UK Pro Surf Tour: The Movie

Aim: 'UK Pro Surf Tour: The Movie' needs your help to finish production

"The most important surf film in UK surfing history!"

It wasn’t Australia, Hawaii or Brazil that had their own national professional surfing tour. No. It was Great Britain that ran its own contest circuit for more than 20-years, featuring some of the country's greatest surfers.

The tour stopped off at some of the best surf spots GB has to offer, and eventually, once it was all wrapped up, national champions were crowned, solidifying themselves in surfing history. For young, up and coming surfers, the UK Pro Surf Tour was the goal. But the story around this unique event has never been told.

This film follows the dedicated team running each tour stop, and the aspirations, dreams and experiences of the athletes competing. Not forgetting the surfing exploration, friendships forged, rivalries fired and experiences shared in and around the UK tour.

And it’s all framed by the backdrop of world-class waves, the evolution of the sport, international economic turmoil, the rise of competitive nations, and a dogged drive to push British professional surfing to its full potential. The tour featured diverse, unique and world leading surf competitions from night surfing to freezing deadly reef breaks to one of the world’s first commercial wave pool events.

The UK Pro Surf Tour has truly shaped the identity of British competitive surfing and touched the lives of everyone involved.

Why a movie?

While there are sporadic records of the tour dotted around online --  a few event images, videos, old magazine reports – there is no complete, thorough document of the tour as a whole and what it achieved and the people involved.

There are a few main reasons for making this documentary:

*To preserve the history and memory of this incredible and unique tour.

*To inspire the next generation of surfers, who may not be aware world-class waves are on their doorstep.

Because it will make an amazing film, with so much history, so many characters, and some absolutely incredible surfing from several generations of UK surfers in some amazing waves.

So, why me?

My name is Anthony Butler, also known as Mr B from Mr B Productions, I’ve been filming professional surfing in the UK for exactly 20-years. I first started filming the tour in 2005 and shot various competitions throughout its history.

From 2015-to-2019 (the last four full years of the tour) I filmed every tour and produced the highlights videos. I have worked with or know almost every professional surfer over the last 20-years, know most of the photographers and filmmakers who have been involved and have collated a huge archive of video and still images of the tour from across the years.

But most importantly I’m passionate about telling this story; conveying the excitement and incredible surfing, exploring the emotion, passion and challenges of the surfers and team, and capturing the rich surfing history that this tour has provided. And also looking to the bright future of British surfing.

Why now?

In 2020 the pandemic stopped many things, and spelled the end for the UK Pro Surf Tour. While there was one final tour event – the 2021 Boardmasters – the tour was to stop, leaving a huge hole in UK competitive surfing.

But right now, our current crop of amazing UK talent - Lukas Skinner, Alys Barton, Patrick Langdon-Dark, Ellie Turner, Lauren Sandland, Stanley Norman (the list goes on) - all began competing and cut their teeth on the UK Pro Surf Tour. And the older generation of surfers have amazing stories and insights into the tour history, experiences and what it meant to UK surfing. 

With the best UK surfers young and old with memories and insights into the UK Pro Surf Tour, there will never be a better time to tell this story than right now!

One of the perks, an exclusive print or canvas from Mr B.

What now?

For the last year I’ve been planning and developing the film, driving around the country, sleeping in my car, interviewing and collating archive to get to this point. There’s already been so many amazing stories and insights through lots of incredibly rich and in-depth interviews.

With so many different takes and perspectives on all kinds of subjects, the documentary is already developing into an exciting, captivating and emotional film. But, there is still so much to do. We're Crowdfunding to help cover the majority of production costs and the final rallying push to get this once-in-a-lifetime film over the line.

What if we hit our target? 

If the UK Pro Surf Tour Movie Crowdfunder reaches its £10,000 target, the goal will be stretched in increments of £5,000. What this does is allows the movie to hit higher and higher production costs, and to tour the movie in other locations across the UK and Europe. We'll keep you updated very step of the way about where the funds are going.

We'd love to bring you along for the ride 

We need your help to finish this movie and that’s why we’re launching this Crowdfunder.

There’s so many ways to get involved, you can choose from one of our small donation packages and get your name on the credits and early access to screening tickets.

You can buy into our incredible prize draw with everything from Boardmasters tickets to Wavelength subscriptions, or take advantage of any of our huge range of perks and offers and get yourself something amazing, while supporting the movie at the same time. There’s also a great range of packages for businesses. We’d love you to be a part of this surfing history.

"The tour pushed the UK surfing standard, especially the women's standard, to new levels," -- seven times national champion Lucy Campbell.

"The UK Pro Surf Tour is the link to my big wave surfing career really, which is weird." - Big wave surfer, Andrew 'Cotty' Cotton.

“Bringing British talent together, that’s ultimately what the tour did so well." - UK free-surfer Alan Stokes.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 16th July 2025 at 3:56pm