12/27/11

Learn to Surf - lesson 1 - Introduction


Learn to surf - lesson number 1 - Introduction

Hello mate! I´m truly pleased that you are interested in learning on
how to surf. I´m sure you will find this course very useful and above
all, entertaining! Enough of small talk, let´s begin then.

 First of all, it helps if you learn to surf on the beach, but its not
that important. Maybe you dont have the time for it or the next beach
lies too far away from your home. Its ok. These first lessons areentirely based on the learning of a proper technique. We are going to
begin with a few basic exercises. Hopefully, in a few months, you are
able to ride your first waves!

It is true that learning to surf on a beach would make your
progression 10x faster. This course is aimed at those people who
always wanted to learn the theory behind surfing. Like any other
sport, the best of the best are the ones who are able to combine a
great physical training with a true knowledge of the most advanced
theory.

Before we start, allow me to remember you that:

First, hard work is the essence of any apprenticeship, and learning to
surf is no exception. It is, above all, strength of will that will
make you reach the goals of this course.

Secondly, be aware of any medical conditions you might have. You
should do a medical exam before enrolling in any physical
activity.Surfing is not easy and it involves a wide range of muscle
activity. Great surfers are also very good swimmers . your swimming technique is something you should improve as well.

Finally, what course materials are we going to need?

It would be great if you had a surfboard already: this would make the
training much easier. If you dont have one dont panic! All exercises
can still be done . I´ll tell you later how we will do it. See you in
lesson number 2.

12/12/11

Introduction to the next posts-Learn how to surf

The time I started this blog my idea was to review some of the best surf movies ever made. In the beginning I could not imagine how big and interesting the online surfing community could be. Not only that but also non-surfers were very interested in many things regarding the community and other stuff associated with it.

I soon came to the conclusion that I was writing to a wider audience: the surfers, who were interested in learning more about the best surf movies and the rest of the audience, who seemed to love surf culture and were very curious about it.

Nowadays I am writing for both of them. While I still try to review movies, my goal towards the next posts will be on actually teach people how to surf. Many readers have asked me that and I am more than willing to teach the beautiful art of riding waves.

So for those of you who are prepared to learn on how to surf, I can only guarantee you that with dedication an hard work it will be much easier than it seems. To all the others, you know what to expect : great surf movies will ever exist as long as great surfers ride the waves of the oceans Cheers.

12/8/11

The man who loves big waves

More on Garret McNamara: a special photo shooting he made for Portuguese newspaper "Público", The guy is getting a celebrity around here! Check it out, the link is above. Cheers.


http://static.publico.pt/docs/desporto/mcnamara/

11/9/11

More on McNamara´s world record

The worlds biggest wave ever surfed record has gained media attention all over Portugal. One of the guys ( irish surfer Al Mennie) of Garrett´s crew gave a testimony of what happened to drift magazine :

Everything seemed to be perfect, the weather, the waves. Both Cotty and I rode two big ones in the 60ft + range and then when Garrett got on the rope a wave, maybe 30 feet bigger came out of the canyon, it was meant to be. I had the best seat in the house as I was doing water safety on the ski as he dropped down the face of the biggest wave I’ve ever seen. It was incredible. Most people would look scared but Garrett looked in control as he went down the most critical part of the wave. It was an inspirational ride by an inspirational surfer. After the ride it was as if the sea calmed down. We sat out there and just absorbed both what had just happened and the surroundings. What a day!

 Next: An interview with Garrett McNamara on Portuguese TV



Garrett McNamara breaks the world record for the largest wave ever surfed - 90 feet!

Garrett McNamara, one of the best big wave surfers of all time just broke yesterday the world record for the biggest wave ever surfed. The incredible new record was established at Praia Norte Beach, near Nazaré, Portugal.The gigantic wall of water was 90 feet high.

Interviewed by a portuguese tv station, Garrett stated that this wave was the most challenging he had ever surfed.

Born in Hawaai, Garrett has gained a reputation for being one of the best big wave surfers in the world.

The main goal of Garrett in Nazaré was to explore its waves – with special attention to Praia do Norte’s waves, which receive the effect of the geomorphologic phenomenon known as “Nazaré Canyon”.

The canyon is so unique because it is one of the only one in the whole world that ends on the shore allowing the power of the water and swell to make it to the beach without losing any energy or size.

After months of surfing, the hard work paid off and Garrett is now the world record holder for the biggest wave ever surfed.


Now check the video and get amazed.

11/8/11

Congrats Kelly ! - he is now both the oldest and youngest surfer to be world champion

It´s official now, Kelly Slater, 39, defeated brazillian surfers Gabriel Medina and Miguel Pupo to become world champion once again. Reaching the quarter finals proved to be enough for the veteran surfer to win the eleventh title of his long and glorious surfing career.

Some days ago, ASP committed an error by falsely declaring Kelly already world champion. However, it was just a question of time and yesterday the best surfer of all time was finally declared champion.

More to come in the next posts.

11/3/11

Rip Curl Pro Search 2011 - Slater is one step away from winning another world title

Kelly Slater confirmed all expectations and is now one single tournament win away of reaching the 11th world title of his career. He simply dominated the 4-6 feet waves of Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California.
A great mass of public attended the premiere of San Francisco in the ASP World Tour calendar, mainly to see the best surfer of all times. Kelly did not disappoint his fans and made the highest score of the day - 16.03 points.
"I just want to stay relaxed about it, because it is a situation where you may be tense, just wanting to get over with," said Slater.
"The reality is that others now have to win both events with my victory, so the pressure is on them. I just need to get good waves in this event to win the title. " added the world champion.
Slater noted that this Wednesday, November 2, marks the one year anniversary of the death of Andy Irons."Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the passing of Andy. It will be a sad day for all the memories. If I win the world title on the same day, it will certainly be in memory of Andy. "

11/2/11

35 years of australian surf are the theme of an important exhibition to take place in Sidney

Just read on Surf City about an interesting exhibition about surfing. According to the site it
 will track Sydney’s dynamic surf scene through the 50s, 60s and 70s: spanning an amazing period of social upheaval, post war optimism, teen angst, rock and roll, prosperity, drugs and shifting cultural frontiers. We'll feature Sydney's surfing hubs, hot spots and cultures along with the movers and shapers who stirred the pot during these vivid and volatile years. We'll also show what surf-crazed Sydneysiders wore, watched, made, rode, heard and read and even reveal how surfing changed Sydney. The exhibition will contain boards, movies, photos, magazines, music, clothes, everyday surf wares and treasures. So watch out for the show, coming to the Museum of Sydney in September 2011

For everyone interested just check out the main site of the exhibition. It is truly amazing.

Can you imagine Australia without surfing? It would be like England without queues


 

10/28/11

Supertubos Revisited

After having some of the best waves ever seen on competition this year and having been  proud hosts to world class surfers such as John Florence, hearing him say that he loves our country, worships Supertubos and compares it with the most photographed wave in the world, Backdoor / Pipeline, is just wonderful.  Just check the video and  hear the boy talk...

Rip Curl Pro Portugal 2011 - Adriano de Souza aka Mineirinho wins in Peniche

You won´t forget Supertubos that soon will you Adriano? (image copyright by ASP)


The Brazilian, sixth in the world ranking, won the Rip Curl Pro, by winning the legend of surfing Kelly Slater.

With thousands of people in Supertubos beach, Adriano de Souza, who had already won this year in Rio de Janeiro, scored 15.67 points. Slater, 10 times world champion and winner of last year in Supertubos, only made 14.73 points.

Adriano did not hide the emotion about his return to winning a stage, the third in the world circuit. In his winning speech, Adriano said he would take Portugal forever in the heart.

Slater took small compensation as the prize for best tube of the Rip Curl Pro surfing was awarded to him. The current world champion stressed that the Supertubos waves "were perfect."

10/18/11

Rip Curl Pro Portugal 2011- Bede Durbidge scores a perfect 10!

The competition is getting better day-by-day. Bede Durbidge, from Australia, punctuated the day's affairs with the first Perfect 10 of the event for a monster forehand barrel to the adulation of the thousands on the beach.

10/17/11

Rip Curl Pro Portugal 2011- First results

The competition in Portugal has proven to be one of the best of the championship. The weather is great ( very sunny for an October in Europe) and the surfers are on top! Check out the first table of results.

RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL ROUND 2 RESULTS:

Heat 1: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 15.74 def. Bruno Santos (BRA) 10.97

Heat 2: Taj Burrow (AUS) 16.10 def. Francisco Alves (BRA) 6.57

Heat 3: Adriano de Souza (BRA) 16.83 def. Justin Mujica (PRT) 8.64

Heat 4: Michel Bourez (PYF) 16.77 def. Adam Melling (AUS) 15.23

Heat 5: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 14.43 def. Alejo Muniz (BRA) 12.90

Heat 6: John John Florence (HAW) 19.53 def. Adrian Buchan (AUS) 13.97

Heat 7: Heitor Alves (BRA) 15.50 def. Tiago Pires (PRT) 13.20

Heat 8: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 16.04 def. Kieren Perrow (AUS) 15.87

Heat 9: Kai Otton (AUS) 14.97 def. Raoni Monteiro (BRA) 13.93

Heat 10: Dusty Payne (HAW) 16.63 def. Jadson Andre (BRA) 12.27

Heat 11: Travis Logie (ZAF) 16.43 def. Miguel Pupo (BRA) 14.76

Heat 12: Taylor Knox (USA) 13.73 def. Patrick Gudauskas (USA) 9.30 


RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL ROUND 3 RESULTS:


Heat 1: Taj Burrow (AUS) 13.57 def. Brett Simpson (USA) 8.43

Heat 2: Damien Hobgood (USA) 16.33 def. Taylor Knox (USA) 15.30

Heat 3: Julian Wilson (AUS) 19.13 def. Kai Otton (AUS) 18.40

Heat 4: Chris Davidson (AUS) 14.10 def. Gabriel Medina (BRA) 5.10

Heat 5: Heitor Alves (BRA) 12.77 def. Josh Kerr (AUS) 12.20

Heat 6: Kelly Slater (USA) 17.86 def. Daniel Ross (AUS) 16.37

Heat 7: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) 15.06 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 14.90

Heat 8: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 18.33 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 17.17 


RIP CURL PRO PORTUGAL REMAINING ROUND 3 MATCH-UPS:


Heat 9: Adriano de Souza (BRA) vs. Travis Logie (ZAF)

Heat 10: Joel Parkinson (AUS) vs. Dusty Payne (HAW)

Heat 11: Michel Bourez (PYF) vs. Matt Wilkinson (AUS)

Heat 12: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. John John Florence (HAW) 
 
Much more info, as well as photos and other news can be found here.

10/13/11

The usual suspect - Kelly Slater and the Rip Curl Pro Portugal 2011


Is Kelly going to conquer his 11th title? The legendary American surfer is coming to Portugal for the Rip Curl Pro 2011 with 50.150 points. That is, he has a 60250 point advantage for 2nd placed Australian surfer Owen Wright. It is astonishing to think that a 39 year old Kelly Slater defies all younger surfers and continues to show a surf that is only capable by the world´s very best. From the 15th to the 24th October I am going to give all the news about this magnificent event, keep tuned! And to give you a taste of Europe´s best waves I leave you a video of last year´s event. Enjoy!

10/11/11

Surfing injuries part 2 - How to prevent them




There are some important bodyweight exercises that can prevent injuries before and after surfing. Some of them include:  (this circuit should be done as a routine. It was developed by doctor Elizabeth Quinn)

  1. Squats
    Start with some basic squats for warming up and getting the blood moving. Perform as many repetitions as you can in 20 seconds while maintaining good form and control.
  2. Plank
    You can build both endurance and core stability with the plank exercise. Hold for 20 seconds. (Add ten leg lifts on each side to increase intensity).
  3. Squat Thrusts
    Build strength with a move that simulates the 'pop-up' move in surfing. Perform as many repetitions as you can in 20 seconds while maintaining good form and control.
  4. Stability Ball Push Up
    Nothing beats the push-up for building core strength. If you don't have a stability ball, do the basic push-up. Perform as many repetitions as you can in 20 seconds while maintaining good form and control.
  5. One-Leg Squat
    Helps develop strength, balance and coordination required to help you maintain your center of gravity on the waves. Perform 10 reps on each leg.
  6. Side Plank
    A great, overlooked core strength exercise. Hold for 20 seconds and switch sides. For a more challenging move, lift one left leg up off the other.
  7. Back Extensions
    Start on your hands and knees (or lay on a Stability ball). Raise your left leg and right arm 10 times then raise your right leg and left arm 10 times.
  8. Stability Ball Twist
    With hands on the floor, place feet on either side of the ball. Hold body in a straight line with abs pulled in, hips straight and hands directly under shoulders. Slowly twist the ball to the right, then to the left. Start Position / End Position. Perform 10 reps on each side.
  9. Vertical Jumps
    To build lower body strength, while working on balance, try 'high jumps.' Start in a squat position and jump up in the air as high as you can. Land gently with weight evenly distributed on both feet and absorb the impact with a full squat. Repeat 10 times.
  10. Barrier Lateral Jumps
    A great way to build strength, endurance and balance. Jump from side to side over a small barrier, land and quickly jump back. Build up to 20 seconds.

10/5/11

Surf tips - surfing injuries part 1

As with any sport - well I don´t consider the activity of surfing a sport but rather a way of life, but let´s put it that way - surfing can have its dangers and it is up to you to prevent many of the injuries that can happen when you face the sea.

Confronted with this question I sought the opinion of the specialists. A great website called sport injuries bulletin (as a matter of fact you can search for injuries in many other sports, go check it out) makes a very interesting overview about the main injuries you can face when surfing.

They say:

Lacerations to the head, lower leg and foot appear to be the most common injuries, usually caused by contact with the surfer’s own or another surfer’s board or fins (the rudder on the underside of the board); with the ocean floor, or with beach litter.

Soft-tissue injuries comprise the second-largest category, ranging from contusions to acute strains or sprains to the lumbar and cervical spine, shoulder, knee and ankle.

Fractures occur frequently. The head is the most common site, mostly involving the nose and teeth, and many ribs get broken.

Eyes and ears are vulnerable. Eye injuries can result from direct trauma but also chronically from excessive UV light reflecting from the water surface, the drying effect of the wind and exposure to salt water. The surfer’s ears can suffer in two specific ways: firstly, a ‘wipeout’ (coming off the board while riding a wave) can perforate an eardrum; and secondly, a chronic condition may develop involving bony growths within the external ear canal as a result of ‘cold water, spray and wind rushing in and out of the canal, stimulating the tissues to produce excessive bone growth’(1). This causes a loss in diameter of the ear canal and a consequential decrease in hearing. It is known as surfer’s ear.

Craniospinal injuries are rare but of particular concern because of the long-term consequences. (One study(2) found craniospinal injuries to be the most common form, but this finding is less odd when you know that the study was done on Hawaii’s North Shore, ‘where spectacular hard-breaking surf breaks within a few yards from shore in shallow water’.)

Acute musculoskeletal injuries will usually result from a wipeout. Contact with the ground surface – whether it be reef, rock or sand – can cause injury, the type and extent depending on the surfer’s position and contact area. Common injuries include

* over-flexion of the cervical or lumbar spine
* forced shoulder depression and contralateral lateral flexion of the cervical spine resulting in traction to the brachial plexus
* landing on the point of the shoulder causing trauma to the acromio-clavicular joint or in adolescents fracture to the clavicle or the shoulder being forced into anterior subluxation.

Acute knee and ankle, ligament and joint surface injuries can result from a big drop at take-off. When standing up on fast, steep waves, the surfer’s feet can leave the board and then find it again at the bottom of the wave. If the surfer becomes unbalanced for whatever reason, he/she can land off-centre, putting excessive rotational or medial/lateral force through knees or ankles.

Overuse injuries of the shoulder, neck, back and elbow are common and relate to prolonged time spent paddling, tummy down, on a board. For more information on injury statistics, see ‘Surfing Injuries in Otago and Southland, New Zealand’, a research project by Rede Frisby.


(To be continued)

9/5/11

Surf Tips - a new section is about to start!

 A new section is about to start on this blog. It´s called Surf Tips and it will provide to our readers all the best information on surfing and related issues. People made the question before: "If you have a blog about Surf culture why don´t you approach on your texts other issues besides surf movies ?" After thinking for a while I realized that the question had a good point: if I´m writing for the surf community why won´t I write about other stuff that while still connected to surf culture does not fit in the bigger surf movies theme? This is the origin of Surf Tips. Hope you like the idea and waiting eagerly for your reactions. thanks bros.


8/17/11

Interview with Gregory Shell (Part II)





MJ: Another thing that’s really apparent in the film is how do-it-yourself things were when Weaver and Wills were starting out. Even just looking at the stills from the film, there’s the shot of Wills splicing together film, or the one of Weaver shaping in a backyard in Hawaii. It was simpler time then, but harder in a lot of ways.
GS: Exactly. There was no industry. The surf industry was nonexistent then. If you wanted to go surf in Hawaii, you were like a frontiersman, going to this strange new island and doing this strange new sport. You were making your own boards, making your own water housings and camera lenses. And that was part of the genius of Weaver and Wills; not to disparage the guys doing it now, especially guys like Patrick Trefz and Scott Aichner who are masters in their own right, but the guys today buy their gear already made. Weaver and Wills were constructing stuff from scratch and cutting and splicing their own film by hand. Now we have digital cameras and Final Cut Pro and tools like that, so who should we respect more? The guys now, or guys who did it all from the ground up? It’s probably unanswerable, you know, and there are two sides to everything, but that’s the kind of question that Chasing the Lotus leaves open. Weaver talks about that in the film when we get to Kauai. His rise to fame in the surf world happened when he moved there; he got in with the locals and started taking pictures of some of the secret spots and publishing the shots with no names. That’s how he initially rose to prominence as a photographer, and he talks about how hard it was back at that time. There’s something else that most people don’t know either, which is that Spider Wills was the mentor and Greg Weaver the protégé. Wills had figured all this stuff out already; he and Weaver met in ’69 in Hanalei, and Wills basically said, "hey, if you want to learn, follow me." So Weaver gave up everything and started following Wills, and before long he came a master in his own way.
MJ: Despite how everything has changed, though, bringing the film in person to places like Tofino is a highly traditional thing. What’s it been like being on the road with Chasing the Lotus?
GS: It’s been an incredible time. It’s had ups and downs, just like life, but it’s been a remarkable experience. It was something I did on purpose; I knew I wanted to travel with the film myself, just to feel what it was like to be Bruce Brown or Hal Jepsen or Albert Falzon, traveling around campuses and film festivals, doing interviews, going on radio shows. I’ve been able to keep at it for a long time, and next month will be one year thatChasing the Lotus has been on the road. It’s been a trip for sure. There were places I didn’t think anyone would show up, like Albuquerque, and sure enough there were hordes of people there in the middle of the desert. And there were others where I figured it’d be a sure thing and instead there was barely anybody there. The first night in Santa Cruz was like that, but I guess the word got out and the next night everyone showed up. The Santa Barbara show was the same night as the last game of the World Series, which wasn’t exactly the best luck, but overall the timing has been really good. October of ’06 was one of the best falls that California had seen in probably ten years; there were back-to-back swells with offshore winds, and while I was working my way through Monterey and Big Sur and Santa Barbara pretty much every spot was perfect and firing. I’ve traveled a lot of places, but that was hands down the best month of surfing I’ve ever had. Places that don’t even break were breaking; the swell angles were all just right. That north swell was just so picture perfect that you honestly couldn’t imagine any swell ever setting up better. But to bring it back around, I’ve gone on tour with the film for historical reasons, basically to pay homage to the guys that did it before us and experience the same things that those guys did.
MJ: So now, when you sit down and watch the film, is there a specific sequence that really sums up the whole spirit of it for you?
GS: There are a couple that really resonate. The epiphany kind of moments. One of them is from the fourth day that Lopez and Russell had been surfing Uluwatu; the swell had been building, and Lopez had to switch to from riding a small board to a Brewer gun. There’s one shot in particular where Lopez is sweeping across the face of this perfect double-overhead wave, no leash, carving these huge open-face turns, and it’s some of the most beautiful surfing that you’ll ever see. That to me is the defining moment. The shot’s not perfect; it’s all green and grainy, and has this weird compressed look because Wills took his camera up the cliff and zoomed all the way in from 200 yards away. It has this one-dimensional, almost storybook feel. He was shooting Kodachrome 25, which has these real saturated colours, and he shot it at a slightly higher frame rate than normal, so Lopez is sweeping along the wave slower than usual, almost slow motion, this Zen trance sort of thing. That shot really transfixed me the first time I saw it, and I think that one wave really says it all. That one moment is what every surfer tries to find, that state of harmonic bliss that’s always out there somewhere.

MJ: The cover for Chasing the Lotus is one of the classic old photos of Lopez, Dick Brewer and Reno Abellira. Was that an obvious choice for you?
GS: Well, we had a couple of ideas in mind for the cover. We’d gone through a bunch of photos from Weaver and Wills, and then when I was looking through some old Surfer magazines I came across the series from Dave Darling, the Maui-based photographer who took all those photos. Those guys had all gotten together one afternoon and started doing yoga, and Darling shot a whole roll of it. There’s a more famous one from that series, so the one we used was an outtake. But they’re in the lotus position, and the shot just seemed to say it all about that time period. It was that Eastern mystic kind of thing, and it was accompanied by the psychedelic element. Those guys were Chasing the Lotus, which basically means they were chasing forms of perfection. The Chinese consider the lotus to be the most perfect flower in the world, and it really becomes a symbol of what we all strive to find.
MJ: That’s actually a really layered concept for us here as well, because there’s a tradition of B.C. being referred to as ‘Lotusland,’ which comes from the legend that the Lotus flower would bring you to this sort of forgetful and psychedelic and basically idyllic place. So you’ve called it Chasing the Lotus, but did they ever find it? How much of it was real, and how much of it was them being in the business of creating myth?
GS: I think the answer goes both ways. Weaver and Wills were the mythmakers, but along the way they definitely experienced their share of the true moments. But of course that begs the other question, which is how much of a role cosmic consciousness and LSD played in everything. Because all of a sudden in the ‘60s there were all these new drugs, so people were taking psychedelics and going surfing. And some people could handle it, but there were some people who you see in the film who couldn’t escape from it and lost their lives. Buddy Boy Keohe is the prime example: he just did too much, it was just too much drugs, and he went from being a standout Honolua Bay surfer in the ‘60s, really an amazing stylist, to being a drugged-out dude who was eventually found in a dumpster in Encinitas. There are some of those tragedies that we highlight in Chasing the Lotus. But there were also those who were able to tap into the higher planes: the drugs unlocked the doors, but the point was that you weren’t supposed to need the drugs to actually take you through. The doors of perception were opened, and it was up to you to walk through on your own, but some of the surfers of the time definitely tapped in and came out the other side. Herbie Fletcher talks about it in the film; they were approaching LSD in an almost scientific way, where they’d do acid and go surfing and imagine the water flow over the rails and then go in and cut down the boards and re-glass them. And that was a huge part of how the shortboard revolution came about. Even a guy like Rarick, who’s super clean, says that he can’t deny that Brewer and those guys were really innovative and that drugs were a part of it; those guys were the first guys to really cut down their boards and realize that surfboards should look like a teardrop to hold in at Pipeline. So a substantial part ofChasing the Lotus has to do with revealing those aspects of the surf culture of the time, and that was the world that Weaver and Wills, these real masters of their art, managed to preserve through their work.

8/10/11

More on Chasing the Lotus (interview with Gregory Shell)





Some months ago I wrote about that masterpiece of surf movies called Chasing the Lotus. Today, while browsing the web I found an interesting interview with Gregory Shell, the director not only of Chasing the Lotus but also of other great flicks like The Far Shore. The following interview is courtesy of coastalbc.

Interview with Gregory Shell (Part I)


Gregory Schell made his name in the surf world a few years back with the release of The Far Shore, an elegant documentary about the legendary travels of Kevin Naughton and Craig Peterson. In his most recent film, Chasing the Lotus, he turns his attentions to the work of Greg Weaver and Spider Wills, the groundbreaking surf filmmakers who shot some of the most memorable footage from surfing’s Age of Exploration. With the inclusion of newly-found original footage from Weaver and Wills, Chasing the Lotus is an important and multifaceted work that pays tribute to two influential artists whose images still resonate in our culture today. Schell is bringing his film to Canada for a screening at the Tofino Film Festival in October, and the trailer is online at chasingthelotus.com .
MJ: I’ve always found the origins of a project really interesting, especially in art or film, because it seems that beginnings and motivations play such a strong part in how projects actually turn out. How did the concept for Chasing the Lotus come about?
GS: Well, it’s actually a bit of a roundabout story, but it initially started because I was asked by Fuel to create a 44-minute version of my previous film, The Far Shore, for broadcast on cable TV. They recommended a post house in L.A. where I could do the editing, and I was in there working one day when a producer came in and asked if I was the guy who’d done The Far Shore. I said that I was, and he basically just said, "well, I’m down the hall in Office 7, and I’d like to talk to you." So that was how I met Chris Bell, who became the producer of Chasing the Lotus. We started talking, and Chris told me that the girl who cut his hair was dating a guy who was an older surf filmmaker from Newport Beach, and that this guy apparently had decades worth of Super 8 footage. Chris was curious to see if I’d be interested in taking a look at some of it, and I certainly was. So he got me a copy of five minutes of this footage that had been shot by Greg Weaver. And as soon as I saw it I was instantly blown away; he had stuff of Buttons Kahuliokalani and Rory Russell at Pavones in ’70, stuff of Gerry Lopez and Russell from their first trip to Bali in ’74, tons and tons of other early exploration footage. So after I’d seen it, Chris asked me if I thought we could make a movie about it, and I was sure we could. A week or two later I signed a contract, and we started into production two years ago this October.
MJ: The tagline for the film is "the lost reels of Weaver and Wills." What’s the story of the finding of their missing footage?
GS: That’s another interesting story, actually. Back in ’80 Weaver and Wills were making an effort to amass their highlight reels; they’d had an idea for a project that would be along similar lines to Chasing the Lotus, basically something that would showcase the best of their whole canon of documentary film. It was sometime around then that Weaver ended up losing this one box that contained all his best reels. It had basically all his A-list stuff. So he was obviously supremely bummed; they couldn’t track the box down at all, and eventually they just thought that it was lost to the ether. So when I started working on the film and said "well, let’s find these reels," it didn’t seem that there was much hope. But it also happened that at the same time we were starting on the film Weaver had started remodeling his garage; one day he tore down this one storage area, and sure enough, there it was. The box had been hidden underneath another box that couldn’t be seen, and the reels had actually been in house the entire time. It was serendipitous, I guess, and that’s how the lost reels were finally found. That story’s not actually told inChasing the Lotus, but that was the how the lost reels came back to the light. And having them made the film just so much stronger than it would’ve been.
MJ: Obviously you’d been influenced by their work, and you’d been working on Chasing the Lotus already, so what was it like for you to go through the lost reels for the first time? Surely for someone who makes surf films that was a discovery on the same sort of level as finding long-lost tracks from J.J. Cale or some band like Deep Purple in their prime.
GS: Yeah, it was really incredible, and I’m still just so stoked that I was able to be a part of it. That box had 25 reels, and each of those had 15 to 20 minutes of footage. So there was a lot to go through, and the greatest thing—and this is to pay tribute to Weaver and Wills here—was that back then as young guys they were interested enough to turn cameras on things other than just the waves. So the reels had tons of ethnographic elements: there were African dancers in Mauritius, Balinese locals walking up and down the cliffs, all this other National Geographic type of stuff they’d cut into the reels. The most exciting stuff to me wasn’t the surfing but all this incredible B-roll footage. That stuff, I think, is what really shows the genius of Weaver and Wills, and I included as much footage from those reels as possible, both to do justice to their work as filmmakers and to illustrate what the places they were traveling to were actually like back in the ‘60s and ’70s. And it seems strange now, but not much of that footage ever made it into the surf films they were shooting, films like Forgotten Island of Santosha and Pacific Vibrationsand a few others. John Severson, to give an example, wasn’t looking for that kind of footage for Pacific Vibrations; he only really wanted the surf stuff, so Wills cut the travel stuff out and assembled it in B-reel. So it was that footage I was most interested in, and a lot of what you see in Chasing the Lotus hasn’t been seen in any of the major surf films. Shots like the ones of Joey Cabell are an example of that. So that footage was the real gold mine for me; at first I’d just been dealing with the regular reels, but when we found the lost ones it was suddenly like "o.k, now this is really something special."
MJ: It seems that one of the strengths of Chasing the Lotus is that it’s not a static piece of film. It was obviously a conscious choice to talk to some of the well-known surfers from our current culture, and I’m curious about what your thought process was when you were deciding which of today’s surfers you wanted to involve.
GS: That’s a good question for sure. I think I tried to find guys who were on the freespirited and freesurfing bent. I think the soul surfer type of guys are closer than the guys on tour to what Weaver and Wills were documenting a few decades ago. So I knew I wanted to bring in guys like Rob Machado, who’s got such a great perspective on things from having seen and experienced both sides. Donavon Frankenreiter as well, who’s just such a complete soul freak-out kind of guy. And Sunny Garcia was really incredible to talk to as well; I interviewed him before he’d gotten into tax trouble, and it wasn’t the competitive side of his life that I was interested in but his upbringing on the West Side of Oahu. That was one of the first times anyone had asked him about that on a serious level, and he really lit up when we talked; most of the time, he said, people just stuck a microphone in his face and asked him what it was like to surf Pipeline or some question like that, so he was really stoked that I was interested in his background and what it was like growing up at Yokohama Bay. I’d also gotten a hold of some great footage of Sunny surfing there in his teens, so that was obviously another reason to interview him. Randy Rarick was another example of a guy on that level who, like Weaver and Wills, had also done a huge amount of exploration. And of course we knew that we needed to interview the guys from the ‘60s and ‘70s: Lopez and Russell, Corky Carroll and Herbie Fletcher. But the reason that I chose the current guys was that their lives seemed so in line with what Weaver and Wills were shooting. Wingnut was another guy along that line. I also knew that I wanted to show a different slice of the surfing population; I didn’t have a lot of interest in a film about Kelly and Andy and Bruce, or something with Laird and Jaws. That stuff just gets too saturated, and I really didn’t think the world needed another video on Teahupoo or Mavericks or Jaws. I definitely don’t say that degradingly, though, because the guys who make those films do it really well; I’m thrilled by those guys and the stuff they do, but with my own work I really wanted to transcend the stereotypes. I think the surf audience is intelligent enough to start digging deeper into more meaningful things, and what I really want to do is to show the different backgrounds, different pursuits and different styles of surf culture. I’m interested in the deeper aspects of the tribe of surfers, this group of connected people who are still so varied and diverse in their beliefs and what they do.
MJ: So how do you see the work of Weaver and Wills relating to what’s going on today? What are the strains of our current culture that you see as some sort of continuation of what they were doing?
GS: It’s funny, you know, because there are people out there who think that everything has been found and mapped and Google-identified, but the reality is that there are still so many unexplored areas and so much uncharted ground. With enough determination anyone can go out there and find empty waves. It’s just a matter of being willing to put in the time to do it. The torch, I think, passed from guys like Kevin Naughton and Craig Naughton and along to guys like Lopez and Russell. That was the ethic that Weaver and Wills were shooting. And now, I mean, just look at the Long brothers, or Brian Conley deep in Baja, or the Malloy brothers at some remote slab in Ireland. Those guys all live by that same philosophy. The things that Weaver and Wills were doing have definitely transcended into today, but it comes to loggerheads when you compare that side of surfing to what goes on with competitive surfing and the WCT. The competitive side is just one aspect, and I find it interesting but not even half as compelling as the travel and exploration side. There are guys who want to go paddle out at Malibu and spots like that, they want to be seen and be in the scene, but then there are all these other surfers who you never even see, the guys who are off surfing the remote spots. But there’s always a dilemma that comes along with that, which is how much you show and how much you expose. Because if you film a place enough, it’s guaranteed that people will find it. And it was the same, actually, for Weaver and Wills. There’s a moment in Chasing the Lotus, for example, where Weaver is talking about how he was shooting on the West Side of Oahu and this huge local guy pulled over and got out of an old Chevelle. The guy had a big long goatee, total black trunks guy, and he walked up and said, "hey, what you doing, we don’t like stuff in magazines here." And Weaver basically responded that he wasn’t with a magazine but was shooting film for a movie; and this is pretty classic, but the guy looked at him and said, "well, then you shoot me." We show some of that footage in Chasing the Lotus, and what was so crazy is that when I was interviewing Randy Rarick he said "oh, that’s Warren Hoohuli. I know that guy." So we got his phone number and ended up finding him, and we have him in our film talking about that incident 30 years later. You have to see it to see how it turns out, but Hoohuli was one of the warlords of Yokohama Bay for almost 50 years, and during that time he went from being one of the young thugs to being one of grandfathers there. But he has this incredible attitude about it all; after the ‘80s things were really bad there, people were getting murdered on the West Side, and all the violence had basically reached a point where people saw it was futile. So for him, at least, it became much more about aloha and giving, and now he’s one of the patron saints of the West Side, which is a really unique and really rich part of the Hawaiian Islands.
MJ: It must be an interesting experience to be making a film about filmmakers. How much influence did they have on what you were doing?
GS: Well, it was a really neat process, and what was great was that Weaver and Wills, even though they’re master technicians, seemed content to let me kind of run the show. I expected them to be more critical during the making of the film, but they weren’t that way at all. Weaver is classic; he only said one thing to me, which was "I don’t care what you do, just promise me one thing: California has to be green, and Hawaii has to be blue." And that was it. Wills was even less demonstrative: he basically saw it and said, "well, it’s just fine. A fine piece of film." In the end, they were really happy about it, and when we premiered at the X-Dance Festival they were just beaming. And that was a really rewarding thing for me, to see that they were being recognized for the work they’d put in over the years. They were always underground guys, and what I was doing with Chasing the Lotuswas trying to bring what they’d done to light. It’s funny, because at first they didn’t even want to be interviewed on camera; that was one thing I was firm on, though, and I kept telling them that I couldn’t make a documentary with just their voices. People would’ve been burning to see what they looked like, and they finally agreed to be seen on film. But that’s how underground those guys were; they shunned the media spotlight, and they always just wanted their work to speak for itself. But the whole film was done with their approval, and it worked out well that way.

END OF PART 1




7/24/11

Hal Jepsen´s Super Session (1970)

Ever heard about Super Session, the iconic movie of the 70´s? It inspired the whole dogtown generation as it is  for many the best surfing ever filmed in that decade. It was filmed in  hawaai, California and Australia and it focuses on a very experimental era of surfing as you will watch not only traditional surfing but also bodysurfing, knee boards, snow skiing and much more. The main star of the flick is Larry Bertlemann with a sensual style that many tried to imitate, while the truth is that only a few were this imaginative, cool and talented in the whole history of surf. While you may know director Hal Jepsen from another masterpiece called Cosmic Children that focused on the so called space age surfers, this is one of the most accomplished surf films of an era where surf was reaching maturity. Like the guys at Surfer Magazine once wrote, "Hal Jepsen doesn´t make surf movies he is surf movies". 

6/19/11

Pump! (1990)


                  Richie Collins is the star of the famous opening scene.

 The first scene of this great movie gives you the idea: surfers riding incredible tubes while a version of the Joy Division song "transmission" is being played by The Slaves. Ok, this is a long promo video made by a surf brand (Billabong), in which some of the best surfers of the team traveled around the world just for the sake of surf, but it is also the best opportunity  the see Mark Occhilupo (also known as Occy to the surfing community) in his prime. For one of the best surfers of his generation, who turned professional at the age of 17 and battled a depression afterwards, this was the best surf Occy had to offer for a long time. After burning out for competition and becoming overweight, Occy began to make yoga and started being a vegetarian. He changed his training methods and began after many years of bad habits competing again. His comeback is still one of surf´s most wonderful chapters: he would become world champion in 1999 at the age of 33.So, if you can don't miss this flick because you will miss a significant part of surf history. By the way the segment in which Occy surfs the Reunion Islands is maybe one of the best scenes ever filmed. Just for those shiny moments this film can give us I give it without hesitation an almost perfect score 9/10. Just please don´t miss it!

6/7/11

Tips for creating a great surf movie


You’ve probably filmed, or at least seen, a home-made surf movie or two. Hollywood it ain’t! Shooting hours of boring, shaky footage with muffled sounds is not how you win an Oscar. There’s only one Spielberg, but using a few simple tricks from Simon Monahan, Product Marketing Manager at Serif, you can make great surfing movies that will be watched by friends time and time again.
Be prepared

There will always be moments where you want to spontaneously start filming, but for the planned times like surfing the Severn Bore, you should do a little preparation. Set up your tripod (you can buy one quite cheaply from any camera store) so it’s ready for shots that have to be steady. That way, you only need to clip on the camera and you’re ready to go. And always make sure your extra batteries are charged and within reach. You certainly do not want to run out of power when a fellow surfer is riding a huge wave!
Just start shooting
You might be wondering when a good time to begin filming is. The answer is start as early as possible. Filming before you and your mates even start surfing gives you a great opportunity to test equipment and make sure your camera’s settings are right for the conditions. You might even capture some great early morning footage.
Take shots from different angles and locations
Some people tend to set up their camera in one place and stay there but this limits what you can film – even more so if you’re on the beach and you can’t predict where the biggest waves will be. Without a camera, you wouldn’t think twice about moving around to get a different view of the action – do the same when you are filming. It will add depth and dynamics to your movie. But try to avoid shooting with the sun directly in front of you to avoid silhouettes.
Hold shots for a while
When you are filming, it’s a great idea to hold a shot for a bit longer than you think you should, just to make sure you definitely have enough footage for the finished video. It’s also a good idea to zoom in a bit when capturing details; not so much as to take up the whole shot, but close enough so anyone can clearly see what’s going on. Zooming in and out should be done sparingly, and keep it slow and steady.
Edit your footage
When you’ve finished filming, edit your footage with good video editing software (available online and at all good software retail outlets). You might need to remove the start because you left the lens cap on, or the three minutes where you accidentally filmed the ground, or maybe add an appropriate song over the slow-motion replay of your best friend falling off their surfboard!
Free video editing software has its uses, but with professional-quality software, optimised for HD video, you can be sure that you will have the tools and features you need to add special effects and transitions, reduce noise and camera shake and enhance the picture quality,. Most will even burn your movie to DVD or Blu-ray Discs with the option to add interactive menus
Conclusion
Whatever you are filming – you can apply these tips to almost any home movie situation. They will make it easier for viewers to see and hear what is actually happening and result in a more enjoyable viewing experience that won’t send them to sleep!

6/2/11

Why most surf movies suck ( by Pam Pemberton)

     Found this very interesting post on Pat Pemberton´s blog. Pamberton is one of the entertainment writers at the San Luis Obispo Tribune. Even if I disagree with some of the things he writes, some of the points he makes in this text are actually very correct. After justifying why many surf movies suck, he proceeds to make a list of which in his opinion are the best surf movies around. I couldn´t agree more with him about that top five list: the dude has a great taste. It´s important that we have a solid critical reasoning on watching surf movies but saying that most surf movies suck is going a bit too far. Yeah, many surf movies are basically crap but in this field I´m still optimistic: the majority is acceptable. And you? What is your opinion on this subject? 


The formula for surf movies is pretty simple: Show us some waves, tell a few good stories and feature plenty of good wipeouts.
Seems easy enough. Yet, a lot of surf movies really suck. And there are a few reasons for this:
First of all, some meathead surfers figure they’ll  make films so they won’t have to get real jobs. Which isn’t a bad goal, except that untrained filmmakers usually make crappy movies.
Secondly, too many surf films feature wave after wave with no regard for story or ambience. Many refer to this as “surf porn,” which gets really old fast.
And finally, the music is often terrible. I realize the licensing makes it too expensive to get music from popular artists. But come on. There are plenty of good struggling musicians who could help. And we’re not talking about crummy nu metal bands that make you want to punch a wall.
Of course, San Luis Obispo has a special place in surf filmdom since Bud Browne – the godfather of surf movies – lives here. Yet, surf films tend to ignore this part of the Central Coast. (Which is okay with most surfers here so long as that keeps crowds away.)
Having told you what’s wrong about surf movies, here are some that got it right. My top five:
5.) “Endless Summer II.”
Three decades after “Endless Summer,” surf film pioneer Bruce Brown came out of retirement to help his son Dana launch his own career in the industry. As Dana Brown told me a couple of years ago: “He never says it, but I’m pretty sure it was him saying, ‘OK, we’ll show Dana the ropes by accepting this,’ I always tease him and say, ‘You did that because of me, and then I had to live with you forever complaining about coming out of retirement.’ “  
While not as fresh as the original, improved technology and great stories – surfing in Alaska, for instance – helped make this a great sequel. The music could use some work, though.
4.) “Riding Giants”
While this movie focuses on big wave surfers that most of us can’t relate to, it’s a well-done documentary by Stacy Peralta and Sam George. The movie focuses on three big wave riders – Greg Noll, Jeff Clark and Laird Hamilton. You’ve got to love Noll, the most quotable guy in surfing. A former film maker himself, he also provided great vintage clips for the film.
3.) “Sprout”
A more recent flick by artist Thomas Campbell, this is one of the few surf movies with a consistently good soundtrack. Plus, there’s lots of great longboarding scenes. There aren’t any great stories here – you just watch it and mellow out.
2.) “Endless Summer”
While Bud Browne was the first real surf film maker, Bruce Brown was the first truly successful one, this film making him a millionaire. His film about two guys who find waves around the world was a hit in landlocked Kansas and has continued to inspire surfers more than 40 years later.
1.)    “Step Into Liquid”
Dana Brown learned from the master, so it’s no surprise that he’d come up with a great surf flick like this, a movie – like “Endless Summer” – that played well before crowds in middle America. My favorite part is the segment about those Packers fans who surf Lake Michigan.
Honorable mentions:
“Five Summer Stories” – Featuring lots of good Beach Boys tunes (and, if you’re into them, Honk), this has one of the better soundtracks for a surf film. 
“Gidget” – Yeah, it was cheesy. But you can’t argue its impact on surf culture. A friend of mine recently ran into the real-life Gidget, Kathy Kohner, a couple of years ago working at a restaurant in Malibu. I read she recently started surfing again.
“Search for Surf” – A collection of Greg Noll films, this offers a nice historical perspective.
“One California Day” – A new surf flick by Jason Baffa, this features nice scenic video of California plus stories about surfers like Noll, Lance Carson, Joel Tudor and the Malloy brothers. And I’m pretty sure there’s a quick shot of Pismo Beach in here. (But sssssssh — we don’t want anyone coming here.) 
  “Single Fin Yellow” – It’s a story about a traveling longboard. How could you not like it?


5/26/11

The Drifter

  Great video I found on the web about Taylor Steele and a movie he made with legend of surfing Rob Machado. It´s only a short teaser but for those of you who haven´t had any clue about the movie I am about to review, you can get an idea about the wonderfully filmed flick that "The Drifter" actually is. Not many surf movies filmed the intimacy of a surfer with such accuracy. Check it out and read my review in the next days.



5/24/11

Modern Collective (2010)

A deserved victory for Kai Neville and his crew as "Moder Collective" won a prize at the surfer poll awards
     What happens when a group of surf experimentalists goes on to take by surprise the entire surf community with what we can call one of the first post modern surf movies? The result could be something like Modern Collective, the tour de force of director Kai Neville.Just don´t forget his name because the wordclass camera work and editing makes this flick one of the best movies released last year.But it´s not only that, Kai is also a very good surfer, and only very good surfers can take surfing to the big screen with such intensity. Add to this list the fact that this is his debut as a director and things start getting even more promising.


    In my opinion Modern Collective is the perfect follow up to Taylor Steele´s Momentum generation. Neville and his fantastic crew (made entirely of enormously talented surfers such as Dane Reynolds, Jordy Smith, Yadin Nicol, Dion Agius and Mitch Coleborn) took the responsability to show to everyone the style of their generation: an action packed surf were even the laws of gravity are being defied every minute.

Kai Neville began his career on Poor Specimen - yeah that´s right it´s Taylor Steele´s film company - and made various works as a backstage assistant for very solid movies such as Campaign and Stranger than Fiction. When he was given the opportunity to direct is first movie many believed it was too soon because Kai appeared to be inexperienced. The resusts came quickly after the release: mostly good critics from the majority of surf mags and winner of best movie at the surfer poll awards.

One last word to write about two things:

    The soundtrack is awesome. Ecletic, vibrant and deeply connected with the surf scenes.

    Craig Anderson´s session on the "extras section of the DVD is something out of everything I ever saw before. If you are not in the mood of watching the whole flick, just consider watching this particular surfer. It will blow your mind away.
Verdict: 8/10

5/21/11

Bruce Brown footage from 1965

    In this footage of 1965 you will see Bruce Brown showing some of his skills as a surfer and film director. The show were this material aired was called "True Adventure", and it was some of the first tv shows to include segments about what we nowadays call "extreme" sports. This was just one year before Endless Summer was released and Bruce was getting slowly recognized for his work as a surf movie maker, a subject that very few had approached. You can notice how the host tries to explain every bit of surf culture to the audience - the fact is surf was something really new and almost unknown to the majority of american society, at the the time only few beach boys cared for a culture that would turn into a global activity some decades later.

5/16/11

Bruce Brown interview

        Following the great surf movie director I have been writing about (nothing more than legendary Bruce Brown) I found a great interview he made some time ago for dailystoke.com (and by the way I strongly recomend this fantastic website to everyone). At the time a special edition of his masterpiece Endless Summer had just been released. In the next lines Brown recalls his past and explains some of his thoughts on modern surf and modern surf cinema. Hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.

Source: Dailystoke.com

Dailystoke.com:  First, we want to thank you for taking the time.  Your contributions to the sport of surfing are unmatched, so it’s a real honor.

Bruce Brown: Well, I just feel real fortunate, glad you said that…


Dailystoke.com:  We recently interviewed your son, Dana Brown (see it here), and he said you bought him a super 8 movie camera when he was 10 years old and how you influenced him, so it begs the question: who influenced Bruce Brown?  How did you get your start and what drove you to make films?

Bruce Brown: Surfing influenced me!!  I got some cheap still camera to take pics of me and my buddy surfing.  Back then, we were the only surfers.  Then I got an 8mm movie camera to show other people, and to recruit someone to go surfing with.  I took it with me everywhere.  I was on a submarine in Pearl Harbor back in ’56 or ’57 and I took bunch of 8mm movies on The North Shore and other places.

Dailystoke.com:  We checked out the Director’s Special Edition of Endless Summer, and were amazed at what a great job they did with the sound and video — really good stuff….

Bruce Brown:  Yes, they did really good job.  I am really pleased to be with Monterrey Media, they have all my films now, and they are like family.  Many years ago, god maybe before VHS, they had Endless Summer, and years later I went back with to them with Endless Summer and On Any Sunday.

Dailystoke.com:  In one of the behind the scenes segments on the new DVD, you say “the perfect wave was just what we found, not necessarily big…something that anyone could surf.”  That statement says a lot, and made us think.  Do you like what the sport of surfing is all about today?  Are too many kids jumping on shortboards too early and is the attitude more aggressive today than it was, say, back in the ’60s?


Bruce Brown: Oh yeah for sure….All the spots today are more crowded and the only place you had any aggression back in 50s was Malibu.  Most other places you wouldn’t have to worry.  Not only that, but how about trying to find a place to park today?!  Some days, I say, maybe I’ll stop by and watch a bit, but jesus, I can’t find a place to park! (laughter).  At Cape St. Francis that day, anyone could have surfed it.

I am not much for the competition aspect of it because so much has to be held in crappy surf.  But, people are now making a living from surfing.  That is something we never dreamed of.  When I first met Wingnut, he said he wanted to make living surfing, and I said wow that’s cool.  Now it’s mainstream, but in the ’50s and ’60s you were an outcast, you didn’t want to mention it some circles.  Then when drugs entered the scene, too many good guys got caught up.  I’m a super anti-drug guy, but thank god it wasn’t my era as I would have been hooked!

DailyStoke.com:  When did drugs really hit the scene?

It started in the late ’60s I think, since I was never into it, you never knew the people that were doing it.  Then you had people saying Mike Hynson was smuggling marijuana during filming…that was bullshit.  He didn’t do it during the movie, he mentioned in India he smuggled drugs in film cans, his recollection is different than reality.  I would have never given those film cans to anybody.

Dailystoke.com:  OK, switching topics.  We have a bunch of surf filmmakers as readers, if you started BROWN BROWN FILM SCHOOL what would be the steps to make a great movie?  What would you tell our readers who are aspiring surf moviemakers?  What are the keys to success?


Bruce Brown: Well, number one, don’t go surfing!  Unless you have a camera in the in water, because you’re going miss half of the good stuff.  Some guys want to film, but go surfing and miss it.  You can go on crappy days.  It’s a lot of work.  People don’t realize it, to make things happen, because nothing ever goes according to plan.  Oh, the sunset is really good, but then it’s something else.

The other thing is to make sure you have a good surfer to shoot, a good surfer can make crappy waves look much better.

Dailystoke.com: So who is/was good to shoot?

Bruce Brown: In the old days, Bill Edwards, Dewey, Butch, all those guys.  Pat O’Connell and Wingnut were great.  Today, there are so many guys that are so good, it’s just amazing.  You used to be able to drive by a surf spot and know who it was, now there are tons of guys.

Dailystoke.com:  On Any Sunday was a huge success.  Are you amazed at how far the actions sports industry has come since then?   Today we have action sports 24/7 on Fuel TV, X Games, etc….


Bruce Brown: Yeah, it’s amazing, all the stuff people are doing.  I’m a fan of some of it, other parts of it not so much.  That doesn’t mean I don’t admire people doing it.  Guys like Travis Pastrana, he is a great role model for Motorcross.

When I filmed On Any Sunday, we had trials going over logs, now they are jumping over houses and road racing is now a multi-million dollar business.  Visually, it’s still spectacular.  The only thing that hasn’t changed is the flat-track.  Motorcross back then was Levis, a t-shirt and a helmet.  Now you have sponsors and vans.

Dailystoke.com: What is the craziest thing that happened while shooting the Endless Summer?

Bruce Brown: Oh god, every other day was crazy.  I guess when we flew to Senegal, we had all this excess baggage and they wanted to charge us $300 bucks (a ton of money back then).  We would have had to stay in Senegal.  We somehow talked them out of it, though.  The funny thing is I met some guy a few years back, he was a member of Senegal Surf Club, there are a lot of good surf spots in Senegal we didn’t even know about then!

Dailystoke.com: What is your favorite movie all-time, surfing or otherwise?

Bruce Brown: The Great Escape, I met John (Sturges, the director) once at Steve’s (Steve McQueen) and asked him do you sit in the editing room for months on end?  and he says, oh yeah.  He started out as a film editor.  That’s what a lot of guys don’t realize, its a lot of work.

Dailystoke.com: So what’s next for Bruce Brown?

Bruce Brown: I switch interests about every 2 years, I was into restoring old cars, motorcycles, model airplanes, hadn’t owned a gun (rifle) since the ’60s and now I’m interested in that again on my ranch.  I target practice, that’s all.  I haven’t been surfing in a few years.  When my wife got cancer I felt it wasn’t appropriate.  Then when I did surf, I was in such bad shape I thought I was going to get killed!

Dailystoke.com:  OK, thanks for taking the time to sit down with us.  We’ll be sure to tell our readers to check out the Endless Summer Special Director’s Edition DVD.

Bruce Brown:  Thank you.



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