It’s nearly impossible to overstate how remarkable this Maui crew is. For over a decade now, their airs and big wave bravado trump anything and everything that’s happening in surfing. A lot of people watch and applaud, but for some reason that I’m yet to identify, Albee and Matt never seem to get the universal lauding nor industry support that so many lesser surfers have lived on for years. Each year they do more rotations, add amplitude to their airs, and knife in more critically at Jaws, and Rainbows In The Rearview sets the new standard. Enjoy!
Stab Mag published the film on their YouTube channel. Here’s their write up:
Albee Layer fits no mold. Let’s start by scratching comp guy off the list. According to the WSL’s website, he’s competed in only one non big-wave event since 2011. Speaking of big waves, Albee’s quite good in them. He was nominated for the WSL Big Wave Awards Ride Of The Year in 2016 for getting barreled at Jaws—and that was before people were really getting barreled at Jaws. But you can’t call him a big wave guy, because he’s been the first to land a handful of airs that the rest of the world’s surfers are still struggling to figure out. Then he’s a freesurfer? Kinda. Except a lot of them rely on an image catered to the trends of the day, and Albee often jokes about not being “one of the cool kids.” So, truly, he exists on an island. That island is called Maui and it is the location in which Albee’s new film, Rainbows In The Rearview, was shot. We say “Albee’s new film” because he legitimately edited it. It features Albee alongside Matt Meola, Tanner Hendrickson, Torrey Meister, Kai Barger, and Tyler Larronde. The action is A+ and there are shots so beautiful they’ll make you want to quit everything, move to Maui, buy a van, and annoy each of the aforementioned surfers. RITRV comes in at nearly forty minutes long, and includes the footage from the wave Meola claims makes him “more terrified than Jaws.” Yeah, don’t miss that end section.
