A biography for Taylor Steelehasn’t been written yet.
“The nice thing about working in surf films so long is becoming part of the surf tribe. Anywhere I go where there are surfers, I get welcomed pretty easily.”
“I started surfing at 10.”
“Our project goal was to push the boundaries of VR technology to show what a surf trip feels like from the first-person perspective. I'm excited to share this. It's pretty incredible knowing my mom can now experience riding a 20-foot wave.”
“You've got the movie, distribution, and marketing. All are equally important, so educate yourself on how to do the best you can at each of them.”
“Surf films should be completely different from a webisode. They should give the viewer different feelings and emotions.”
“Things always evolve and change on location, especially due to the nature of travel and the waves. A lot of unexpected things happen. Often we get lucky, but we also find ourselves scrambling a lot, especially when we are looking for waves in the remote spots of those locations.”
“I'm not the best filmmaker, but on the sets, it seems like everybody is having fun.”
“The more I learn and grow, the more I feel fulfilled, and even if I'm shooting a commercial for a car or a computer, I try to deliver a filmmaker's point of view where I can learn from the experience. Then I really enjoy it.”
“Rwanda was the best place. The people are so nice and positive about their future.”
“A lot of new stuff just isn't having the same impact as it used to when people would wait for a specific DVD or video to come out and then watch it over and over and over. Now, it's a two-minute clip online and forgotten the next day.”
“Me and my family, we sort of had this plan to... once we had kids, we had a plan that about every six years we'd move to a new country. So, when we had kids, we moved to Bali for six years, then we went to Australia for six years.”
“During the '90s or the first half of the zeros, whatever you want to call them, I was just doing a lot of videos, and that was my only thing. I was super-focused on that.”
“I started filmmaking when I started surfing, so the two things have been with me since I was 12 years old, so it's sort of been in my bones to make surf movies. I guess every now and then I just crave to do it again.”
“My parents are really supportive of my interests and try to help make them happen with the tools I need. More importantly, they instilled in me that anything is possible if you work hard to make it happen.”
“When I started, I was 18 and really into punk rock and just wanted the action. Over the years, I've gravitated towards the travel and experience around surfing and trying to relay that feeling. Going forward, I'm interested in story-driven and personality-driven themes.”
“I think there just needs to be an emotional attachment to the surfer, however you get that, so that, when you watch the surfing, you can relate to that person, or you're rooting for them, in a way.”
“Running with the bulls was the scariest and craziest thing I have ever done.”
“My parents had bought a video camera for us to film Christmases and other family events. I took it down to the beach, set up a tripod, and I would grab two other friends, and we'd take turns filming and surfing. Then, at the end of the day, I'd go home and I'd make a video for everybody to watch.”
“For me, storytelling is the most interesting part of movie making.”
“I made surf movies for 20 years, exclusively. And it's incredible, and I feel blessed to be able to do that and have that long of a run.”