The adventurous few who set off on cold water surf adventures are opening up both the frontiers of surfing possibility and surf cinematography. The latest crew to venture out into the cold are a group of German surfers who documented an eight month search for waves in Scotland, Denmark, Iceland and back at home.
The visuals are richly textured and they lure you into the action with crisp editing and dramatic scenes. Remarkably, director Felix Gänsicke pretty much did it himself, except for a few times when he gave the camera to the boys so he could paddle out to get a few for himself.
In Headache the German surf crew demonstrate both their wanderlust and their high calibre surfing, with plenty of action to compliment the landscapes of some of the world’s coldest places. Check out the trailer:
We asked Felix some questions…
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What was the inspiration to make a cold water surf film?
Well, actually we are living in the north of Germany, where you don’t have many options being a surfer. You can either go to France (20 hour drive), to Denmark (6 hour drive) or just try to get the best out of what our short and small coastline offers. I would say 70% of the year the Baltic Sea’s water temperature is below 10°C. In winter the sea sometimes freezes! So we really have to deal with extreme cold water conditions most of the year if we want to satisfy our addiction.
But we love it! This is the way we learned surfing. Pros are, that you never get crowded lineups and barely any localism. To make a cold water surf movie just felt somehow natural to us. . So it was going to be about cold water surfing.
Who are the surfers, director, camera crew?
The surfers are only German guys. We are all students at uni, freelancers and we all share the same spirit for surfing. It is our engine and keeps us going. .
There are Jonas Bronnert, Alex Tesch and Finn Springborn who are the main surfers in the movie. Besides there are Julian Braun, Dan Petermann, Phil Biewald, Lucas Günther and myself featured.
We filmed ourselves. So there is no camera or production crew behind it. I am the producer, director and camera and sound guy all in one. But from time-to-time Lucas and Dan helped me out filming so I could get wet too.
Where was your favourite location to surf?
For the movie we travelled to Iceland, Scotland, Denmark and our own coastline here in Germany. Iceland offered for sure the most incredible and breathtaking landscapes. There are plenty of undiscovered waves and crazy nature. It was probably the most intense and inspiring trip of the movie. But we also scored Scotland pretty well, referring to waves.
How long did the film take to create?
We came up with the idea of the film about one year ago and started filming in August. So it’s been eight months of filming now. As this is our first bigger project we could not really afford to film anymore. Our bank accounts are lighter than ever before.
When will it be released?
We are going to celebrate the world premiere in our hometown Rostock on the 17th of april 2015. We are so looking forward to this moment when the final curtain falls.
Find out everything about the film at www.headachefilm.com