Project Benji

Everyone knows that Benji Weatherley is a professional surfer; he came into the spotlight with sections in some of Taylor Steele’s first movies and his image has been plastered on magazine after magazine.  But as Benji has matured he has been able to recognize that being a good surfer is not always enough to ensure a successful career.  He has been able to market himself as a personality who can use his incredible surf talent as an addition to his ability to entertain.  His latest venture plans on fusing both of those characteristics to create a surf project that will be enjoyable to a broad spectrum of board riders.  In this interview, Benji discusses his thoughts on the future and gives some advice that he has gleaned from his past. I sat down with Benji Weatherley at Un's Hotel in Bali, Indonesia. It was halftime of game six of the NBA finals and we were in the midst of an unexpected flat spell.


SurfShot: You live a life that most people can only dream of. Tell me what's been happening in the life of Benji Weatherley?
Weatherley: Yeah, well for one I'm very blessed and very grateful. For the last six months I've been working on a project, it's called Project Benji (laughs) I guess, it's kind of like Project Runway but... it's the Benji project actually… it's still a working title. It's about crossover sports like surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and music. And we might even throw in a couple more sports, but right now it's just those. And we're doing a trip to Indonesia, the ultimate surf island trip, New Zealand, the ultimate snow, surf, and skate trip with Heli-boarding and Heli-surfing and all kinds of extreme stuff, and then we're gonna go to Japan for the final trip with man-made stuff, like man-made waves, man-made snowboard parks and skate parks. It will be a whole show, it's a TV show we're building, it's gonna be kind of like the Drive Thru feel where everyone kind of hangs out together and you get to see the behind the scenes kind of thing with me as a host and we'll have music, fun, and crap. It should be pretty interesting. We already had the first trip go down and we scored; we had the best time ever, so it's a good start, we're 50 percent of the way done.

S: So tell me a little more about how that trip went, where was it to, who went, etc.?
W: We went to the Kandui Island Resort, which is a new resort. We were actually the first people to ever stay there. They just built the place and it was amazing. We had an all-star crew. From Tosh Townsend, a pro skateboarder, to JP Walker, a professional snowboarder, to Jack Johnson, music, to Tom Carroll, Kalani Robb, Yadin Nichol, Rizal, Ross Williams, and myself, we were the surfers. We had jet skis, and canoes, just really probably the most rootsy surf trip you could ever go on. Just the ultimate little deserted island with perfect waves. The bungalows that we slept in were hand-made by the people on the island, and the canoes that took us surfing were made out of trees from the island. I mean it was pretty much as rootsy and as real as you could dream up. It was the ultimate surf trip in anybody's mind I think.

S: How did you get a crew like that together, and how did you coordinate everyone's schedules when they were coming from different sports and different backgrounds?
W: Yeah, coordinating the group is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life just because we had probably four people who were originally on board but got switched out at the last minute … it ended up being that at the very last minute we tried to get people who could hang out. People who could really just hang out and be friends right away. And we scored with Tosh and JP who are the most down to earth guys. Jack's music, it was gonna be Jim Lindberg from Pennywise, and Jack came in at the last minute and it ended up being perfect because obviously Jack's music is all about a little island with the vibe and stuff. So it was a pretty hard to organize, but everyone was excited and I'm lucky enough to have friends who believed in what I was doing. Basically, I told them that it was going to be the trip of their lives and they had to believe me and they did, and I'm pretty sure they're all satisfied.

S: So was that one of the better trips of your life, of the past year? How would you rate it?
W: I'd rate it, for me I'd say that it was the best trip ever just for the shear fact that it was the first project that I've ever headlined. It's all the friends that I've always dreamt of bringing on a trip, all my best friends. I mean, I had lifeguard friends doing rescue on the trip, with jet skis and stuff, and they were people that I always wished I could go on a surf trip with, and they got to be there for my birthday and all kinds of crazy things went down on the island. Jack played music with local kids, and it ended up being the dream trip. I mean it wasn't the best surf trip of my life, I didn't have these incredible surfs where it was Taylor Steele footage time, but it was more of like my trip. For me, the ultimate surf trip is not waking up at 6 a.m. and having to do a 10-foot air. For me, that sucks. I just want to hang out with my friends and go get barreled, and carve, you know. More cruisey, and that's what the trip was all about for me. So it was pretty much headlining one of my best trips for sure.

S: So the idea for the trip was kind of an offshoot of the Drive Thru series?
W: I mean we didn't want that, but at the same time it's our bread and butter. It's the same people who do it, but it's on a grander scale with 16mm film. We have HD television recorders, high definition cameras, so the quality is gonna be straight up the best extreme show ever made without being cocky or stupid. We’re the first people to ever shoot this kind of HD stuff. It's more like we're trying to make it the ultimate Drive Thru in my mind. We're trying to do something different with the way that we shot it, and the way the interviews are, but the Drive Thru series, to me, is something that we should really be proud of and I have no problem saying it's an offspring of that.

S: Was the Drive Thru series originally your idea?
W: No, actually I'm a bandwagon Drive Thru guy. It's an idea that Greg Browning originally came up with and it just... I got invited on the first one and I kind of flaked out and didn't really do it because I was busy and didn't think much of it. And then I thought more about it and thought that it was a good idea and they invited me on the second one to Japan. It was just one of those things where I didn't have a choice. I'm born to be on a Drive Thru, because, for some reason, it's exactly what comes naturally to me. Donavon is another Drive Thru member for life. I'm super stoked to be a part of it.

S: Are you not going to be involved with the next Drive Thru because you're working on your project?
W: No, they told me that there was really no Drive Thru without Donavon and myself. I mean that's what Fuel and all the Drive Thru producers said. So I hope that I'm on forever but we were supposed to do the East Coast this year but we put it on hold to do my project. Which is good because I think that in the middle of all the Drive Thrus we needed to mix it up and make something different. I think this is the ultimate because Tosh Townsend loves the Drive Thrus, he's a pro skateboarder. JP loves the Drive Thrus too. But, the skaters and snowboarders, I'm sure they are tired of just seeing us. So I've always wanted to do something with more than just surfing and this is it, the ultimate Drive Thru, we're gonna see the number one artist, the number one skater, the number one snowboarder, and everybody having a good time. When you just see Donavon and I making jokes, every once in a while you kind of want to maybe see something else. This is definitely the next level.

S: Where is your project going to be released and where are you going to market it?
W: Worldwide. More than anything it's actually a pilot being shot. We're selling it to networks and we have such a wide spectrum of people on this trip as far as the viewers go that we're hoping that a big network will pick it up. Right now we're in the market so we'll shoot for the stars and see where it goes, but it's not bad to be on Fuel because that's where all of us come from and where we should be headed, no matter what.

S: Tell me about growing up surfing and how you've been able to put yourself in the kind of position that you're in right now?
W: Well, I was lucky enough to grow up in Hawaii. No matter who you are, as a kid it's hard to make it in pro surfing if you're not from a spot that's well known. I was lucky enough to be like a 10 or 12-year-old kid surfing with Ross Williams and Shane Dorian and all those guys. They were just a few years older but just that three year gap made it where all I had to do was follow in their footsteps. You know I'd see them do this and would be like, “Well if they can do it, then I can do it.” And if you don't have that it's hard. I mean I see these kids from different places of the world and they're like "How do you make it? How do you get started?" And it's hard. You can go on the NSSA Explorer thing for the rest of your life, and nothing will ever happen. It's all about realizing what the whole animal is, and the whole animal is marketability. If you want to be a pro surfer it's not about going out and winning heat after heat after heat. I mean, sometimes that will sell it, sometimes that will give you Quiksilver or someone will sponsor you for a little bit of money, and you may be on the ASP tour, if you're winning contests, but to really be marketable you really have to have more than just a couple of off the tops to the beach. You got to understand that you’re going out and doing stuff that kids want to buy ... I mean if a kid wants to surf like you then that's when you're gonna get paid. If you're just out there and you win every heat and the kid's like, "Yeah, he can win every heat, but I could give a rat's ass what he's wearing, or what he's doing." That's what you have to focus on as a kid. You have to go, “I'm gonna be an individual, I'm gonna be...” whether it's humorous, whatever it is that comes natural, just go out and do that. I was lucky enough to do a couple of those things. You just have to be grateful, and get along with people. You have to understand that they go hand in hand. You could be the best surfer to ever walk the face of the earth in your hometown, but once you travel, if you're quiet, if you're really nervous, and not confident, and don't really surf well in all those conditions, it's going to show. And that's the main thing when you're a kid growing up -- if you don't know how it works you'll be passed right on by. There are so many kids out there who want to take your spot. It's a rough living, but at the same time, if you make, it's the best.

S: Do you still go to Hawaii every year?
W: Yeah. My whole family lives over there. We own a restaurant over there and I'd like to go more than two or three months a year but I can't because I travel so much, have a house in California, and have so much going on now that two or three months is all that I get. It's so extreme nowadays and I'm at a point where I can make my living without having to go out to Pipeline and battle for that one barrel at Backdoor to get the photo. Everyone kind of sets your life around that so I used to do that and now it's nice not to have to.

S: You've been able to reinvent your image and style over time. How has that kept you marketable and where do you get the motivation to always change with the times?
W: My friends work harder now than they did when they came up. The Slaters, Dorians, Blink 182, everyone. Every time they make something, you have to already be thinking that it's the worst album or surf section that you could make and it's kind of lame, because that way you're never really satisfied. But at the same time, if you’re satisfied with what you’re doing then you're pretty much done for. You have to go into trips thinking that you have to do the best you've ever done. You can't just have an attitude that you can just breeze through. I have to try and surf like a 15-year-old kid, if he's doing a three-foot air and I think it looks stupid, I still have to do it. You can't say that you’re better than that. You have to evolve. When I came up I just wanted to surf like Tom Curren, but now I know that you also have to mix in the airs and everything else.

S: Are there any places you haven't been that you would like to go to?
W: Yeah, I really want to go to the Philippines. In that area there are a couple of waves that are unpopulated and private. I really want to exploit everywhere on earth (laughs). No just kidding. I'm really excited, I just got two jet skis in Bali and we're really going to start exploring and finding new waves. I just want to go to a place and surf with no humans because I just got back from the Mentawais and there are like 50 boats now. When I first went there, there were only three.

S: You've been pretty much everywhere in the world and have seen the direction that surfing is going, but where do you like to be and what type of surfing do you like to focus on?
W: I love what's happening right now. I've never been more stoked on surfing. To see Taylor's new movie Campaign 2 where, yeah, maybe we're getting towed in with a jet ski here and there, just to be able to push the level that much higher because you have a jet ski you have to do it. It's silly to always use jet skis because it takes away from the purity of catching waves, but the way that people are learning to do airs from getting whipped in. Five years ago you would never try a five-foot air on a five-foot wave, but that's where surfing has been going and now you have to do that. The level is exciting to me, and the level is so high now that I'm really worried that people are gonna start dying. Watching his new movie almost makes me want to quit because it's like, how are you supposed to keep up with that shit? It's exciting to be a part of it.

S: You’re helping to push a lot of the younger kids from the San Diego area towards developing their skills, tell me a little bit about the contest that you put on.
W: Yeah, its only a one day contest so I don't know how involved people will get with it, but I just want everybody to get involved with the grom surf scene. The scene in Australia and other places is so good for the kids. There are all these divisions, and in San Diego it seems like the kids are so separated from the adult surfers. Rob Machado does an unbelievable job, but his event is so extremely big that you don't even get to hang out with Rob. I just want to have the Irons again, the Hobgoods, and everybody come down to Encinitas. It’s such a good opportunity for the kids to see pro surfers, because usually no pro surfers come to San Diego to surf. Because when you surf with a pro, no matter who you are, your surfing gets better. You see it done and you start to believe that you can do it. To see the kids in Encinitas get that sort of opportunity is something I'm proud of. I think we're going to do it on Sept. 9, 10, or 11 and we're going to be giving out a car. It gives the kids something that they can drive off in instead of just handing them a trophy.

S: Any parting words of wisdom?
W: Yeah, let's build a jetty in San Diego that is angled right for those closeout south swells (laughs). Is there any other jetty that we can build to make a decent wave in San Diego? Everybody donate money to SurfShot to build the jetty. We're gonna do it in Coronado and we'll have a perfect peeling point break with offshores.  That’ll be the new WCT event, Coronado Island 2008.