Meet Blain LeBlanc of LA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Blain LeBlanc.

Hi Blain, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
What’s up guys, Blain LeBlanc here — owner and operator of Blain LeBlanc Media.
Here’s a little bit of my story and how I got started.
I originally grew up in the Midwest, in a small town where most people stayed put. There was nothing wrong with that life, but I knew pretty early on that it wasn’t for me. I wanted more. I had dreams — big ones — and one of those dreams was making my way to the West Coast.
I wasn’t quite ready to make that move yet, so I took a detour to Florida, where I was chasing a semi-professional wakeboarding career. That eventually evolved into a love for the ocean, and I found surfing.
Then a wakeboarding injury changed everything.
I was forced to step away from riding and found myself behind a camera instead. Honestly, it was the next best thing. I could still be on the water, still be around the sports I loved, and still be creative. That eventually led to me pointing my lens at some of the best athletes in the sport.
But somewhere along the way, I started feeling lost about what I was actually doing with my life.
Escaping to the beach to surf became my new north star.
At the time, I wasn’t making much money and could barely afford surfboards. I met a friend who shaped boards, and he passed that passion on to me. I started shaping surfboards out of my house and completely fell in love with the process.
I was also working part-time for Burton Snowboards and Channel Islands Surfboards, doing inventory and some sales. That job unexpectedly brought me back to my original dream of living on the West Coast.
I transferred to California to work at one of their flagship stores in West Hollywood.
I was broke, but I was stoked.
I was barely making enough money to get by, so I decided to live out of the back of my truck.
Looking back, I honestly miss some of the simplicity of those days.
Burritos. Waves. Skateboards. Surfboards. And absolutely no idea what was coming next.
At the time, I wanted more. But looking back, I realize those years were slowly shaping me into the person I am today.
Working in Hollywood selling surfboards and snowboards made me want to push myself further. I was still shaping boards, giving shaping lessons in Venice, and picking up shifts at a juice bar in Newport Beach, where I met some people who would eventually become important parts of my story.
Not long after, I landed a position with Hayden Shapes, an Australian surfboard company, as their Production Manager.
That job gave me a completely different perspective on the surf industry. I learned the ins and outs of manufacturing, production, business, and what it actually took to build a brand.
At the same time, I was quietly hustling my own custom surfboard brand on the side.
After a few years, and one pretty wild trip to Mexico, I completely burned myself out and quit.
Around that same time, social media was starting to become a real thing.
I picked up a camera again.
I started shooting in the shaping bay, creating content for the juice bar I was working at, and experimenting with anything I could point my camera at.
Something started to click.
I realized this could potentially be my next move.
So I started shooting everything.
I figured out what worked for me, what didn’t, what I enjoyed shooting, and what I wanted to learn more about. I spent countless hours experimenting with cameras, lenses, in-camera effects, night photography, action sports, and brand content.
I decided I wanted to do this full time.
I went all in.
I started picking up freelance gigs whenever I could while still running my surfboard business on the side.
Eventually, I landed a job as a Content Creator for a company that, ironically, made camera lenses, tripods, and other camera equipment.
I was behind the camera, but I was also in front of it.
It was a great learning experience, but deep down, I knew it wasn’t where I wanted to be.
I still wanted more.
Then, completely out of nowhere, an opportunity came along at Nitro Circus.
This is where everything started coming together.
I had been doing some work for a brand called Poler Stuff, splitting my time between sales and freelance photography. A colleague and friend of mine had a wife who worked at Nitro Circus as a producer. She approached me about a position.
I applied.
And somehow, I got the job.
The next thing I knew, I was traveling around the world with some of the best athletes in action sports — including childhood heroes like Travis Pastrana.
I was creating content, traveling the world, and essentially living the dream I had imagined when I was a kid.
I never would have imagined that I would make it that far.
But life on the road is real.
It’s incredible, but it can also burn you out quickly.
After years of traveling and working for Nitro, I found myself coming home completely drained and uninspired. So after a solid run there, I made another big decision.
I went freelance.
After spending so many years immersed in the surf industry, I was also feeling burned out on surfing. Around that time, I discovered powder snowboarding.
So I moved to the mountains — Lake Tahoe — and hit the reset button.
For a few years, I chased snow, snowboarded, and learned how to travel through the mountains with camera equipment strapped to a snowmobile.
I met an incredible group of talented riders who became some of my closest friends and still are to this day.
And once again, I found a new sport to point my camera at.
Living in the mountains was an incredible chapter of my life, but eventually I realized I needed to make some real changes.
I was living the life of a professional snowboarder without actually being one.
It was time to get serious.
I moved back to Southern California, put my head down, and started focusing.
I stopped chasing everything and started building something.
Slowly but surely, things started gaining momentum.
And that brings me to where I am today.
I’m the owner and operator of Blain LeBlanc Media, working freelance with brands like Red Bull, Monster Energy, Apple, Nitro Circus, and many of the relationships I’ve built throughout my career.
Today, I specialize in action sports and motorsports, with a particular focus on POV camera operation, complex camera rigging, race cars, trophy trucks, and capturing action from perspectives that most cameras simply can’t get.
But I’ve never wanted to be limited to one thing.
My career has taken me from surfboards and wakeboards to snowmobiles and powder, from shaping bays to Hollywood, from traveling the world with action sports legends to rigging cameras onto race vehicles in some of the most demanding environments imaginable.
Every chapter taught me something.
Every job led to another.
Every failure forced me to figure something out.
And every time I thought I had it all figured out, life sent me somewhere completely different.
Looking back, I realize there was never really a straight path.
It was a collection of random decisions, risks, injuries, failures, opportunities, and people who helped me along the way.
I didn’t have a perfect plan.
I just kept moving.
And somehow, all those different pieces eventually came together to create what Blain LeBlanc Media is today.
I’m still chasing the next thing.
Still learning.
Still creating.
And I still have a lot more I want to accomplish.
This is just the beginning.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Definitely not. It’s been anything but a smooth road. There have been a lot of ups and downs, injuries, financial struggles, burnout, and plenty of moments where I had no idea what I was doing or where my career was going.
One of the biggest turning points was getting injured wakeboarding, which forced me to step away from the sport I was pursuing and put a camera in my hands. At the time, I didn’t realize it would completely change the direction of my life.
There were also some pretty lean years financially. When I first moved to California, I was barely making enough to get by and ended up living out of the back of my truck. Looking back, those were some of the simplest and most memorable years of my life, but at the time it was definitely a struggle.
I also went through periods of burnout. I spent years working in the surf industry, shaping surfboards, working production, and eventually traveling the world with Nitro Circus. It was an incredible opportunity, but constantly being on the road eventually caught up with me. I would come home completely drained and uninspired.
After leaving Nitro, I moved to Lake Tahoe and essentially hit the reset button. I spent a few years chasing snow and snowboarding, but eventually realized I was drifting again. I was living like a professional snowboarder without actually being one, and I knew I needed to get serious about building a career.
There were plenty of moments where I questioned whether any of it was going to work. I didn’t have a perfect plan, and my career definitely wasn’t a straight line. I’ve had to reinvent myself several times and take risks without knowing what was going to happen next.
But I think that’s also what has made the journey so valuable. Every setback forced me to learn something new and every different chapter — wakeboarding, surfing, shaping surfboards, the surf industry, photography, Nitro Circus, snowboarding, and eventually motorsports — gave me another skill or perspective that I use today.
So no, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. But I don’t think I’d change it. All of those struggles and unexpected turns are a big part of what shaped me into the person and creative I am today.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m the owner and operator of Blain LeBlanc Media, and I specialize in action sports, motorsports, and creating content from perspectives that are difficult or impossible to capture with a traditional camera setup.
My background is a little different than most filmmakers. I came up through action sports, first as an athlete, then as a photographer and filmmaker. I’ve spent years working around surf, snowboarding, wakeboarding, BMX, motocross, off-road racing, and other high-speed environments. That experience has taught me how athletes and vehicles move, where the action is going to happen, and most importantly, how to put a camera in the right place to capture it.
A big part of what I’m known for today is POV camera operation and specialty camera rigging. I’ve developed a lot of experience mounting and operating cameras on race cars, trophy trucks, motorcycles, snowmobiles, and other moving platforms. I’m comfortable working in environments where there isn’t necessarily a safe or obvious place to put a camera and figuring out how to get the shot without compromising the equipment, the vehicle, or the people involved.
I’ve worked with brands like Red Bull, Monster Energy, Apple, Nitro Circus, and others throughout my career, and I’ve had the opportunity to travel the world and work alongside some of the best athletes in action sports.
What I’m probably most proud of, though, is the fact that I’ve been able to turn something I genuinely love into a career. I didn’t take a traditional path into filmmaking. I’ve worked in surf shops, shaped surfboards, managed production for a surfboard company, lived out of my truck, worked in Hollywood, traveled the world with Nitro Circus, lived in the mountains chasing snow, and eventually built my own production company.
All of those experiences ended up becoming useful in my work.
What sets me apart is that I’m not just a camera operator who shows up and points a camera at something. I understand the culture and the environments I’m working in because I’ve lived them. I understand the athletes, the equipment, the risks, and the way the action actually happens.
I’m also very hands-on. If a shot requires building a custom rig, mounting a camera to a vehicle, running multiple POV cameras, working in a remote environment, or figuring out a completely unconventional way to get a shot, that’s the kind of problem I enjoy solving.
I think my biggest strength is that I’m always looking for the shot that hasn’t been done before.
At the end of the day, I’m a filmmaker, but I’m also a problem solver. I like being handed something that seems difficult, figuring out how to make it work, and coming back with footage that people haven’t seen before.

What’s next?
I’m at a point in my career where I’m really focused on building Blain LeBlanc Media into something bigger and more established while still keeping the creativity and freedom that got me here in the first place.
I want to continue pushing further into action sports and motorsports, especially POV and specialty camera work. I’m really interested in taking what I’ve learned over the years and pushing camera rigging and operating into places and environments that haven’t been explored yet. There’s a lot of technology developing right now, and I think we’re going to see some really interesting changes in the way action and motorsports are filmed.
I also want to continue working with bigger brands and productions while building stronger long-term relationships rather than simply jumping from job to job. I’ve spent a lot of my career traveling and working for different companies, and now I’m interested in building something that has more of my own identity behind it.
Another big goal is to continue expanding the production side of my business. I want to build out more specialized equipment and capabilities so that when a production has a crazy idea or needs a camera somewhere it normally shouldn’t be, I can be the person they call to figure it out.
Ultimately, I’m not looking to slow down. I’m looking forward to taking on bigger productions, working with new athletes and brands, traveling to places I haven’t been, and continuing to find new ways to capture action.
I’ve never really had a traditional career path, so I don’t have everything mapped out five or ten years from now. If anything, I’ve learned that some of the best opportunities in my life have come from unexpected directions.
The goal is to keep building, keep learning, keep taking risks, and see where it takes me next.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.blainleblanc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blainleblanc/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blain-leblanc-73815422a/