You can watch more footage of Asher at atthebeach.tv.  Thank you Danka and Youthless for the great music.  Video filmed and edited by Luke Thorpe

Chicama, Peru May 21- June 1

On our first film trip to Peru we scored!  After a week of head high waves for the Billabong ‘Surf With A Pro’ Surf Camp with Peter Mendia we noticed a nice swell on the forcast.  Luckily Pete and the crew of campers were able to extend their trip for a few days to experience the worlds longest left in all its glory.  The wave peeled for over 500 yards with every type of section imaginable.  Open face sections for carves, steep sections and even long tube sections.  Thank you to Miguel, Carlos, Christian and the whole crew at the Chicama Surf Resort for forcing us to live like kings at Peru’s premiere surf club.  You can now watch the full edit of the surf trip!

I am at the airport waiting for a flight to Peru for a week with Peter Mendia and a new crew of campers.  The next chapter begins! Photos and updates from Peru coming soon. Enjoy the videos -Luke

Relaxing at lunchtime

It feels like summer already here in Jacksonville, Florida.  The water is warm and the sun is shining!  I spent the past month filming and editing this years Billabong’s ‘Surf With A Pro’ Fantasy Surf Camps.  It is a dream job traveling to exotic surf spots with legends like Mike Parsons and Donavon Frankenreiter.  I spend my days meeting new people and documenting the rides of their lives.  If you every have the opportunity to attend one of these Billabong Trips I highly reccommend you do.

Once the camp trips are completed there are thousands of ‘surf clips’ that need to be identified and prepared in order to produce ‘Surf Trip DVDs’.  With so many surf stars on the trips (15-20 campers) it is a lot of work to organize all the materials and create a dvd that features every surfer in their own segment with their favorite song.  This brings me to today when I am finally finishing up the videos!  I can honestly say that despite a lot of long days in front of the computer it is rewarding to create these Surf Films.  The surfers are always stoked and the great memories will last them a lifetime!  (You can check out some of the recap videos from the camps at our youtube channel  Monumental Films On Youtube)

While working on this years footage I also created a new music video for Donavon Frankenreiter’s song ‘Hold On’.  This video is something I have wanted to do for years.  It is a pure Surf Video showing all the best surf clips from our travels the past few years.  Coincidentally most of the footage is fresh from this years trip!  Marcela Cussolin was the photographer on the trip and I was super impressed by her photos.  I am also very thankful that she put together the cover for Donavon’s music video!  Besides the standard 7d Marcela worked with some fun old school film cameras that produce effects you cant find on photoshop.  (you can check out her website aletizaphoto.com)

Back to editing for me.  I hope to have these dvds done before leaving to Peru May 20-28 for a week trip to Chicama with Billabong Team Rider Peter Mendia.  Still a few spots available on the trip so if you want to get the longest left of your life (on film) then join us! -lt

When we first discovered Vaca Beach in El Salvador it was literally covered with trash. This video is about what we have don the past 4 years to improve the situation at this beach and others like it in El Salvador. Thanks You to everyone who does their part to make the world a cleaner healthier place. Film by Luke Thorpe (www.monumentalfilms.com) Thanks Rick Kuykendall (www.beinvisible.org) Music by Gabe Gomez (www.gabegomexmusic.com) Josh Harper (www.billabongcamps.com) Rodrigo Barraza (http://federacionsalvadordesurf.blogspot.com/). See you at the beach!