Jonah Allen Gallery

Two years ago today, I thought I was chasing a wave.

We had spent years studying winter storms, hurricanes; tides, sandbars and conditions, believing that if everything lined up, this little stretch of the Gulf could turn into something completely insane.

That day, it did.

I still have images burned into my mind that no camera captured. Towing into waves that looked more like Tahiti or Hawaii than Florida. Massive walls of water bending around a sandbar. Getting picked up in the impact zone. Ben positioning the ski in exactly the right place for photographs I’ll probably look at for the rest of my life.

At the time, I had no idea the GoPro footage we were shooting would eventually become the spine of my first feature documentary.

For the last two years I’ve been making Gulf of Dreams. 50+ interviews. Significant money invested. Fourteen versions. Late nights. Doubt. Excitement. More doubt. Asking people to believe in something that didn’t fully exist yet. And probably the most vulnerable part: putting myself in the film and allowing myself to actually be seen.

I’ve fully fu***ng sent it.

And looking back, I realize the film is about a pattern that has shaped a lot of my life:

I see something before I know if it’s possible.
I believe in it enough to move toward it.
I bring people around it.
And then I go.

Sometimes reality falls short of the vision.

And sometimes, like September 24, 2024, reality becomes even wilder than what I imagined.

The greatest thing this film has given me isn’t a festival acceptance, a sale, or anything that may happen next. It’s the brotherhood. The memories. Becoming a better storyteller. Seeing people watch the film and tell me it made them want to go after something in their own life.

And realizing that the younger version of me would not believe the life I’m living now. Two years later, we’re finishing the final cut and moving toward picture lock on Gulf of Dreams.

I’m really excited to finally share this story with the world soon.