Music enthusiast, surf lover and filmmaker. Meet Evan Adamson, a Texas native living in Southern California. Growing up in Texas, Evan was a third generation surfer. Who knew surfing was a thing in Texas? While the shortboard superiority mindset was heavy in Texas when Evan was growing up, he found the gulf coast waves were generally better equipped for longboarding, despite receiving flack from most of his peers. Looking up to Californian’s like Joel Tudor and CJ Nelson, he took a more style driven, smooth, and classic approach to surfing, which is not to say it’s any less challenging.
Evan is currently a filmmaker, but to understand how he got to be a filmmaker we need to talk about his passion for music.
All through college Evan had a music blog showcasing music he’d discover. Evan jokingly tells us that his blog was called Dank Vibes! Unfortunately, Dank Vibes is no longer, but it propelled him into his career today.
Back in the day, Evan got an internship with a company who puts on music festivals such as LolLaPalooza and Austin City Limits. When interviewing for the gig, Evan dressed in formal suit and tie, as you’d expect, but apparently that was not the “vibe” of the company. While Evan looked like “a square” they saw that his resume included Dank Vibes which at this point he’d made it more than a blog and had begun shooting his musician friends performing dubstep remixes. The company decided to give him a shot.
On day one, cannabis was brought up and Evan mentioned he had a joint in his car…and when he mentioned that, his new team said, “we’re going to Dank Vibes car!”
10 years later, Evan still shoots with the company at LolLaPalooza and Austin City Limits, and to this day, everyone there still calls him Dank Vibes.
Evan managed a musician for a while after that but ultimately decided to focus on film. Evan does it all, from directing commercials, to editing his own work, saying….
“Editing is like interior design for me where you move into a place and you arrange all your furniture in a way but as you walk through the space, you’re seeing things and you’re like ‘Oh I have to move this thing here.’”
Bringing together his passions, Evan’s coming out with his own short surf film. He’s bringing together his love of comedy, surfing and of course music where he’ll be showcasing a number of incredible longboard surfers.
As the day draws to a close, we head outside and jump into a 1986 Club Wagon Ford and head ocean bound. As we bump along in the van that’s clearly been decked out to be the perfect surf mobile, the song Back Baby by Jessica Pratt plays.
When we arrive at the ocean side, the sun’s dancing off the water. Evan pulls out his camera and gets some b-roll shots for his upcoming film in the golden hour light. His long lens camera captures the surfers all the way out on the water as they dance on their longboards and seem to glide over the water.
The waves weren’t great by most standards, but if it were like that in Texas, he’d be out in a heartbeat. Regardless, Evan gets on his wetsuit, throws his longboard under his arm and runs toward the water. As the sun begins to creep toward the horizon we watch as Evan catches wave after wave. Quite the mesmerizing site between human and nature.
Until next time…
