PHOTO: Ferré

“Can I just style the movie?” Luke Davis asks us as we review footage high above Coolangatta yesterday afternoon. “I’m thinking combat boots…” Luke is in Australia filming for Reef and What Youth’s rapidly approaching film, Anything Sing, but he’s more interested in talking to us about what’s going on behind the scenes. He’s put in the hard work and is now chipping away at some final clips after having just finished battling a severe case of pneumonia, which left him with a serious bag of antibiotics.

Luke sits around his computer tweaking with beats he’s been messing with between surfs. He has a huge tattoo on his thigh that I don’t remember him having. And several others. Who is the fuck is Luke Davis now? I thought he was an OC kid obsessed with Rihanna, but he’s turning out to be much more. Kai is thinking the same thing. Luke is reminiscing on a recent trip to Morocco with Nate Lawrence and Victor Pakpour when he launches into an assault on Moroccan breakfast:”One hunk of bread, one hardboiled egg…covered in bees. And you’ll go to prison if you drink a beer in public.”

By the end of our afternoon with Luke we had a completely different vision of a kid we thought we’d had a pretty good idea about since he was 12, but between his very candid and pointed theory about the surf world, surfboards, music, tattoos, the industry and women, we quickly realized we’ve had him all wrong. Combine that with his solid forehand arc and we’ve got a recipe for a fucking sick dude we’re psyched to introduce you to. Stay tuned for more as we build to the release of Anything Sing and the premiere tour all along the west coast next month. —Travis