Shane Peel’s Snowsurf
Surf Media veteran Shane Peel has spent the last three years making a feature-length documentary about the snowsurfers of Hakuba, Japan. Peel talks subcultural revolution, the maturation of snowboard culture, middle-aged groms and more.
Shane, or “Peely” as he’s known, is a media veteran, with words and imagery in surf publications the world over. Along with a stint in marketing role for Rip Curl, his main source of income for the past decade-plus has come from wave-centric resort development in Indonesia. But Niseko’s heavy snowfall and crew of riders with a unique style they like to call “Snowsurf” [ed: see Issue 12.1] have also held Shane’s attention since he first visited the Japanese island of Hokkaido in the mid-’90s. And three years ago, Shane brought a RED camera and started documenting the scene…