When Sea-Doo wanted unique online exposure, it turned to Devin “Super Tramp” Graham, the hottest filmmaker on YouTube. With nearly 4 million subscribers, Graham’s videos have found a huge audience. For its video, Sea-Doo chose the idea of the “ultimate beach party,” and created — what else — a social-media contest to pick its star. Meet Trevor Soety, the lucky winner.
What exactly did you have to do to convince a personal-watercraft manufacturer to throw a huge beach-party blowout … just … for … you?
We had to submit a photo or 15-second video of ourselves having fun in or around the water. Out of 3,500-plus entries, one of my photos (a shot of me scalloping) made it to the top five. From there, I had four days to get as many Facebook likes as possible to win. I spent hours spamming people to vote for my image. I ended up winning by 13 votes. I was stoked!
So just how “ultimate” was this beach party?
The party was dope. Beforehand, they asked me what my idea of the ultimate beach party was. I told them a few things that had to happen, and they brought everything I asked for. The best part of the day was riding the Sea-Doo Spark. I got to bring two friends. Sea-Doo paid for my travel, stay and expenses while I was there, and gave me a duffel bag full of Sea-Doo gear to wear.
What was it like working with Devin Super Tramp?
Being on the set of Devin’s video was a dream come true. As an aspiring filmmaker myself, Devin has been a huge inspiration. I’ve watched countless numbers of his behind-the-scenes videos, so being there in person was mind-blowing. It’s amazing how much work goes into a video shoot. It takes multiple shots over and over from a dedicated crew to produce the end video. The whole day for them was about 13 hours.
Now that you’re a YouTube star, does the paparazzi stalk you whenever you go to the beach?
Haha, no, never! I did gain a few new friends from the party and several hundred Instagram followers from a sweet shout-out by Devin, though.
We almost forgot to mention — you also won a Spark.
Winning the Spark definitely changed my weekends. I’m addicted to riding and wakeskating now. It’s so much fun to ride, and it opened up the PWC lifestyle to me. It’s crazy how many people love Sea-Doos. I had no idea.
