The night was mild in Ericeira, location chosen by Wasted Talent, with the support of Epokhe and Octopus, to finish the premiere tour of the new surf movie by Dion Agius, one of the best (and most influential) freesurfers of the moment.
Before, they had gone through Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London, Hossegor, San Sebastian and Barcelona. Meetings, curious faces and beer, lots of cold beer. All but London — that beer was warm.
At the door of the MQ shop, a DJ set the tone and called attention to all who passed by. The party was on and why not fill it with good talk, Coronas and surf?
Dion Agius distributed conversation, always aware; trying to give attention to all of those who wanted to exchange ideas with him.
When the film started, the floor was landing site for dozens of people who wanted to look at the screen on the wall, framed by some vintage boards.
You can say that “The Smiling Bag” is an experimental work. A color, inverted images, overlays, sounds distortion experiment. A mix of simplicity and disturbance. And yes, I’m talking about a surf movie, where the ordinary does not enter and the boards gain air under them.
Confused? Maybe, but at least curious to watch.
Together with the Australian surfer in this adventure were other accomplices, as Craig Anderson, Chippa Wilson or Ozzie Wright.
Dion told me that the images were captured in Indonesia, Australia and Japan. In the latter, they had to travel during the typhoon season, taking advantage of a window of only four days of swell to be able to capture the footage.
What about that sound close to the end of the movie? “Slayer! I just love it!”, he says, steadying his eyes as if to hear the chords in his head.

Me and the Boyz! 🙂
Finished the premiere tour, Agius will not leave Portugal just yet. He will stay for a few more weeks and explore the Portuguese coast. “Everyone is talking about waves and more waves. There’re so many that you don’t even know where to start.”
Because, after all, where many don’t see any good waves, Dion Agius sees ramps and his eyes shine brightly with the air maneuvers perspective, the new experimental tricks, and, perhaps, the images for his next film.
🎥

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