Peter King, also known as PK, has become notoriously known for #Tournotes, a behind-the-scenes Championship Tour series. The former pro-surfer from San Diego has been perusing the scene since his early teens and his relationship with the world's best gains him unlimited access. John John Florence doesn't open up to most but he definitely opens up to PK and #Tournotes allows viewers to bear witness.
Whether he's in the locker room at an event or hanging with athletes on a lay day, he always seems to be in the right place at the right time. Often filmed on an iphone, the raw short-form video series provides the perfect contrast to the live broadcast. Here's PK in his own words:
Proof that Kelly Slater and Sunny Garcia have been going at it since the early 90s.
How it Started
I've been around the surf industry my whole life. I grew up in La Jolla at Windansea Beach. When you grow up at the beach, you grow up with a lot of different generations of people around. You have 27 father figures. My mom taught photography at UCSD so I got into photography early on and I always wanted to make films. We used to go to every surf movie that came to town.
I was a professional surfer. I rode for Bob Hurley at Billabong and then Hurley for years, but I always wanted to document everything that was going on. I was on MTV for about four years hosting shows. I wanted to be in control of the end result rather than being part of someone else's production.
Inspiration Behind #Tournotes
I used to love a series called Sarge's Scrapbook when I was younger, and it was just behind the scenes, raw footage, but it was the people you wanted to see. So it wasn't about the quality of the footage. It wasn't cinematic. It was just scenes that you couldn't see unless you were there. So I tried to take that as my inspiration.
There always plenty of questions to be answered at the first event of the season.
TourNotes is best when you feel like the athletes are letting you in on a conversation. When I first started it I was just filming the Hurley Team but now it's everybody. It's fun, there's a lot of personalities on Tour. They come and go. The Tour changes so much. So there's always fresh content. The surf world is one big traveling family so it's fun to show the family circus behind the scenes.
A New Perspective
I'm just doing me. These are the conversations I would be in. These are the people I'd be hanging out with. Everything that comes out is going to be genuine. I don't really focus too much on the action. There's already twelve cameras looking that way. If everyone's looking that way, I want to look this way maybe and just get a different perspective.
Peter King, Stephanie Gilmore - WSL / Kenneth Morris
Gaining Trust
I think the athletes really like to project who they are so fans can really see them. Hopefully TourNotes presents that opportunity. They all know I'm not going to put up anything bad or inappropriate. Everything that comes out is going to be genuine. It's going to make them look good, and maybe it saves them time from having to do social posts of their own.
People want to know a lot about what the pro surfer lifestyle entails, and there's a lot to show. There's traveling, there's day trips, there's adventures and there's lay days. Lay days are the best for me. I love a lay day. I secretly go walk behind the scaffolding and jump up and down. I want lay days to show fun adventures and fun stuff, you know. The contest is already covered, I need to show something else.
There was no shortage of drama at this year's Quiksilver/Roxy Pro.
The first event of the 2019 Championship Tour season will kick off April 3 - 13 on the Gold Coast of Australia. Watch live on Worldsurfleague.com, App and Facebook.
The Evolution of #TourNotes
Ali Shrode
Peter King, also known as PK, has become notoriously known for #Tournotes, a behind-the-scenes Championship Tour series. The former pro-surfer from San Diego has been perusing the scene since his early teens and his relationship with the world's best gains him unlimited access. John John Florence doesn't open up to most but he definitely opens up to PK and #Tournotes allows viewers to bear witness.
Whether he's in the locker room at an event or hanging with athletes on a lay day, he always seems to be in the right place at the right time. Often filmed on an iphone, the raw short-form video series provides the perfect contrast to the live broadcast. Here's PK in his own words:
How it Started
I've been around the surf industry my whole life. I grew up in La Jolla at Windansea Beach. When you grow up at the beach, you grow up with a lot of different generations of people around. You have 27 father figures. My mom taught photography at UCSD so I got into photography early on and I always wanted to make films. We used to go to every surf movie that came to town.
I was a professional surfer. I rode for Bob Hurley at Billabong and then Hurley for years, but I always wanted to document everything that was going on. I was on MTV for about four years hosting shows. I wanted to be in control of the end result rather than being part of someone else's production.
Inspiration Behind #Tournotes
I used to love a series called Sarge's Scrapbook when I was younger, and it was just behind the scenes, raw footage, but it was the people you wanted to see. So it wasn't about the quality of the footage. It wasn't cinematic. It was just scenes that you couldn't see unless you were there. So I tried to take that as my inspiration.
TourNotes is best when you feel like the athletes are letting you in on a conversation. When I first started it I was just filming the Hurley Team but now it's everybody. It's fun, there's a lot of personalities on Tour. They come and go. The Tour changes so much. So there's always fresh content. The surf world is one big traveling family so it's fun to show the family circus behind the scenes.
A New Perspective
I'm just doing me. These are the conversations I would be in. These are the people I'd be hanging out with. Everything that comes out is going to be genuine. I don't really focus too much on the action. There's already twelve cameras looking that way. If everyone's looking that way, I want to look this way maybe and just get a different perspective.
Gaining Trust
I think the athletes really like to project who they are so fans can really see them. Hopefully TourNotes presents that opportunity. They all know I'm not going to put up anything bad or inappropriate. Everything that comes out is going to be genuine. It's going to make them look good, and maybe it saves them time from having to do social posts of their own.
People want to know a lot about what the pro surfer lifestyle entails, and there's a lot to show. There's traveling, there's day trips, there's adventures and there's lay days. Lay days are the best for me. I love a lay day. I secretly go walk behind the scaffolding and jump up and down. I want lay days to show fun adventures and fun stuff, you know. The contest is already covered, I need to show something else.
The first event of the 2019 Championship Tour season will kick off April 3 - 13 on the Gold Coast of Australia. Watch live on Worldsurfleague.com, App and Facebook.
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