Anyone here seen / got this movie ?
comments ?
I have seen 'evolution' and I have 'see of joy' [ and "the innermost limits of pure fun"]
what was the best part of 'hot generation' , for you ?
cheers !
ben
Love that flick. Evolution and The Hot Generation really responated with me and got me into the transition era tangent I’ve been tracking for the last 10 years.
I have it on VHS tape. Pretty good view of the times. The music is awful. But, few surf movies have decent music. It was ever thus.
(chuckling) As you would know, far better than most.
As an aside, when’s the next film festival? I need to get out of Dodge for a bit, but you know me, I don’t do holidays.
Will bring goodie list, your choice.
doc…
the surf movie music I like most is / are in the '90s Jack McCoy Billabong movies. [bunyip dreaming , green iguana , sik joy , the billabong challenges ones , nine lives , the occumentary ]
'five summer stories' was okay , too, music - wise [for me , anyway]
the andrew kidman movies have decent music , too , at times .... litmus , glass love , lost in the ether.
yes ,
evolution's music , and sea of joy's , awful too ! [too many mushies ? at byron ? ]
It was only a FEW years later 'morning of the earth' came along , with brocky living in a treehouse , playing a recorder , while assorted felons were elsewhere in the movie hunched over billy *, puffing away ....
cheers
ben
[ * billy bong , that is ...they weren't mouth to mouthing some drowned duude , never fear !]
The festival is in March. Other things on tap, though. I will email you. Same addy as always?
Tres bien. Email as always. What can I say, I’m boring.
Don’t go light on the goodie list. I do, after all, own a truck and a series of dollys.
Including some very good shellfish. Grew 'em myself.Still got the harem?
doc…
One could sense that when “The Hot Generation” first came out it was the beginning of something new and exciting which at that time was the shortboard revolution. While the movie climaxed with the well known Honolua Bay session where Nat and McTavish ripped on their Plastic Machines, I was also particularly impressed with the footage of of the thinly bladed, Greenough finned “Involvement” designs ridden by Mctavish and Co. which was similar to the performance oriented “Magic Sam” Nat had rode and won the 1966 World Contest on. The Bells Beach segment shows some progressive surfing, with some of the guys already riding the wide tailed Vee Bottoms. The Honolua Bay segment is a fitting ending. The speed and drive Nat and McTavish were getting out of their stringerless Plastic Machines was quite evident. At times it looked like the boards were on the verge of spinning out (which McTavish did quite spectacularly at Sunset earlier that winter), but some how held in and made for impressive rail turns off of those huge Vee panels. When the question of who ushered in the Shortboard Revolution, I think this movie will answer any and all questions.
thanks for that , foamdust !
was the burleigh footage good , too ?
I have 'the fantastic plastic machine' on vhs , somewhere here...
That makes quite interesting viewing also , especially the bit where a young McTavish is explaining his design theories to the visiting american guys, in a pub ['bar'] in Dee Why .
It was pretty cool footage !
I was only 7 years old at the time , and my brother 12 , so I came into it [surfing] just after that phase .
By 1971 , when I started at 10 years old , boards were already short [VERY short] here ...wasn't it the 1970 'world titles' that Rolf Aurness won on a 7' pintail gun , in 8' johanna waves , while Nat floundered to get moving on a board that was something like 5'6" [?!] , from memory ??
[And now , 41 years later , Slater is riding boards that small in big waves in indo and elsewhere , with better design and results.... it's a funny ol' thing , this surfing life , eh ? .... sometimes a few months can make all the difference like in the late sixties , sometimes a few years , or DECADES even ?! ...like NOW , with people revisiting old concepts , with modern fine tuning / improvements .
A 40 year old mate [Rowan] asked me a rather interesting question the other day , after picking up and looking over a 1971 single fin , then a 1975 single fin , then a 1981 single fin ...
he said
[and I quote]
" What were they hoping to do [achieve] with these boards ?"
[he was brought up on the early thrusters [1983 , onwards] ... so he observed some design differences THERE , for sure !]
I thought it was a good question , as well as
" WHY were they so CHUNKY ?? ... especially under the chest ?! "
[I showed him the video 'free ride' , by way of explanation]
Rowan is a thinker .
So, I reckon the next test rides he does on the " my fin tinkerings" thread , may 'have' to be on a few of my single fins , eh ?
[the only single fin he has ridden was his dad's [? 1962ish? ] heavy 9'6 D fin mal ...]
cheers !
ben
p.s. -
A mate is going to lend me his dvd copy of " hot generation " ... I can't wait to see it , finally !
For me ,Hot Generation highlight was the surfing of Edward Livingston Spencer , who , in reality, was far more influential in the scheme of things than those who took all the credit…
cheers Kayu !
and Peter Drouyn ...
... does he get much footage in the movie , too ?
I always enjoyed his short board cutbacks
ben
Funny you should mention Drouyn Chipper , I saw some footage of Drouyn surfing last year , as his new “persona” of Westerly Windara…he (?) still rips with style , and would possibly be a threat on the women’s pro tour if he was legal…seriously !
Thought I would have a look at this movie last night, yeah there is some good footage of Drouyn
surfing at Burleigh with Nat, in some reasonable size surf. The boards are just coming out of the
full on longboard era, and the styles and approaches are adapting to the new equipement, it is actually
the development of the Australian style.
Making boards that are suited to the type of waves that we have on the east coast of Australia, some beautiful
surfing by Mctavish and many of the lesser known riders. Less time spent on the nose and more
enjoying the new found freedom of looseness and breaking the trim line, looks like everyone is
having fun with the new possiblities.
cheers 'tombstone' !
how small do you reckon the boards go to , in this movie ?
I ask , because is there anything like Ted Spencer's tiny disc-like object , that he is shown shaping and riding , in the movie ? 'sea of joy '? , from memory
...THAT just looked like a slightly bigger version of Greenough's 'spoon' kneeboard , with a bit more foam ...it was featured on 'the stubbie photo thread' [ the original group and surfing shots came from "The Surfers Journal" magazine , from memory ?!]
Also , the film 'The Innermost Limits Of Pure Fun' [by George Greenough] showed them burning a longboard on the hill at lennox [!] , and later in the movie riding much shorter boards . It seemed like in the months [?year?] it took to film that movie , they went from the horrible , clunky , hulled mals to almost 7' [and shorter ?] , narrower tuberiding pintails . Really interesting movie , in terms of surfboard design history . Throughout it , George is , of course , riding his surfmat , and his tiny 'spooned' kneeboards , doing figure of eight style surfing , while others were struggling on 9-10' mals . Like I say , by the end of the film , people were turning , and getting tubed , better ....and to see lennox , broken head, byron and other places [kirra , burleigh] pretty well empty ??!! ... was amazing !! .... archival footage , for the AGES , there ...THANK you for documenting it so well, George Greenough ! cheers !
.....mind you , it WAS getting on for FIFTY years ago , now , when they made it , and the 'children of the sun' movie . So not too many carparks , highrises , surf cams , jetskis , legropes , computers , surf reports around , then . (yay ! ) Not even that many surf mags.
fins,
I don’t think any of the boards were less than 9 feet. I read in McTavish’s autobiography book although he had been riding sub nine foot boards in Australia, the boards he brought to Hawaii that year were just a bit over 9 foot so they could be ridden in the larger surf they were expecting to ride there. As for the pre Vee bottomed “Involvement” boards, they looked somewhere in the lower 9 foot range also. I should also note that there was one shot where Ted Spencer was flexing the fin on a rounded pin he was riding at Honolua which looked quite advanced for the times. Keep an eye out for that when you get your video. It was also interesting to see surfers like Bobby Brown, Kevin Brennan and Russell Hughes too. Those were names I had always heard about but had rarely seen footage of. For me the Burleigh sequence was a bit of a let down. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I thought Peter Drouyn and Nat Young were gonna be taking the lined up sand bar point waves a bit more than they did. I’d be interested to see how you like the movie when you get your copy.
I would agree with Foammdusts opinions, the boards stayed around the 9 ft mark, but they definitely were loosened up with the advancement in fins being used.
The film being shot with real film really makes a difference and the richness of the colours is remarkable.
Yes this is shot a few years before Ted went super short, and the little you see of him on the longer boards you can really appreciate his style and flow, great body dynamics, really insync.
Bobby Brown, Kevin Brennan and Russell Hughes have all passed away, so it nice to watch them ride in there prime, when the North coast was empty, it would have felt like heaven to these guys.
I was in Bali recently and heard Bob Mctavish talking of that time and when asked about the scene where he burns the green board, he said he did it out of disgust as the board did nothing but dig rail. He said it was a hull shape with rails high at the front and low in the tail and he hated it. He copied a board Larry Strada had made and said he came to the conclusion that that formula doesnt work. Interesting.
I haven’t seeen Evolution for years I will have to try it find that sometime and see what happens after this movie ended and Wayne Lynch comes onto the scene.
What I think killed alot of the design ideas that these guys were testing and riding, was the ingrained idea that a design could not be considered valid unless it was proven in the big waves of Hawaii. Which is part of the reason alot of this stuff died too soon, and within 5yrs everyone was riding downrailed pin tails with wide base Brewer fins,great maybe on juicy north shore waves but close to useless at Noosa heads. The media stopped people from designing for local conditions, the boards being ridden in this film look close to perfect for the small point surf, but not for the big power waves. Its a shame that these designs werent held onto for the type of waves they were developed in as it is one of the high points in time where style peaked in surfing.
Yeah see if you can find a copy and give us your opinion of the film.
cheers tombstone and foamdust !
nice to hear other's takes on this time !
As I say , I was only very young then , and not obsessed with surfing , boards and history [are [m]any 8 to 10 year olds ?? ha! ...I was more into making model soldiers , and matchbox cars heehee] ....oh , and it was the beginning of my early skateboarding and photo-taking days , too ?!
what is Ted Spencer doing nowadays , I wonder ?
....was it he , or Keith Paull , who shaved their head , painted a target on top , and, when he surfed , said [in Tracks mag ] " when I surf , I dance for Krishna' ?
Is Keith Paull in this film , by any chance , guys ?
I think he is in 1968's "waves of change" [renamed to "the sunshine sea" when re-released in 1971 ] . Along with surfers Mark Martinson [ that guy rips !!] , Nat Young , David Nuuhiwa , Bill Hamilton [ STYLE !!]
...some nice surfing and great FRANCE footage in that ...filmed by Greg Mcgillivray and the late Jim Freeman [ of " Johnathan Livingston Seagull" , and "Five Summer Stories " fame ]
16mm and 35mm surf movies ...ah , yes !! QUALITY images .
That era also,Tombstone, was the sart of the design “fads”…“.new designs released for summer sales” bullshit…there are so many valid designs from that time , that were discarded before being fully developed to their true potential…and they are starting to be rediscovered lately…
Not much of Keith Paull in this, which is unfortunate, as he is one of Australia’s best surfers during this time as boards started to get shorter and more sensitive, he too passed away, but the French section in" Waves of Change" show him riding around this time.
I am around your age Fins but just love old surf movies and the history that went with them, we are told alot of of non truths about different times in surfing so it is good to do a little personal digging into to things that are of interest and talk to people who were around that time for a different opinion.
I believe Ted lives in Hawaii, but not sure if he still dances for Krishna.
A Sunshine sea would have been very dated in 71 as the surfing happening at the time was what was seen in a Sea of Joy, the boards had shrunk considerably and the outlines had also changed. McGillivray would of had a hard sell with that one, the thing with Witzigs films they were low budget but they were very contempary for the time, made and one the market straight away.
Morning of the Earth was made about a year after Sea of Joy, in my opinion the surfing Wayne Lynch does in Sea is still a couple of years ahead of what Peterson was doing on similar stubbie boards.