Ian Crane is the best professional surf buddy you could ever wish for. He’s been a part of some iconic moments in surfing in his generation, and at this point you could call him a well-seasoned professional. He’s seen enough to have some wits about him, but still has the froth of a 16 year old on their first trip outside of the US without their parents. Crane will always be hyped to dive into whatever, wherever, with whomever, and will always by your hype man. He’s not the guy that’s on your inside on the set of the day, but rather the one that’s hollering you into the best waves while he blows your mind on all the ones in between.

I’ve been on one of my most memorable trips with Crane and can say that he’s a a top candidate for trip MVP with any crew and any location across the world. He was built for things like O’Neill’s Strike Mission series.

I recently surfed O-side with Ian and his buddy Griffo from New Zealand. After every wave I got Ian was more psyched than I was for me to get another one. It was a rather average day, but Ian and Griffo made it look like the perfect summer playground. The sets would come pouring in and the boys would be yelling at each other each time. It felt like I was on a surf trip in all the best ways. If you see Ian in the water he’ll probably try and give you the next wave, but do yourself a favor and just sit back and watch. -Brandon

Photos by Grant Ellis + Ian Crane

INHERENT BUMMER:

Let’s talk about Hurricane Hilary. Where'd you end up that day?

IAN CRANE:

I woke up at 3:55am and I had packed my car already the night before and I had a 6’6”, a 6’2”, a 6’0” and a 5’8” and three wetsuits. I was ready for anything! I was on the beach at Newport Point in the dark and there was already maybe 35 to 40 people in the water before you could even see and a hundred people lining the sand and a steady stream one by one of people paddling out. I probably watched that for an hour and just got discouraged and then I went and surf 56th Street around 8/8:30 finally. I kind of gave up on it and just surfed with my cousins and didn't try anymore. It got so overwhelming with the crowd and everything that I had more fun stopping than trying to fighting it. I gave up and just rode some waves and it was fun, but I didn't get barrelled.

I sort of had a similar situation but I didn't try at all. Just got some average waves around HB, but then when I saw a bunch of people getting good waves, I had such bad FOMO. I saw everyone posting that afternoon or the next day and I just kind of felt sick from it like I blew it. Haha

I got one little barrel, so I was happy, but it was just kind of fun. It was a holiday, it felt like Christmas or something. Everyone was out and about and on the beach and it was raining. I don't know, it was fun to be a part of, but I'm glad I didn't take it too serious. If you took it too serious that day, you definitely would've had a fucking terrible mind fuck meltdown with how much was going on. It was just too overloaded. It's crazy. There's that many surfers around here and I mean, it makes sense. There's a fucking swell. Everyone's frothing, so why wouldn't you try and surf the best spot you can.

Was that your first surf since your injury?

I surfed the first time on Saturday before the swell, then the Hurricane Hilary was Sunday, so I was still kind of scared of the waves anyway, so I wasn't too freaked out about getting a big barrel.

Tell me about your injury. What exactly did you do?

Well, I hurt myself on that Morocco trip that the stuff was shot for, so I only got hurt the second day of the trip, so I didn't even really surf. I don't think I have a clip in that video other than me getting hurt. So I got hurt and that was early March. I did my Lisfranc, and so I had to get a plate put into the top of my foot and it was like a pizza holder. It was so gross. It was hollow in the middle and there's like four corners and each corner is screwed into a different bone. And it was basically like an internal brace holding up my arch and all my, little bones and tendons supporting it all while the main ligaments healed. And then I had that in for four months and I was able to surf at the end of the four months and then I went back into surgery and got all the metal pulled and I'm just getting back in the water now from that.

What were you doing that caused you to hurt?

I was in a shoulder high almondy backside barrel and I fell forward in the barrel. And then, I don't know, how many times you just dive off the front of your board in a little barrel and my front foot got stuck in my wax. My toes folded over the top of my foot and it just folded in half. My whole body weight went over my toes, snapped, that whole mid-foot fractured four bones and tore all the ligaments in there.

““My toes folded over the top of my foot and it just folded in half.””

Your foot folded in half when you did it?

I mean it wasn't altered, it wasn't hanging weird or anything. It was just pretty fat and really sore and then it started to show bruising and I think that's how you can tell there's ligament damage when there's bruising or something like that or you know it's really fucked up if it's bruised. So the bottom of my foot was starting to bruise and get swollen, so I kind of knew it was bad. And then the x-rays showed it was broken but it was tough with the language barrier. So we had some really cool local surfers take good care of me and they were calling in favors of friends and they had people meet us at the hospital for translating and they took such good care of us. Their whole surf community there is so tight and I dunno, they kept saying, “oh, if we don't look after each other, who's going to fucking help us out?” Kind of like their motto. They're really supportive and it's a tight surf culture there and they kind of hook each other up. So I thought that was pretty sick.

Do you think if your big toe wasn't so big that maybe it wouldn't have happened?

Dude, I got so hammer-toed! Cursed and blessed. It honestly might've been the wax. I waxed my board so hard before that session. I remember because I'd been wearing booties, I was like, I'm not wearing booties so I have to wax my board crazy so I don't slip. And it worked. I didn't slip!

Did you have to go to the doctors there or were you kind of just like, I'm hosed, I'm going to go just get on a flight and go home?

I went to the doctor that night and then got x-rays and then found out it was broken and then from there I just went home and then got all the medical stuff done at home.

That's a bummer about your foot, but glad you're better now.

The O'Neill team have been doing a bunch of these strike missions all over the world. Who went on this one with you to Morocco?

Yeah, O’Neill has been doing a lot of really cool surf trips and I've been lucky to go on a lot of 'em. This trip to Morocco was myself Rasta Robb, Eli Beukes, and then it was just us three and then I got hurt and then Torrey Meister came after I'd left already. He was already in Europe somewhere and he came over for a swell. I think they went to a different part in Morocco than where we were at first and they scored some sick waves and the kid, Gui I haven't met him yet, but he was a ripper from Portugal and so they flew over together and scored a secondary swell after we were there for the first part. And then the guys that obviously work for O’Neill there as well, like Jacob Vanderwork, Grant Ellis and everyone from the brand, Evan, JJ and Deke.

Was that your first time going to Morocco?

I'd been to Morocco once before. I did a QS there and I stayed with Pat Gudauskas. I did terrible in the event, I think Pat did alright, but I lost first round. We ended up getting a random swell that popped up while we were there and scored such sick waves. And so I was really excited to go back and surf some of the waves that we had gotten before and surf new waves that you obviously see in other videos. And Morocco's a super sick place. It's so beautiful and the culture's pretty cool and it's just kind of raw and big right points and it's a pretty sick spot to adventure around, so I was excited to go back a second time.

“we just would drive down the road and pull over and paddle out and it’d be like the sickest wave and no one would be out. I was like, “What the fuck? Morocco’s insane!””

What would you say was the biggest expectation vs. reality your first time going?

I didn't really have too much of an expectation. I just showed up for the first time and it ended up being super sick. And then I guess this second trip with O'Neill, my expectations were really high because we went randomly for a contest the first trip and scored waves that were really fun every day. And then it was almost like we had been hustling already it felt like to find waves. We went for a swell, but it already wasn't as good as the time I went before, so I just always thought Morocco was just straight up firing, just always because we scored for no reason the first time when I was there for a contest without doing any research or anything, we just would drive down the road and pull over and paddle out and it'd be like the sickest wave and no one would be out. I was like, “What the fuck? Morocco's insane!” And so I think it was almost like a rude awakening that it's kind of like everywhere else where you have to be there on the right days to score and the in-between days are fun, but anything, if you have too high of an expectation, you're probably going to get let down like Hurricane Hilary (laughs).

I know you're only there for a day and a half or something, but what do you think was the craziest thing you saw in the water on that trip?

I mean the craziest thing I saw was our first morning we were frothing, we paddled out pretty much in the dark and it was the prettiest sunrise ever. And I thought that was pretty sick. It was insane. Insane fire sunrise and the offshore winds and I don't know, there's definitely just a lot of raw beauty in Morocco and I thought that was probably the coolest thing I saw in the water.

That and Rasta Robb and Eli Beukes are the bruise brothers! Sending air for air into oblivion!

What was the best thing you saw outside of the surf?

There was this one dude that was super classic and he kind of sold everything. He's just this vendor at the point and he wasn’t at one wave or one spot, he was everywhere always. You couldn't not run into this one dude and he would be selling tea or coffee or beanies or ponchos or changing mats or fucking hash (laughs). Everything and anything! This guy was just there with whatever you could possibly want, and whether you wanted it or not, he was selling it to you and you couldn't tell this guy no. He's the best salesman in the world and he is always fucking there on your ass. So we'd buy a beanie one day and the next day a changing mat and the next day of fucking Tootsie roll (laughs). The guy was just like, he made so much money off us.

Who was the MVP of the trip?

That guy was pretty sick and then I don't know, out of our crew, Rasta Robb is always pretty MVP ish. He comes in with that Florida man energy and always produces.

On a scale of 1-10, what would you rate the quality and variety of waves that you guys scored?

I'm going to say a fucking 2. I got one session in and then I broke my foot so I didn't really get to experience much. I was there probably a total of three days and surfed one and a half days, so I didn't really get a full experience.

Would you like to go back and would you go to the same places or would you go to somewhere new?

I mean, yeah, I'd love to go back. Surf traveling is the coolest and going to new places is sick, but rounding the bases and going to back to places you've been and seeing familiar faces is always fun. So I'd be stoked to go back to Morocco and try and score again.

Out of the couple trips you've done there now, what would you say is a must see or must do for someone when they go to Morocco?

I just think the culture's pretty cool and the food, the gins or whatever, those little crockpot, little personal crockpot things where you got the almond honey chicken and all the flavors and the teas and how they pour it all high up and the dates and weird kind of street markets. It just really feels like you're in a foreign place, which is cool. It's not like going somewhere and you kind of feel like you're still in the States. It's like you're definitely traveling when you go there. So I thought that's kind of a cool perk of the place.

I've heard that a lot of people that go to Morocco, they come back and they become these tea connoisseurs all of a sudden.

Yeah, they're big on tea. I didn't really go too big in the tea when I was there, but next time I'll get the bug.

Alright, if you got to choose the next strike mission for O'Neill, where would you pick and why?

Fuck. I don't know, maybe New Zealand because I know a cool kid named Griffo. From there, he'd hook us up with some inside info.

Is there a wave over there you have always wanted to surf?

I've never been to New Zealand and I've always wanted to surf Raglan just because it's a left point and I’m goofy so it’s kind of dream. But then, I don't know, it just looks really pretty and a lot of other waves around too.

Ever since Cory Lopez section in 5’5’’ x 19 1/4” at Raglan?

Yeah, the Cory Lopez part at Raglan is the sickest.