Lee Wilson and Jared Mell star in "The Mystery Machine"

The web clip, the Insta clip, the short internet vid. The best they can hope to do is wither away on the online vine long enough to accumulate gnats. They become like flowers without the chance to bloom, their beauty never realized, covered with locusts and buried deeper than a hole in the ocean floor.

It is very rare in this 2020 world of content carpet bombs that something so genuinely warm and tasty gets me to stop scrolling long enough to engage and smell the roses. This new short film called “The Mystery Machine” did though…and it stars one of my favorite surfers Lee Wilson — surfing’s journeyman who rarely journeys these days because his hometown is where the best waves always are, and Jared Mell, a literal human reincarnation of the year 1976.

After months of being chased from waves and told beaches were closed throughout Bali, this strange “Venus Fly Trap” of a wave let the boys back in and made for an exploration style discovery right in their own backyard. Close your eyes and go back in time in this really well done short film. —Travis Ferré

All the beaches are closed. Painting, shaping and our families were keeping us sane. Days go by... we wait. We wait and wait for just one beach to open up. We find a beach and its open! The line up is empty of tourist which is rare this day and age. Just us and it’s Like a dream. We spot a man pull up on his scooter. Wearing all black, not a beach goer at all. He was a scout taking photos of us. The next day it was closed. The orders come from the top. Orders coming from people we can’t argue with. A couple of weeks go by and we hear rumours of a spot that had just re opened. The guards who patrolled the area weren’t paid the fee they were promised and decided to open it up for us. They too are surfers of that zone. A swell pops up and we go to the spot. The spot is beautiful. A fierce and intimidating wave with strong current and backwash. Unpredictable, Shallow and very unforgiving at times. Many waves were make able and some waves tricking us into believing they were make able. Like a Venus fly trap, it would lure us inside and close us in. Most importantly, This was a legal wave, where nobody would whistle us out or flatten our tyres. A legal wave that gave us a taste of what we have been deprived of for the past 3 months. Filmed / Edited : Alessio Saraifoger Surfers : Jared Mell Lee Wilson Additional Footage : Timmy Toes Scotty Hammonds Peter Frieden Federico Vanno Animations & Text : Lee Wilson Music: Joel Walsh "In The City" Paragons "When the lights are low" Emmanuelle "Italove"