Often when I sit and scribe out the Deus Bali Blog that provides you with your daily fix of our island life, I find myself verbally painting up all of these pictures for your head to enjoy. The main reason I do this is that if I didn’t, you may not believe our everyday life and constant drive to conform from the norm. So, when I was presented with the task of documenting our good friend Ryan Burch’s time in Bali, I thought to myself, “Let’s do an old fashioned interview, and pretend we’re normal.”
So without further adieu, Ryan Burch…
Us- How old are you?
Him- 23.
Us – Hmmm, a young pup.
Him- Maybe you’re an old guy.
Us – Touché.
Us – How many years have you been shaping boards now? And, what started the desire to take matters into your own hands so to speak?
Him- About four years now for the shaping aspect, and it all came about when the shaper who was shaping my short boards wanted nothing to do with the request to shape me a long board. So, I figured I would get a blank, post up in my friends shaping bay and have a crack at it.
Us- And how’d that fair for yah?
Him- Good, for the first try.
Us- Where do you grab your influences?
Him- Hmmm, anything really, shapes and curves of everyday life I guess. I started getting into the asymmetrical style of shaping after I saw a coffee table.
Us- Really, a coffee table?
Him- Yah but it was shaped by Carl Ekstrom.
Us- Well, there you go.
Us- You a “Black Sabbath” man?
Him- Hell yah…
Us- Good…
Us- Now I know you’re a bit of a self-proclaimed pizza aficionado, have you dabbled in any of Bali’s pizzerias?
Him- Nah I’ve had of a bit of a sour stomach. I have poked my head into some spots, but they didn’t look up to my standards. You know I’m a Cardiff “East Coast Pizza” kind of guy…
Us- Well said, well said…
Us- Are you shaping boards for anyone else besides yourself?
Him- Yes for some of my friends, but I primarily surf and surf what I shape…
Us- What was the drive you had for the film “Stoked and Broke”?
Him- It started with my bro Cyrus wanting to do a film together. The first ideas that we had were to get a 3 person pushbike and ride from Canada to the Mexican border surfing all the spots along the west coast.
Us- Damn, that’s a lot of saddle time, let’s hope you had comfortable seats lined up.
Him- Yah, well that kind of fell out and Cyrus, who does “Korduroy Blog” and is a big ‘do it yourself’ kind of guy, liked the idea of building our rickshaws, shaping our own sleds and skating on Sector Nines while camping in bushes and cooking on open fires. All and all it was a 10-day production, 2 on the build out and 8 on the road.
Us- That’s so radical. Did you guys have to fend off hobos for choice sleeping spots on your journey?
Him- Nah, we kind of steered clear of those heavier spots. We would find a good spot, set up our make shift home for the night, cook, crash out then get on down the road come sun up.
Us- Killer. Ryan thanks for your time. You’re on the island for a few months, what are your plans?
Him- Yah just surf, shape, hang here at “The Temple”, and you know, be happy live the dream…
Us- And that sound good to us. Well, there you have it “The world of Ryan Birch”, according to the questions asked…
