privileged to visit some absolutely nuts locations this year and to be able to share them with such good humans is definitely special.

What's next for you? What's next for the film?

Honestly, I'm going to take the next week or two off and just relax, the past month has been so intense for me editing for hours almost every day, worrying that the film wouldn't turn out the way I wanted it to so I think I've deserved a bit of a break.

As for what's next obviously I've got some exciting content that'll be coming out with you guys in the next month or two which is pretty awesome, I'll continue creating content from NZ Surfing Journal and C-skins, I've just recently become a brand rep for Monster Energy as well so we'll definitely have to see where that goes!