When the news broke a few weeks back of a Tom Curren/Rip Curl video project filmed entirely in Mex and under a strict COVID lockdown, our minds wandered about a bit.

Which Tom Curren were we going to get?

One of the most stylish high-performance surfers of a generation, or the mad scientist on a skimboard?

That question is quickly answered as Tom drops into his first wave and the familiar effortless grace is applied to an out of the way point break deep in Mexico’s mainland.

Damn it was good to see him on some modern equipment.

But something else happened.

Surfing looked fun again.

Uniquely captured by filmer Andy Potts, we see a candid Tom Curren both in the water and out. Long one of surfing’s elusive enigmas, in ‘scrubber we get a glimpse into Tom’s inner world but we also see a regular guy just out surfing some fun warm water runners. The fact that the “guy” is a former world champion, and one of the few who have defined an era, doesn’t hurt, but Tom’s surfing in this film doesn’t necessarily steal the limelight.

Is there surfing being presented today of a higher performance quota? Are there young up-and-comers popping huge airs as we speak? Is there surfing in wave pools of which might be more interesting to some?

Of course there is but there is also something so simple about Tom and his whole approach to life that come out in the brilliant editing by Nick Pollet and Vaughan Blakey.

Scrounging around for discarded flotsam on the beach, picking off an inside wedge on the way back out, kicking out of a perfectly good wave for no apparent reason, playing an electric keyboard on the beach, all of it, is just so authentically spontaneous and is, we feel, a big part of what makes this film so watchable.

Free Scrubber simply captures a pure essence of surfing that is so often overlooked these days.

Thanks Tom and crew.

What Youth