The Riptide Revival Saga
Firstly, this is the story about the production of the Riptide Revival book.
We want everyone to know the monumental amount of bullshit we had to go through to get the Riptide Revival over the line before you buy it. However, If you cant be fucked...
TL;DR - Click the button "view full details" at the bottom of the page.
It was meant to be a piece of piss, a cake walk, a sure thing. I mean, actually think about it... How many photos do you see on the gram and think to yourself "that should have been in print"? So naturally we decided to produce a book for those images to be immortalised, under the assumption that submissions would be flooding our inbox.
However in the current age of social media this book was never meant to survive, let alone see the light of day. Riders were more interested in instant validation and fake dopamine hits, by posting on the gram, so submissions were borderline non existent.
Then you have the cockroaches/flops/Leeches/Gronks/Brands, that are happy to just re-share iphone content who have the audacity to send us a DM asking to promote their brand for free.
So it was a really straight forward fucking idea. Create 1000 copies of a limited edition 1 of 1 book, sell them to the masses, use the profit from the books to create Riptide original Movies that would be uploaded to the Riptide Cinema. People would subscribe, Riptide FINALLY has enough self funded revenue to create exclusive content, repeat the process and be able finally produce something with more substance than a 30 second instagram reel.
Early on, doors opened just enough to tease daylight, there was hope, there was support from good cunts who wanted to see this project get across the line and out to the masses.
Then outta no where, that door was slammed shut without explanation. Promises were made casually and broken professionally. Industry support (lol) never arrived, hence why you'll notice theres only 2 ads within the 200 pages.
Every step forward came with a bill attached—financial, legal, emotional. So after 38 drafts (yeah you read that correctly) 38 FUCKING DRAFTS, revisions, instructions that weren't fucken followed. Finally, after banging our heads against a wall because of some incompetent, moronic design team, we had come to the point where we asked for 2 copies from the factory so we could see how a final copy would actually look on the stock paper we chose. fast forward and we received 1000 fucking copies on our doorstep.
No approval signed, no documentation to say "yeah i'm happy with the way it looks send all 1000 units". What followed was a full blown emotional rollercoaster, my blood was boiling, abusive phone calls were relentless, breaking inanimate objects seemed randomly normal. What soon followed were tears of devastation, so much time, effort and money just pissed up the wall. However, what really hurt the most was the unshakeable feeling that we had let down the whole bodyboarding community.
One thing about the book that you will notice, is that there are portait and landscape images on the same pages, this is to create an interative experiece, symbolic of changing hands when going right or left on the boog.
The weight of the expectations had really taken its toll on us all, that plus receiving a product we weren't 100% happy with, Riptide once again went on yet another hiatus.
So this is what’s left.
This isn't a victory lap. It's a comeback story(sort of). This is just a product that exists because a select few people refused to give up. A unique 1 of 1 book thats the boog industry hasn't ever seen before, its not a photo annual, it's a celebration of pure grit and grind that embodies what it means to be a bodyboarder. This is the version that made it through when enthusiasm didn’t, when support never showed, when the process became heavier than the product.
You’re not buying optimism.
You’re not buying a fairytale.
You’re buying the scar tissue.
Every copy represents time that wasn’t refunded, energy that wasn’t matched, and a line that wouldn’t be crossed even when it would’ve been easier to fold.
Once these are gone, that’s it—not because demand will explode, but because we're done paying to relive it.
Once again TL;DR... Just Buy the damn book once we've got everything ready ready...
Order the dog by clicking "view full details"
Riptide shop
Riptide Revival Photo Book Bundle
