I was super stoked when the production team approached me and asked if I would skimboard in the new commercial for Jeep - ' on the way ' . This was a huge production and a very new experience for me. It was a total of 2 very long 14 hour days, (not to mention my 2-3hour drive in traffic from Dana Point to LA) but it was a lot of fun. I had countless shots (that were not used) such as driving an array of Jeep's latest models, skimboarding the distance of a dock in a canal, joust fighting, and doing flips of a trampoline into a dock. Out of all the footage that was taken in that two days, I couldn't be more stoked on the clips they used. We had two options for beaches to skim at, and big surprise, they both sucked for skimming. It was a little breezy, rocky, and the timing of the shorebreak was absolutely terrible. The most frustrating part was I knew this was my opportunity to get REAL ocean skimboarding some national coverage and show people what skimboarding is truly all about. To make things even more difficult, the director (who was a totally rad guy) wanted me to pick a time to run for a wave while I we started the scene halfway up the stairs that accessed the beach. I felt like I was honing all the skills I have ever learned to try to make something out of nothing in some seriously difficult conditions, on camera, and on script. It was like a body builder working his whole life to dead lift 1000 pounds and then being asked to open a jar of pickles with soapy hands on a dime, on camera. After about 15 minutes of shooting skimboarding, I hear them say "next scene".... I was so disappointed in myself. I did not perform like I wish I could have, and so bummed that they might not have gotten good enough clips to use in the commercial, and if they did, they'd probably choose ones that made skimming look like a sub par sport. If only I had just a 2 foot wave that was easy to time, and easy to approach, I could have done so much more.
A couple weeks later, the casting director sent me the commercial, and like I said, I couldn't be more stoked with the clips that they chose and how they turned out for how difficult the conditions were. I even got a backflip shot!
So here it is!