A Conversation with Dylan Graves

On Weird Waves, the absurdity of surf trips, charming the algorithm "kook" and the evolution of his surfing career.

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Dylan Graves’ latest film “The Absurdity of Scoring Good Waves [a surf comedy]” — which is  a video essay of sorts — discusses the ridiculous nature of what we do (chase waves around the planet) backdropped by an epic "somewhere in Africa” score.  

What caught my eye about the film was that 17 or so years ago I might have gone on one of the most absurd surf missions of all-time with Dylan.

We had somehow convinced the boss at Surfing Magazine to let us do a magazine trip through Europe taking trains from Portugal all the way north to Scotland — stopping anywhere we could to surf or sightsee (Hossegor, London, San Sebastián, Paris, Scotland, etc)…Our surfing version of a “Euro Trip.” I thought it was brilliant. “On a Rail” we would call it.

The funniest and most absurd part of this seemingly good idea is that all of us, media bros included — oh, and we had also convinced the boss to let Scott Chenoweth our art director come as well — all brought coffin-sized WQS warrior sized boardbags alone — which would inhibit just about every move we made across the Old World. “It is not possible, sir” is the only thing we heard fro two weeks when getting on a train. I remember we developed a strategy of running in, dropping a board bag in one car and running to sit in another car before anyone would notice. It kinda worked. But was pandemonium getting on.

We had many epic triumphs and fails on that journey, but even with all the amazing “Weird Wave” trips and epic scores he’s had, Dylan still says that one still stands out as a favorite memory. 

Not a day goes by that I don't think about that trip and the absurd nature of it, so after watching his new vid about surfing absurdity, I called Dylan and we talked about how he’s been able to thrive in so many variations of the surf media landscape: from QS warrior to photo pro to YouTube star. His Weird Waves spinoff is underway and already thriving. —Travis Ferré

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Inherent Bummer: What have you been doing since we went to Europe on our train trip? [laughing]. Do you ever think about that trip?

Dylan Graves: Oh yeah, all the time. I think we should redo that trip actually, just to see what it's like now. That was such a unique trip — and doing all of Europe by rail with coffin board bags. I was still competing on the QS then, so I had my QS board bag and was wrestling that on and off every single rail line across Europe. I feel like we should go back and do it with a single board or two board bag and see what that's like…can’t believe we had such big bags [laughs]. 

I had such a good time. I love missions in general — I  think that goes hand in hand with surfing and what it's all about. We slept on the streets of Paris, walked through London, went to the Eiffel Tower at two in the morning, made it to Scotland...scored a few times.

Yeah, I remember we found a hotel that would store our board bags in Paris for the night, but they were like, "But we don't have rooms for you." So we headed out into that good night, got in a cab and went to the Eiffel Tower and slept outside before we caught the train to London en route to Scotland. 

That sticks out in my mind so much. I find that the harder and almost crummier a surf trip is, the more it stands out in your mind, the more you're influenced by it. Now I find myself seeking hardships or something.

You've made a profession out of that the last 10-15 years. You've made it so hard on yourself chasing “Weird Waves.”

I think that [On a Rail] trip was pivotal in influencing what I'm doing now, for sure. I got a taste of that — me breaking my hand the first day and everything. That's what made the trip for me. It stands out so much more in my head than trips that just go perfectly.

That trip is all life memories, not just wave memories.

Yeah, fully.

Your most recent video felt like a culmination of your voice — I love the video essay format you've really owned recently. What made this new one stand out? Did you go into it with a different philosophy?

Yeah, I did. As I've been doing these videos, I think I could compare it to what you're doing now [with Substack]. It's just an excuse to create and write something, sharpen your tools of production and everything I've learned over all the different projects I've been involved with through my surf career. My channel now is sort of a culmination of all of that.