“You can hear it from here, which is a good sign. It’s probably bigger than yesterday.” That’s Koa Rothman hunched over his morning coffee at his lodgings in Tahiti, finding the positive in a sonic warning that would make most of us shudder with fear.
‘This is Livin’ delivers some candid insights into the lives of what appears to be surfing’s ultimate rat pack – a kind of modern Momentum Generation with a fetish for slabs instead of airs. This instalment features Koa Rothman, Eli Olson, Kiron Jabour, Matahi Drollet and Nathan Florence. Dedicated film crews mean we see that there is a banal side to chasing tubes around the world – where you have to buy bread like everyone else or sit around and play the bongos until the tide is just so. None of it seems too stressful, but if you want to join Koa’s posse you’d better be able to make ten-foot Chopes look like a walk in the park.
Rothman is comfortable as the nonchalant, wise-cracking front-man. He doesn’t over-hype the setting or his jet-hopping whimsy, but still presents a way of life we are happy to live vicariously through.