by Fred
Video of the week #3: Dane Reynolds at Chapter 11
A look inside Chapter 11, the Ventura clubhouse Dane Reynolds runs with his friends. No soul-surfer talk, just packing orders and pulling shirts off a screen-printing rig.
Wednesday again. One clip, no fluff.
This week, a sit-down with Dane Reynolds inside Chapter 11 TV, the headquarters he runs out of Ventura. Forget the soul-surfer monologue. Most of the footage is him packing boxes, pulling shirts off a screen-printing rig, and trying to keep the lights on.
Dane Reynolds, Chapter 11
Chapter 11 is what Dane calls a “clubhouse”. The shop sells gear, and the gear funds the surf films the crew actually wants to make. Photography, shipping, editing, graphic design, all of it handled in-house by Dane and friends like Mickey Wright and Eithan Osborne.
The backstory is the interesting bit. Years ago he started Marine Layer because random filmers were posting his waves on Surfline before he could put them up himself, so he beat them to it. The content machine eventually burnt him out and he walked away from it. Chapter 11 is him having another go, this time as a collective rather than a one-man show.
What sells the video is how honest he is about the process. He’d rather document a bad trip, the sessions where the waves are rubbish and everyone is over it, than cut another highlight reel. The polish bores him. The grit is the story. He wants the physical shop to be a cultural pillar in Ventura, the kind of place older surf shops used to be, where different generations hang out, watch films, and talk surfing without anyone trying to sell them something.
It’s one of the best surfers in the world quietly turning into a small business owner who just wants to make cool things with his mates.
Credits
- Featuring Dane Reynolds
- Stab Magazine
- Watch more at Chapter 11 TV on YouTube
See you next Wednesday.