Watch: Former’s ‘Defective Units Vol. 2: ‘B-Team’’
While I am somewhat puzzled at the insinuation that Dane, Jake, and Dill are anywhere plausibly near being considered a B team, I’ll allow them their moment of humility.
I guess even the pros get fucked on some garbage waves every now and then, and I take a bit of solace in that. Although, looking at the clips, it’s hard to adhere strictly to their definition of ‘skunked’.
‘Where Vol #1 documented Craig and Benny surviving a month of cold water, wetsuits and a mechanical left pointbreak, Vol #2 sits at the other end of the spectrum, Featuring Dane Reynolds, Jake Kelley and Dillon Perillo on another semi-skunked surf trip to Puerto Rico. Warm water, trunks, beers and a variety of waves. The surfing is fun and relatable and the waves are inconsistent and imperfect. But that is the story, and that’s DEFECTIVE UNITS. This is series that documents the process, not just the outcome. ‘B-Team’ is three good friends on a surf trip together grinding through whatever it takes.’
This reminds me quite a bit of our beloved (if I do say so myself) series of films, Team Average, the basis of which is essentially: what if we took a few of the world’s best surfers and skaters and made them go somewhere where they likely will not be able to do either of those things? Or actually, perhaps an edit is: what if we took a few of the world’s best surfers and skaters and made them go somewhere where they likely will not be able to do either of those things that well?
We spend a lot of time battling God, assuming God is the one who decides conditions for the day. We pray for se(x)ts, pay thousands of dollars, travel thousands of miles, drink thousands of beers, and all in the hopes of coming across a break that is just right for us - a task that is particularly challenging when placed into the pressure cooker of a video for a brand as esteemed as Farmer (it’d be one thing to travel to Puerto Rico to surf, it’s a whole other thing to travel to Puerto Rico to work at surfing).
But you go all that way and then what? You get skunked. You’re fucked. So what do you do? You do the best you can. You make do. You have blind beer sampling competitions. You get greasy on whatever crumbly shit you can find and rip up whatever face might be up for the ripping. You get the accidental byproduct of the work that is ‘filming for a video’ and the grand sum of our beloved (I said it again!) Team Average.
Fun. You get fun.
When things go great, that’s a bit boring, isn’t it? That’s a bit expected. If you want things to go perfect, enjoy the wave pool, nerd. If you want to have a bit of fun, a bit of something unexpected - something good or bad or happy or sad, shit waves perfect waves, get out into the world. Go to Puerto Rico with your friends and just sort of do it. That’s what they did. That’s what I admire. A team of legends with the God Damn Gall to call themselves the B-Team went out there and did it, and they brought back a bit of fun.
Watch and enjoy.
This is Vol. 2 in a series leading up to the release of the full Former surf vid out June 2026.
