If you have the vaguest interest in contemporary surfing, it’s been impossible to ignore the rise of Chapter 11.
Nestled deep in Ventura, California, Ch11 is the brainchild of Dane Reynolds, who again, if you have had the vaguest interest in surfing over the past 20 years, is a name that has left a lasting impression. Dane’s mark on surfing has been considerable, from Summer Teeth, to Marine Layer Productions, to the Dumpster Diver and more. For a long time in surfing, if Dane was selling, we were buying. However, cynically you could argue that with the former glory and buying power of big budget marketing dollars behind him, it would be easy to do so, easy to make a mark. Oh ye of little faith.
Which is quite a contrast to Chapter 11, a platform with the sole mission statement of producing Surf Videos for the internet. But Chapter 11 is a lot more than surf videos on the internet, it’s a mini cultural revolution in the making. What we find so captivating about Ch11 is the sheer honesty of it—from the makes, the failures, to the DIY DNA that runs through the whole ‘organisation’. There’s no superstar factor here. At the base of it, you have Dane; a dad with an affinity for Coors Light, and a fan of surfing (who just happens to be a world class surfer) running a surf store selling screen printed tee shirts. Serving customers, packing boxes, manning the cash register. It’s beautiful, and in that beauty lies a certain sense of simplicity that has enamored Ch11 to the wider surfing public. Long may it continue.
But yet, this isn’t just Dane. There’s a cast and crew along for the ride, equal stakeholders in this noble endeavour. You’ve got Hunter Martinez, no relation to Bobby but a talented filmmaker with an incredibly dry sense of humour. Then there’s Eithan Osborne—never shy of a good time, he nearly qualified for the CT by accident and happens to be one of the most exciting surfers alive today. Never one to mince his words, there’s Micky Clarke, a quintessential Californian blue collar surfer sporting a very chiseled jawline, with a side gig in judging surf contests. Plus Jake Kelley, a Nate Tyler protégé—if underground surf aesthetics and oversized goofy foot punts are your thing, then Jake is your man. He also happens to have a side gig as a production assistant, a Hollywood workhorse on set with the great and the good. Finally, there’s Matt McCabe, who couldn’t’t join our call but is quite possibly the most talented underground surfer (and father) you’ve never heard of.
What makes Chapter 11, well, Chapter 11, is hard to put your finger on. Aside from the high performance surfing, it’s like surfing’s answer to Clarkson’s Farm in a way. Dane’s patriarchal dynamic with the ‘groms’, running riot around the store and just trying to make it happen, against all odds. But the result is a functioning store and some of the most impressive high performance surf films we’ve seen in the past five years.
It’s chaotic, it’s innovative, it’s aspirational, it’s disruptive, it’s a shitshow…it’s perfect.
So, the week before the all-new Chapter 11 store opening, and with our orbits spinning ever closer, we decided to give the lads a call in a somewhat raucous and laugher filled roundtable to get the inside track on our favourite movement in California right now.
So, what is Chapter 11?
Dane: Surf videos on the internet.
Hunter: Give them the spiel you gave people in the old place.
Micky: The answer changes every time…
Dane: It’s a group of surfers that created a platform for putting out our surf videos and content, to showcase our surfing and what we value in surfing. There’s a core group based here in Ventura but that has extended to friends of friends. To a network, like AT&T…
How did Chapter 11 come about?
Dane: I was a few years into doing Former, running it out of my garage. It would have been around 2019, I was surfing with these guys a lot, or seeing them around a lot. I thought these two kids (Micky and Eithan) were little assholes, and then suddenly…
Micky: We were not assholes?
Dane: Well, I was asking them where they put out their footage. I was inspired do to something like Marine Layer but with a wider group. I was paying for filmers to film me and barely getting clips, and they were getting more clips than me…it kind of went from there. I feel it’s created some content and some currency in the industry. I also thought this guy was an asshole (Jake) and Hunter, another asshole, but they both turned out pretty cool…Hunter actually got Wave of the Day when he was 16 at Silverstrand and I was so pissed.
Hunter: A no-hand backhand tube…
Dane: We’re still trying to find the clip. It started like that. I was personally inspired by skateboarding and how a lot of the brands are a group of friends rather than “You shred, and you shred, let’s build a team—represent our logo.” Which is how I feel surfing is. I was still paying the filmers, and these kids were getting more clips than me, I was still running everything out of my garage, thinking that we have to sell something to pay for this, whilst getting a little resentful…and I thought it was time that they shared the workload…so then we moved into a shop in Ventura and all of a sudden we have a surf shop and here we are.
Micky: We’re evolving!
Why the name, Chapter 11?
Dane: Oh man, it wrote itself. I don’t know if you remember but I did a film with Quiksilver when I was first sponsored by them in my early twenties, called First Chapter. So when Quiksilver went bankrupt, they offered me another deal but I was so dead-set on making another film called Chapter 11. I felt it was my past and my future, First Chapter to Chapter 11. I made the film and a bunch of logos and then when it came to launching this platform, I was tempted by naming it Marine Layer, but I wanted it to be an evolution, a wider play—so Chapter 11 TV was the obvious name.
How did you find that initial opening? Was the reality different to the idea?
Dane: It’s all fun for me, it’s like a clubhouse.
Eithan: It gives us something to do, as when there’s no waves, there’s fuck all to do round here.
How would you describe your role in the current surf industry landscape?
Dane: When I was running Former out of my garage, I would go to my buddies print shop every day and try and get them to get to our orders. I would end up doing all these little tasks around the print shop, trying to clear the way for him to get to our orders. In turn, I loved the environment of the print shop, it was such a fun place to be, all the customers that come in and out and the conversations that you have. I think with the shop we wanted to create that kind of environment. I think the importance of shops is—it’s like a clubhouse, like a place for people to come and gather.
Jake: Where else are you going to go, if you like the surfers and the videos and it’s those guys that are handing you the shirts and stuff? I feel that’s really different to other companies, it has our personal touch to it. People come in and it’s just us working the cash register…
Do you feel it represents a shift back to kind of how surfing was, pre-internet and the rise and fall of big brands?
Dane: I don’t know, I mean we’re broke, so…
Eithan: I think so! Because the other companies have become so impersonal, yet they like what we are doing. I feel we speak to a more core group.
Micky: It feels like brands have lost touch.
Hunter: I think it’s pretty cool, seeing people walk in and get stoked. It’s funny as you can read a lot of comments on Instagram but seeing people actually engage with what we’re doing in a physical space is really rad. Sometimes making videos can feel insignificant, but when someone comes into the store and says they liked whatever video to our faces that’s really rad, it feels like it goes full circle at that moment. I think it goes back to that skate-shop OG vibe. 
What have been some of the challenges along the way?
Hunter: Some of the challenges?!
Dane: Surfing. Being broke.
Micky: Marketing, selling products. Realising how hard it is to turn a profit. You can’t just make a shirt and hope that people will buy it. You have to come up with some clever marketing piece that gets people to relate to it and then hopefully buy it…
Jake: Giving people the wrong order sucks…
Hunter: Making a schedule, staying on track. Marketing. Customer service.
Dane: People have high expectations, people think we’re Amazon. We’re really not. I don’t know if anyone even knows this but every time we have a problem, I blame it on Micky. Anything—wrong order, wrong size, wrong print: “Yeah sorry that was Micky…”
Eithan: Challenges? Crackheads stealing our shit.
Jake: Trying to surf and then manning the store, I’m sure that when we go surf and close randomly that’s the one day that someone has driven down from San Francisco to check it out…
Dane: We’ve had a few people to take on hours and stuff so the store can be open if we’re surfing. Managing people is tricky for me, I’m not a great leader.
Do you have set roles?
Dane: There is no leadership here.
Micky: It’s all about finding a role, finding a task and doing it.
Hunter: I’ll do the video editing. Oh actually, Dane does that as well.
Eithan: I think you can tell by our responses, it’s carnage.
Dane: I’ll write stuff on pieces of paper…
Running a store is a full time operation, as is being pro-surfers and filmmakers. Is it hard to find the balance?
Hunter: I think so.
Micky: Totally.
Hunter: It’s hard to even get the surfing portion of the job done but then to getting an order right, printing it, screening it, getting someone exactly what they want. And then you make a mistake and get a bad review or whatever, that’s stressful.
Dane: We don’t get bad reviews!
Hunter: Either way. It’s all going smoothly, but it is a balance…
Dane: If there’s waves, that’s our first priority—but the waves have been shit here for a long time.
Talk us through the new space.
Hunter: I think it will be easier. It’s a nice big space—we had a couple of years at the last spot which was a huge learning experience. Seeing every side of product, selling, making surf videos, surfing, surf trips. It’s all downhill from here, but downhill in a good way! We’re cruising! It’s all going to be great. It’s only a block back from the beach too.
What have been some of the highlights so far?
Collectively: The premieres, video premieres.
Dane: The premieres for sure. When I was growing up, there was nothing like that and it’s cool to see people come out and appreciate it.
Jake: Developing a community!
Hunter: Filming for Glad You Scored was great, filming with a purpose and seeing that all come together was really rewarding.
Dane: When that came together, it was epic. Chilé was amazing.
Hunter: We should do a proper trip together with all of us.
Dane: We should, just go to Salina Cruz and just surf all day. God I miss it. It’s pumping there right now. 
How do you guys approach things? Is there a strategy, a plan?
Hunter: Zero plan, no rules, something can fly in at any second.
Jake: There’s times where we find things funny, make a screen, no drop or anything then it’s on the website.
Dane: I feel it kind of writes itself. We surf, film, release and make merch. Through travels, spending time together, it all comes together kind of naturally. Even for the bigger projects it’s rare we have a concept, Glad You Scored kind of wrote itself narrative-wise, although I guess we did have the idea of how it’s such a major part of trips—how surfers interact with the filmers and the people that are behind the camera. But the rest was a struggle, and that’s how it came to be.
Hunter: I feel like the films we think about a little bit ahead of time, they are the ones where we get the best results. Those daily export vids I feel are just filling the space for the viewers, they just kind of happen by themselve; it’s never premeditated.
In an age defined by fast food content, and instant uploading and gratification of clips, do you feel the pressure to put out more content?
Hunter: I feel pressure sometimes, especially when it comes to selling shit and being consistent with output so that people keep seeing the name and wanting to buy in. At the same time, I don’t want that to skew how I am putting things out, I don’t want to compromise on output. I feel people like and follow what we do because of the quality behind it, so there’s that element of sitting back and doing what feels right as well.
How do you approach videos with the fringes of your crew, like the Shane Borland or Shane Sykes videos?
Dane: It’s all about personal connection. It has to be one of our core group’s friends. I have to stop saying core group. Small group. One level out from the small group.
Hunter: It has to feel natural, I want to branch out but it has to be natural. Organic!
Who is the most productive of your crew?
Hunter: Dane!
Micky: Dane!
Dane: Jake is a workhorse.
Hunter: Dane is the brain, I am a computer nerd.
Micky: I’m just a punching bag, to be honest. I definitely never drank this much beer before we started CH11.
Who’s the laziest?
Micky: I’ll answer that…
Eithan: Honesty is the best policy.
Micky: They don’t deserve my hard work.
How you describe your love affair with Coors Light?
Micky: Sensational.
Dane: Deep connection. Although we did a blind taste test and no one got it.
Eithan: It’s the perfect work beer. It’s a performance enhancer is what it is.
Hunter: We wanted to try and work with them but there is some weird thing that they couldn’t work with Vans riders or VF. There’s a couple of Vans riders in this room that fucked that up, unfortunately. It was close.
On that theme, how do you approach collaborations?
Jake: It’s the same as the videos really, what makes sense – it has to be an organic connection.
Hunter: How do you guys do it?
Dane: Industry secrets!
Micky: We definitely don’t do things we don’t want to do.
Hunter: We would be hyped to do more collaborations with people, product or commercials and stuff. I love the way that Palace approach making skits to sell product, there’s nothing like that in surfing right now.
Dane: I would be hyped to do more commercial work, I feel one of my main strengths is storytelling and creating context—finding ironies in everyday life. I feel it runs in my family, my grandfather was an amazing storyteller, as was my brother—although, he wouldn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Are there other scenes or platforms that inspire you?
Jake: I feel like Australia is a good scene; they get good waves all the time.
Micky: I mean they really worship their surfers there…must be nice.
Dane: I look at the GX1000 crew, it just looks like a group of friends. And their thing is San Francisco Skateboarding and bombing hills and they just have this niche, their niche and they own it. I guess we aren’t so different; we’re a group of friends and our thing is drinking beer and surfing Emmawood. I don’t know, I love surfing, I’ve been obsessed with it since I was 10. I don’t like a certain version of surfing, so I’m psyched to cultivate a different high performance version of surfing.
Hunter: Do you think the GX guys make money?
Dane: If you want to make money, be a banker.
Who comes up with your designs?
Dane: Mostly me. I guess it’s a series of in-jokes that we print on tee shirts. Hunter came up with Reynold’s Beer Removal Service – no job too small, no job too large – no can left behind. We’ve had some bad ones for sure, when we first started out. I was trying to be the leader and show these kids what I learnt with Former and thought it would be cool or funny to make this shirt with Academy of Idiots on it. It bombed, we sold like, 3.
Micky: That’s part of it though!
What are your aspirations for CH11?
Hunter: Ohhhh I like this question.
Jake: World domination.
Micky: I don’t even think we have ever asked ourselves this question?
Dane: Pay the bills.
Eithan: Just make the sickest surf edits.
Dane: To influence surfing and surf culture by where we see value and hopefully add something different to the scene. Storytelling, surfing and showcasing surfing in a cool way vs what you see on Instagram. I feel Ventura is such a funny little surf scene, and seeing these kids and where they have taken their surfing, I was stoked to create a platform that could hopefully influence more kids in that way.
Micky: I think that’s it, just doing something original and cool. We talk about it the whole time, how you see these dorky surfers doing soul arches get all the views etc and progressive surfers work so hard and don’t really pop up in the mainstream attention.
Hunter: And by showcasing that, supporting ourselves and growing the web of who we work with and hopefully giving the kids something to aspire to. “Dear Surfing, You’re Welcome…”
Eithan: Inspire the youth!
Dane: This is something I’ve been thinking, that has nothing to do with anything, but I feel like San Clemente has their thing, and how much of an advantage they have there; there’s a reliable wave, lowers and good surfers control the line up. I wish that progressive surfing had its place in Ventura, mid-lengthers just rule the line up here, it’s wack. I’d just like to grow this platform and give kids some inspiration in progressive surfing.
So what’s next for you guys?
Dane: Eithan’s film premieres really soon; that marks the opening of the new store that we are super excited about. After that, we are working on a Parker Coffin film. We’re hopefully coming into a good time for surfing in California so we’ll try and film, surf and keep doing what we are doing.
Hunter: We’re opening a store in five days, showing this film, then doing a mini premiere tour. It never ends.
