- December 15, 2025
Noa Deane is often credited as being one of the hardest-working surfers in the world. Not just in terms of his consistency in the water, but in terms of the quality and regularity of his output. Looking at his long-term film projects alone, it’s hard to refute. Over just two years, he’s released Nozvid, Mash and Horse. If you want to go further back, scope Head Noise or all five Rage films.
His best work lives on the internet, some of it free to everyone, some behind a paywall. While I understand the financial rationale for having an audience pay for quality content, I’m grateful that Noa released “Island Fever,” the video embedded below, to the masses. Edited by Noa himself and his conspirator James Kates, it features the leadfooted Aussie doing what he does best over the last few winters on the North Shore of Oahu and an undisclosed tropical locale.
Though much of Noa's work takes place on cold, shallow slabs and remote rock ledges that were once the sole domain of bodyboarders, Noa has proven he has the chops to not only survive but thrive at the North Shore's most vaunted venue. You can almost hear the boys whistling from the decks of the Volcom House.
At this point in Noa’s career, after more than a decade of making a living as a professional freesurfer, we tend to have a grasp on what kind of surfing we can expect from the big bloke. But Noa has that rare ability to keep things fresh. To keep the audience guessing. To make eyes widen.
Maybe it’s the casual abandon with which he seems to approach the bulbous barrels at Off The Wall, Backdoor and Pipeline. Maybe it’s because he attempts airs on sections that are supposed to be for kickouts.
Noa Deane/YouTube
Anyway, I highly recommend you watch “Island Fever” from start to finish. The alley opps are big, the barrels bigger, the soundtrack as diverse as it is eccentric. It's Noa freaking Deane.
