Basecamp
"An inner dialogue leading up to the filming of Basecamp featuring Max Ascher in the crowded jungle town of Santa Teresa Costa Rica".
I wanted to start filming surf videos and featuring different surfers in Santa Teresa for a while, but a cocktail of my own social anxiety and perfectionism always kept me from doing anything with any of them. Then there was always a twinge of “me not being good enough of a surfer” to even hang with “the crew” of good surfers, a feeling that comes from growing up in Santa Cruz where a 13-year-old would get yelled out of the water for trying to get some waves. Needless to say, it was a rough mental battle to even get the courage to get the process actually started.
I remember when it did. I was sitting at a coffee bar in House of Somos, talking with the head barista and my new best friend (probably because of all the caffeine he was feeding me), Will Shadely. He points at a kid sitting down eating and tells me his name, saying I should go talk to him.
So, I do.
My hands start sweating as I walk up and compliment this senior in high school about the burrito he’s eating and tell him I’d like to film a part with him. He seemed a little in shock but welcomed the whole idea. Next thing I know, we’re targeting all the good days coming up, and I’m throwing my own surfing time in the hat to film someone I just met.
I learned a few things from the experience.
- Don’t let an idea live rent free in my head, let it free. That’s where it want’s to be anyway.
- Just go up and talk to people, in the event they say no, it’s not going to hurt nearly as bad as breaking up with the girl I was with for 3 years.
- Nothing may come from the result of your work, so try to enjoy the process of the work itself.
So, if you haven’t already watched the surf video, here’s some context for the emotional state I was in before filming this one.