Dane Reynolds "First Chapter"

Dane Reynolds’ new surf star showcase stokes the same fiery embers of the surf world’s campfire as Kelly Slater’s “In Black and White” did over a decade ago by giving the viewer the sense that something’s bubbling beneath the American surf scene, ready to shake the status quo.

The Slater/Irons rivalry has lost its luster. The two superior fighters have slugged it out as the rest scraped for scraps, but Dane Reynolds ushers in the same hope for the future that a young Taj Burrow first showed some ten years ago. In “First Chapter”, Reynolds confidently and systematically dismantles every lump of water sent his way, blending a manly, rail burying style reminiscent of Taylor Knox and a laser guided aerial assault that could stand up to any surfer on the planet..

Although Reynolds’ full-throttle act hasn’t translated into contest results as yet, his electric performance in this film is exhilarating and downright exhausting to watch and his level of surfing is so high in this flick that it seems almost comical, like something in a cartoon or something. To go back and watch a surf movie from the 80’s or early 90’s in the fresh glow of this film would be like watching an episode of “Three’s Company” and wondering how you ever thought it was funny. Reynolds makes every impossible aerial. Every turn is beyond vertical. The rail is always buried and all fins are blasting out the back of the lip as a rule.

”First Chapter” doesn’t break any new cinematic ground nor does it offer much real insight into the Reynolds psyche, but who cares.

Structured as a movie within a movie, “First Chapter” in a film that is aware it is being made, stating plainly as it progresses that it means to avoid classic surf-flick clichés and then playfully embraces those same clichés. This dude takes on about 500 small to mid-size waves with creative TNT. He mutilates California, punishes Australia, and threads he needle in South Africa before drawing lengthy lines across peeling Moroccan point waves.

The Verdict Dane Reynolds may not flaunt the same big wave chops of Andy, Bruce, and Slates, but he does give the current level of surfing a good thrashing.