ALEX KNOST: I'm in Australia.
And I'm surfing this shitty wave all day.
I get out of the water.
And this guy named Thomas is like, hey, my name is Thomas.
He was cruising around in some van with a couple other guys,
surfers, I know.
He said, do you want to go swimming in our pool?
We're staying at a place that has a pool.
I said sure.
I just thought it was some soft-spoken dude named Thomas.
Swimming in the pool.
We're all hanging out.
Then he asked to take photos of me.
And I still didn't really know.
I was like, he's probably a photographer or something.
So I remember he had me put on his hat and had me stand up
against this wall.
He was like, now flap your arms really, really fast.
At that point, I'd taken photos with people before.
But never had someone asked me, flap
your arms really fast.
Why do you want me to flap my arms really fast?
Because it'll looks like wings.
I was like, this guy is totally fucked.
It's going to be awesome.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
THOMAS CAMPBELL: I was making a surf movie that was going to
be called "Blue Fucking Corduroy" with my friends,
that was a longboard movie.
My idea of longboarding was really, I had no idea what was
going on in the world of longboarding.
It was just, me and my friends used to ride old logs.
And I thought it was cool.
I thought I'd just film them.
They weren't the best.
But I just thought it just was so much more fun oriented.
I eventually met Joel Tudor.
And he'd seen some of my other movies, and knew of my work
from art and stuff.
And he was like, let's make a surf movie, and document these
longboarders in California.
Which I really didn't know much about.
I knew what I liked.
And I liked the simple, older style of longboarding.
But I said yeah.
And then we made it.
And that was "The Seedling." And then after that, for five
years, worked on "Sprout," slowly.
DAN MALLOY: I was a fan of his work.
I really loved his photography.
And it's always struck a chord with me, for whatever reason.
I would see it and go, what is this?
So I started to learn about him a little bit.
And when I met him, I heard that he was
working on a surf film.
That was right about the same time that I
quit surfing in contests.
So I had some time.
I had a serious amount of time.
When he made "Seedling" there wasn't any really full-on
sponsored type of surfers in it.
So I didn't really think he'd be that interested in filming
somebody with logos on their boards and stuff like that.
So not long after that he called.
He was like, hey, I'm going on this trip.
And we didn't know each other that well yet.
We'd talked and got along.
But then we went to Sri Lanka--
well, first France for his art show.
And then next we went to Sri Lanka, for a month.
So that's how you dive in and get to know
somebody really well.
ALEX KNOST: He's like, hey, this is Thomas.
I met you before.
I'm making another movie.
Do you want to go on a trip?
I think I was a freshman in high school or something.
I was pretty young.
And I was like, immediately, fuck yeah, dude.
I want to go on this trip.
He was like, with Dan Malloy.
And I didn't know him yet.
I was like, fuck yeah, this is going to be sick.
He's like, Perfect.
Longboard waves, nobody around.
I hadn't been on that many trips, especially to places
like Sri Lanka, an island off of India.
He asked if I'd go.
I said, sure, no problem.
I told my parents.
They were just freaked out.
They were like, you're going to go with some guy to India.
I was like, yeah, it's going to be sick, dude.
It's going to be super sick, for a month,
right when school started.
Parents were not digging that at all.
And then I was like, you'll talk to the guy.
And it will be totally cool.
You can see where he's coming from and stuff.
THOMAS CAMPBELL: I got in touch with that Alex's father.
And Alex was 16, maybe, when I started.
It wasn't too much longer [INAUDIBLE]
16 when I started talking his father about
going there with us.
And at the time, that country had been in civil war
officially for 100 years.
And there's war in some parts of the country.
And his dad had been in Vietnam.
And he was freaking out on his son going to this place.
Didn't know me.
Was just like, what?
ALEX KNOST: Thomas is a bit of an artist.
My parents are pretty easy going.
But I think them talking to him freaked
them out even more.
They were like, that guy seems totally crazy.
He talks really weird.
He takes forever to talk to.
A lot of long pauses.
THOMAS CAMPBELL: And I just called in the troops, had
everyone I know call him, and vouch for me,
and get it all together.
And then it just barely came together in the end.
And then finally happened.
ALEX KNOST: It was really fucking good.
The waves were super sick.
It's good traveling with Thomas.
He's a visionary.
He definitely knows what he wants.
He's like, dude, so good.
There are sharks out there.
He's like, dude, it's totally cool.
You're not going to get eaten by a shark.
Never happens.
Those situations are good.
They add character I guess.
Thomas Campbell, blow all your money on his movies.