Jon Foreman promises that Switchfoot fans will get a different perspective on the band from its upcoming film project, “Fading West,” which the band will tease with a trailer at the auction night before the group’s just-announced 9th Annual Bro-Am surfing contest and concert.

The Bro-Am takes place July 12-13 in Encinitas, Calif. A charity auction, a performance by Switchfoot and a sneak peek of “Fading West” will take place on the 12th, while the 13th will feature a full-scale beachfront concert, a charity surf contest with surf jousting exhibitions between heats, and the Rob Machado Bro Junior competition. The Bro-Am has raised more than $715,000 for San Diego-area children’s charities during its history. More information about the event will be posted on the band’s website.

As for the “Fading West” film, Foreman tells Billboard that, “Our goal was always to be professional surfers — and I’m only partially kidding when I say that — and if nobody is gonna make a movie about us, let’s do it ourselves. We love surfing, so this was kind of a chance to introduce that to the rest of the world and maybe connect a few of the dots to the music as well.”

“Fading West” combines scenes of the band surfing at locales around the world — including the U.S., South Africa, Bali, Australia and New Zealand — with behind-the-scenes of Switchfoot on tour and in the studio, as well as on stage. “It’s about rock ‘n’ roll and the journey we’ve been on for the past eight albums,” Foreman says. “There’s a lot of special moments in the film.”

read more @ billboard.com

Rip Curl has again created a technological world-first by capturing full-tilt surfing action using a “30 camera Array” – a line of cameras firing consistently as surfers ride towards and past it. The results are unique “frozen moments of time” – that can be viewed in a combination of angles for a true in the round perspective.

Three years ago Rip Curl took a similar concept to the Sun Way Lagoon Wavepool in Malaysia using Canon SLR cameras, linking 50 individual shots to freeze a single moving moment. Effective, but a hell of a lot of work (and risk) for the slim chance at one particular point in time.

This year Rip Curl and TimeSlice, our partners in the overall development, used GoPro HD video cameras to freeze an infinite number of moments that could be viewed. The major benefit being a better way of catching all the performance surfing the Rip Curl team riders were doing, rather than just a fraction of it.

The freeze frame concept all started with a desire to showcase the MIRAGE Series of Ultimate Boardshorts. MIRAGE are the most technically advanced boardshort on the planet, so to do them justice we needed the right leadership and technology from our photographic equipment. Combining our world class surf team of Mick Fanning, Owen Wright, Matt Wilkinson, Dillon Perillo and Dean Brady with the multi-frame array of cameras, gave us a Matrix style suite of “Mirage Moments”, which pull the viewer in to the image, stalling there for long enough to enjoy a great move, before travelling down the line through the footage to the next Mirage Moment, the viewing metaphor for surfing in itself.

It was 2X ASP world champion, Fanning, who used his knowledge of the world’s best breaks to help pick the ideal location. When asked where he would go to try something so ambitious Fanning replied simply… “Namotu Island in Fiji. The waves, the light, the location. It’s built for it. Scott and Mandy who own the place will look after us.”

Of course, we took Mick’s advice and the dice were rolled.

Along the way things developed rapidly. A 10 camera hand held water rig was pieced together in the makeshift workshop, a 30 camera rig which attached to a jet ski buzzed the lineup with the surfers following down the line, and a bigger 30 camera hand-held rig were all developed on the fly to great effect.

We invite you to experience MIRAGE to the fullest effect here: www.ripcurl.com/mirage

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This day at Teahupoo- Aug 27th 2011 during the Billabong Pro waiting period is what many are calling the biggest and gnarliest Teahupoo ever ridden. Chris Bryan was fortunate enough to be there working for Billabong on a day that will go down in the history of big wave surfing. The French Navy labeled this day a double code red prohibiting and threatening to arrest anyone that entered the water.

Kelly Slater described the day by saying “witnessing this was a draining feeling being terrified for other people’s lives all day long, it’s life or death. Letting go of that rope one time can change your life and not many people will ever experience that in their life.”

All images where shot by Chris Bryan using the Phantom HD Gold camera. To see more of Chris’ work check out his website. WWW.CHRISBRYANFILMS.COM
Music: Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun’ by M83.
by Chris Bryan

original post on MPORA