… but if you looked twice, you might notice the old canvas rucksacks, the battered rigger boots and wellies, the pelican cases, the facial hair, the head torches hanging out of pockets and the boards.

A chart in the British Isles, 1800 miles roundtrip, over 30 hours driving, an 8 man Swedish tent was dusted off, the wood burner was pulled from the loft, rated to -10 sleeping bags were mandatory, phone calls were made and a small band of guys steadily formed in the early hours of a Monday morning.

We went to an island, more on this will unravel in the coming weeks, but for now – here’s a peek at the kit we took.

Thank you Al Mack for your trusty relationship with the wind and Chris McLean, for your steady hand, we wouldn’t have stepped out the door without you guys.

In order to shoot great product videos, you’ve got to do three things.

1) enthusiasm – ensure the people you’ve got are jacked up, that they believe in why you do what you do.

2) just roll tape – there’s no point in staging things, forget about a brief, it’s a team effort, throw caution to the wind. If the product is perfect and the people are pumped, you’re going to get great footage.

3) turn product over – get the product in view and just flash through the pieces, leave very little time to pause, no breaks – keep piling on and taking off the products, people laugh and it’s candid.

PS – at the end of shooting, you’ll have some extra bits, the stuff that happens behind the scenes, don’t throw it out, slam it together and give some a glimpse of what happens behind the silver curtain. Out takes from our recent Spring launch video reel.

We’ve seen it many times in the past, when swell builds, the tone in those who are going to surf changes. It becomes more considered, with hints of camaraderie echoing from the car park to the line-up and it’s a beautiful thing to experience.

Can we replicate it, capture it, in time, but in the meantime, these guys seem to be pushing things and with the move to areas outside of their comfort zone, comes the camaraderie – enjoy one of the closest thing we’ve seen to it.

I Believe I can Fly ( flight of the frenchies). Trailer from sebastien montaz-rosset on Vimeo.

Every variable becomes that much more important, it’s a volatile process and can be a very violent thing. 135 pounds of pressurised water (the weight of an adult human being), being forced through a tiny wafer of coffee and any missteps by the barista, will manifest itself in the cup, in a very unpleasant way and that happens, because most people who are preparing it, don’t give it the respect it deserves.

The next time you sip on that espresso, think about the respect your barista gave the making process and the respect the boys who paddle give the bigger waves.

Kyle over at Intelligentsia, talk us through the process, you’ve got to love the epicures.

Espresso, Intelligentsia from The D4D on Vimeo.

Fathoms Left to Fall – A Northcore Film from Northcore on Vimeo.

Credits:
A Northcore Film
Directed by Chris McClean
Director of Photography Mark Waters
Edited by Mark Waters
Produced by Gabe Davies
Executive Producer – Matt Strathern
Music – Ben Howard – Depth over Distance
Surfers – Gabe Davies, Richie Fitzgerald, Fergal Smith, Tom Lowe, Ollie O’Flaherty, Eric Rebiere, Paul O’Kane, Neil Britton, Tom Butler, Sebastian Steudtner, Andrew Cotton, Al Mennie
Winner of Best International Short Film – Hamburg Surf and Skate Film Festival

Carlos Burle, Chris Bertish and Grant Washburn have been little and big parts of what we’ve done over the years, they were all invitees of The 2013 Maverick’s invitational, and we were riding their coat tails.

Apparently the energy coming off Half Moon Bay was electric, Peter Mel took the win and all the boys caught some beautiful waves.

Viet Mac put this little short together, we dug it, all shot on a handheld, red scarlet.

Mavericks Invitational 2013 from Viet Mac on Vimeo.

Garrett McNamara traveled from Hawaii to Nazare, with tow partner Kealii Mamala, and a support tow team made up of – Kamaki Worthington and Hugo Vau, to back them up.

The conditions in Nazaré were very good. Light southern winds and strong swell coming from the northwest and hitting the local canyon as it should.

Tó Mané, is the man behind the lens, he’s one of the most gifted surf photographers in Europe and got the call from Garrett, when the swell chart started lighting up.

People are now beginning to ask the question, has Garrett McNamara ridden the 100-foot wave in Nazaré?

You wonder what the feeling is like when big swell and the best big wave surfers in the world converge? A good friend of the workshop – Chris Bertish and Finisterre Ambassador Carlos Burle – paddle you through it.

Start a company that will drive a totally new concept forward and build that company off technical know how, thinking differently and being responsible in terms of how you run it.

People, industry pundits, almost everyone, except those close to us, told us that it was a pipe dream. 

We never looked back, you make your decisions in life and the ones that make it, are the ones powered by conviction.

Just recently we decided to take this cold water surf company to the biggest city in the UK, again – we never looked back.

How do you take a cold water surf company born on the North coast of Cornwall to the big city? Aside from the obvious, it was all about the people. We put in phone calls to the people closest to this place, we drew up plans in our workshop and we formulated a plan that would bring straight lines, some steel and the warmth of wood into a vacant room on the side of a very big building on Regent Street. 

People who know us came and said hello, people who didn’t know us also came and said hello. Should you have missed it, you would’ve seen a large gun (surf board) strapped to one of the queen’s buildings and some wetsuits hanging off a door. Inside, you would’ve noticed the product that makes Finisterre, beautiful lighting and a touch of warmth an oak table naturally brings. 

In short, the pop-up was one of our greatest adventures to date. We screened movies, we enjoyed some fine ale and most importantly, we went forward with this cold water surf company and in the process, met new people along the way.

London, you have a little place in our hearts and something’s telling us we’ll be seeing you again.

Special thanks to: James Bowthorpe and Craig White, without these guys, there’d be no such thing as a cold water surf company in London.

We just returned from the London Surf Film Festival, an event put on by Finisterre friends Chris and Demi. The event attracted some of the finest film making talent from around the world and an eclectic crew turned out to view their works. Congratulations to Chris and Demi for creating something special, for finding those diamonds in the rough and for pulling in the crowds. Thanks to everyone who came down to see us, to the film makers we met and the new friends we made – we’re already looking forward to next years one.

We were stoked to be part of such a film festival and award the Best British Film to the very deserved Matt Crocker and James Dean for their work on the The Endless Winter.

View the  festivals winners and their work here

The LSFF Tee

A coming together, a sharing of similar beliefs and then turning these beliefs into a reality is what brought us to create 100 limited edition tees to celebrate the London Surf Film Festival. If you didnt manage to pick one up at the event itself, we have limited number left for sale online.