Tyler Manson

Tyler Man­son is an Aus­tralian born, Cal­i­for­nia raised, surfer/photographer/filmmaker. His upcom­ing film, Grey Whale Ses­sions doc­u­ments the clas­sic surf adven­ture and fea­tures such slid­ers as Tyler War­ren and Keith Mal­loy. We spoke with Tyler to learn more.

What was your life like grow­ing up?
I was born in Mel­bourne, Aus­tralia to Amer­i­can par­ents. After a year of bounc­ing around the desert in a VW bus, they decided to move back to the US. Even­tu­ally, we set­tled in Ojai Cal­i­for­nia when I was 5. I grew-up in a big fam­ily and my par­ents are teach­ers so there was always a steady flow of stu­dents, friends and fam­ily com­ing and going. I was raised in a very DIY, cre­ative fam­ily and they instilled at a young age that I could do what­ever I wanted in this life. My fam­ily never had a home cam­corder, but because they worked at a school I could access some very basic video equip­ment. So when­ever I got a chance, I would come up with strange plot lines and make lit­tle films run­ning around the creeks behind my house with a few friends. As I grew up my inter­est turned from Indi­ana Jones over to skate­board­ing and surf­ing, so my lit­tle films took a turn as well.

When did you get your first surf­board?
My first surf­board was a yel­low, down­railed, Greek, sin­gle fin. It had a huge ding on the deck that was patched with news­pa­per and then glassed over. The news­pa­per had a pic­ture of a mon­key on it. I called it the banana board. I surfed that thing all over Ventura.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood up on a surf­board?
I don’t really remem­ber when I first stood up, but I have an early surf mem­ory from when I was about 11. It was an El Niño win­ter and there was solid NW swell in the water. I some­how con­vinced my mom it wasn’t too big for me. I got lucky and snuck out between set and spent about 2 hours ter­ri­fied try­ing to get back in. Mean­while, my mom’s nerves set­tled and she went to run an errand. I finally picked off a medium wave, scratched into it—feeling the off­shore wind in my face—I made it to the bot­tom of the wave just before it imploded on me. I got super tossed around but made it back to the beach. I down­played it to my mom say­ing it wasn’t that bad out there. I think she bought it until the next day the Ven­tura Star (news­pa­per) arrived and on the cover was a photo of me eat­ing shit. No joke.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young boy?
I remem­ber read­ing about Gree­nough, because he surfed the same point I surfed, I was always enam­ored by his tales and cre­ativ­ity to forge a path where there was none. Tom Cur­ren. Bart Tem­ple­ton was also some­one I admired a lot. Brent Flo­rence, too. I bought my first short board from him. I didn’t know much about surf­ing out­side of what was hap­pen­ing in Ven­tura, so most of my early influ­ences came from peo­ple I saw in person.

Who/what inspires you?
Bas Jan Ader. Peter Beard. Albert Maysles. Kyle Field. Carl Ekstrom. Any­one with a unique per­spec­tive, whether they are design­ing fur­ni­ture, tak­ing pho­tographs, mak­ing music, surf­ing, writ­ing, cook­ing… what­ever. As long as it’s orig­i­nal, thought­ful, and from the heart – it inspires me.

Tell us about your upcom­ing film.
I’ve been work­ing a lot with Wood­shed Films and they approached me about a trip to Mex­ico spon­sored by Paci­fico. I was lucky enough to pick a crew of musi­cians and surfers and go explor­ing for a few days. The car we explored in was an old 84’ Volvo wagon lov­ingly dubbed “The Grey Whale. So, the Grey Whale Ses­sions is a pretty sim­ple premise, like most surf films. It’s just about get­ting away from the crowds and going south to find the sim­ple things that make us all happy.

What were some of the chal­lenges in cre­at­ing your film?
Most surf films take years to make and month and months of just wait­ing for swell. To be hon­est, we didn’t get the best waves because of our lim­ited time, but in the end, it was more about the cre­ativ­ity each surfer brought to the trip. We wanted to doc­u­ment all the lit­tle things that go into to a surf trip but don’t make it into the film. We did a lot of spearfish­ing, draw­ing, play­ing music, dri­ving down unmarked roads just to see where they lead.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
Patience.

What are you most proud of?
Not com­pro­mis­ing. I mean, to be totally hon­est all film­mak­ing really is, is one good idea and then a series of com­pro­mises, and some­times you do have to kill your dar­lings, but I do my best to stick to my guns when­ever it’s impor­tant to me. Thomas taught me that and I thank him kindly for that lesson.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out and why?
Ethiopia. I went there to work on a doc­u­men­tary last year and was com­pletely blow away by the peo­ple and land­scape. Some­times it nice to go half way around the world and do some­thing besides surf.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing has always been a part of my life, but it’s not the most impor­tant thing to me.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Mak­ing some­thing out of nothing.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
I was just on a trip to Indo with Creed McTag­gart… what a rad kid. It’s the young ones walk­ing to the beat of their own drum that will push surf­ing into places I can’t even dream of. Some unknown kid from WA will sur­pass Dane, Kelly, Jordy and the rest before we know it.

What is your cur­rent favorite board? Your favorite surfspot?
I have a 1966 Wardy D-fin that I really love. I’m also enjoy my Lid­dle most days. Favorite spot is ______ point… it’s the best.

What’s your favorite meal?
I’m not too picky, but I’ve learned to love eat­ing what you grow. I know that sounds like hippy bull­shit, but eat­ing veg­eta­bles that you’ve watched grow is pretty incredible.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
Sonny and the Sun­sets, Chip Tha Rippa, Tele­vi­sion, Be Gulls, Bauhaus, Brian Eno, Local Natives, and Music for Feng Shui.

What are you most grate­ful for?
I’m grate­ful that I met an amaz­ing girl when I was a just a kid and con­vinced her to marry me.

What’s next for Tyler Man­son?
Well, I think I’m gonna fin­ish my whiskey and go to bed.

To learn more about Tyler Man­son and his work click here.