The Zone | Derrick Disney

The Birth of the Tripod

Derrick and I had been on a few trips and were starting to collect some footage for my upcoming film, THE ZONE. I love the fact that Derrick, for the most part, rides boards that he had hand shaped from start to finish. Above that, his freethinking way of experimenting with different equipment is what is really intriguing about Diz. This one board, in particular, was a 7-foot single fin that was very versatile and a great board to have on a trip. Whether it was 1 foot or 10 foot, this board seemed to be a “go-to” board for Derrick.

It was a prior trip to Baja I began to notice that there was something more that this board had, but what was it? I couldn’t figure it out. Derrick surfed the board extremely well, and after multiple surfs it seemed as though none of the clips were that exciting to me. At that time I was just starting to experiment with finless surfing, it was fresh, new, and exciting to me. To hug the water and stay compressed throughout a ride was a new rush, a completely different high to wave riding. On this trip I had seen Diz do a couple swooping bottom turns that really caught my attention, but right after he would return right back up to a full vertical traditional approach on the wave. Then it hit me, maybe if Diz stayed compressed while going through these turns the effect might be something different. I brought up the idea after a couple surfs, kind of like a surf coach, enthusiastically explaining my idea to Derrick, he agreed, and gave it a spin the following day. This was it!! We were just laughing at how much fun it was, Diz really enjoyed it, and I felt the board just came to life that session! Because of three points of contact on the deck of the board, that was the beginning of what we coined, “Tripoding”.

Fast forward, to our trip to Jeffrey’s Bay. Derrick had brought 4 boards, and the trusty old 7’0 single fin was one of them. After a week of fun mid size surf, mostly riding a fish, a swell hit. This was the “Blue Moon” swell of the winter; the town was buzzing with excitement and anticipation. Derrick and I both knew that to go out on a fish would be a problem; it was time for the 7’0 to do her duty. That Night we talked about our prior trip into Baja, and how much fun Tripoding was, it was on! Every time it got over 6 feet, it was tripod time. Everyone in the Bay was just loving Derrick’s unique approach using the Tripod, by the end of our stay there they were believers. I knew we had embarked on a New approach to wave riding, it was quite a life changing trip for the both of us. Derrick’s section in the movie is one of my favorite parts in the making of the film, a collab between surfer and filmer that I will Never forget. - Jack Coleman

Stay tuned for Bryce Young's part in The Zone Surf Movie...