One of the things that people usually don't know about me is that I love surf movies. "The Endless Summer", "Step into Liquid", "Riding with Giants"...I love them all. While I live near the ocean, I have never surfed or attempted to surf - something that I plan to remedy in my adult life.
What is it then, that always mesmerizes me when I watch a surf movie? Well, the beautiful footage, certainly. Those impossibly big walls of water rushing forward and a guy on a board using all of his mental and physical skills just to stay with it. And the surfers themselves - graceful, strong, athletic, and something more...there is something in their faces that goes beyond simply being in "the Zone". They are at once fully engaged (you have to be to survive) but also...peaceful? Is that the right word? It's something transcendent, that is for sure. And it what draws them back to the ocean every single time, and me to them.
"The Endless Summer" is definitely my favorite surf movie of all time. I like it because it was made when surfing wasn't cool, and when so many of the beaches they visited were pristine and untouched. It is the ultimate adventure, and the men in it like lone gunmen staking their claim in the Wild West - but at the same time like little boys, playing all day in the sun and surf.
For all of their renegade attitude and bravado, I find surfers as a whole to be very simple, nice people. It's certainly true of the ones that I have known in my life - they are a little bit like Buddhists, with a different respect for nature than your average athlete. Maybe it is because their sport is entirely dependent on nature, and nature is constantly challenging them and threatening to beat them against the rocks, but at the same time allowing them to participate in its majesty in a way that not many people experience. So they are both humbled and enlightened every day. That has to have an effect on your soul.
Last Wednesday, I took my brother to see "Bustin Down the Door", a new documentary by Jeremy Gosch, about the summer of 1975 in Oahu, Hawaii. It was at the Bridge Theater, an old, single-screen, wonderful cinema in the Richmond. I had read a great review in San Francisco Magazine and then I learned that Shaun Tompson, one of the main surfers in the film (and featured in the photo above) and also the executive producer, was scheduled to be there, so I booked tickets for us online as soon as I could.
The theater, surprisingly, was only about 2/3 full. Still, you could feel the level of energy in the room when Shaun Tompson took the stage and did his introduction, looking amazingly young and fit for his 60 years. We watched the movie less like an audience, and more like a community - connected in some way by surfing, the lure of the ocean, and the human spirit that despite all odds, wants to go out there and be the best. The movie, narrated by Edward Norton, who was chosen out of respect for his work and also because he is a surfer himself, focuses on a group of Australians and South Africans, including Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholemew, Mark Richards, Ian Cairns, and Peter Townend, as well as Shaun and his cousin Michael Tomson. They are the young men responsible for making surfing into a pro sport, and did so at a time when it was thought to be just another past-time for hippies and stoners. The movie has a lot of original footage, which is beautiful to watch - and each surfer has a unique style that is still considered innovative by today's standards. The rest of the movie is done in present-day interviews, and the men are very forthcoming about what they were going through in their lives at the time, and how the events have affected them now. It's very touching and you feel like you get to know them. And you feel for them as they experience the rush of success and the real danger of overstepping their bounds.
Afterwards, Tomson came out and did a Q & A with the audience. That was a real treat, and he answered each question very thoroughly and honestly, in his soft Durban accent and self-depreciating manner. He was thoroughly charming and unaffected, which is surprising when you consider that he was thought of as the Kelly Slater of his time, with his brilliant blue eyes, amazing skill, and athletic build. It matched what I have read about him: that he still gets out there and surfs every day (in Santa Barbara), and he waits in line like anyone else, for his turn to come. You'd never know you were in the presence of a World Champion (until of course, you see his skill). He got choked up at the end of the night, when he was talking about how surfing has helped him to overcome difficulties in his life. He touched briefly on the death of his son Mathew, who the movie is dedicated to. I didn't know the story, but it turns out that he died tragically 2 years ago at age 15 as a victim of a schoolboy prank in Shaun's native Durban. The final quote of the movie is an excerpt from an essay called "Becoming a Man" written by Mathew shortly before he died. I think it conveys perfectly what surfers feel, and what I am drawn to - a kind of Zen of life that is achieved by going to the edge and back, again and again.
Deep inside the barrel, completely in tune with my inner self, nothing else matters, the hard wind and spit shooting past me from behind, my hand dragging along the wall, the light shines ahead. My long hair carried by the wind. My feet are in perfect placement on the board. As I lean forward I feel myself speeding up getting faster and faster as the barrel starts to close. I crouch down until my legs burn and I then pull out to the whole lineup cheering. My body tingles with joy and happiness.
