Saw it last night in Santa Barbara. LOVED IT. Anyone else see it?
I think my buddy said it best…
“This is the movie people should see who want to know what surfing is all about”
This movie had it all…characters, style, art, history, passion. GREAT MUSIC and great surfing.
Makes me wonder what the hell i’m doing in front of this computer screen.
good movie. California (NOT cali) is all about surfing all types of equipment. Took my 17 year old son. He surfed my Liddle the next day. Surf movies and video of 25 whacks to the beach are sooooooooo boring.
Kind of a bummer that there are more East Coast showings than West Coast. I thought this film was about surfing in CA. Hopefully they’ll add more WC tour dates. Pleeeeaaaase!
It was awesome seeing it on the big screen for sure, but they said the DVD will be out in November.
I’ll second that! The film was a lot of fun; it had a great variety of styles and approaches to surfing.
Man, though, my butt was starting to hurt about 2/3 of the way through. The film is looooooooong.
The film was beautifully shot, and some scenes really stand out: Tudor in SD (wearing a leash on both long and shortboards) was awesome, and the Malloys in Baja were pure roadtrip inspiration The website claims the movie captures, “…the California surfing experience through the surfers who live it,” though there should be a sidebar pointing out that those surfers need to be at least second generation Californians, white, male, and 20 or 30 something.
A lot of the content seemed a bit stale to me, too–the Sprout crew paraded out one more time. Do we really need to see another series of shots from Skip Frye’s shaping bay? I’m starting to feel like I know his shop better than I know my own…
Wow, I’m a grumpy bastard today. Sorry–had a few too many glasses of Zinfandel last night. Curse of living in the wine country.
However, the image of Skip Frye picking up trash in the dawn light at SanO spoke more about soul than any footage of a sponsored ‘freesurfer’ ripping it on a fish.
Sorry to be a grouch, guys, there were some really excellent moments in this movie. I just have an aversion to being told what the California experience is when it’s being shot through such a narrow lens.
Jamie
It was awesome seeing it on the big screen for sure, but they said the DVD will be out in November.
This is good news.
High points:
Joel at Big Rock and quality Cardiff on a fish. Superb.
Gamboa on his stubbie. Point lust.
Low points:
Dane Perlee. One more long boarder, one more trip to visit Greg Noll.
Tyler H. at El Porto. One note (over and over.)
I think one of the reasons these struck me as low points was because, as a poster stated above, the same cast of characters were paraded out again. That’s one of the reasons the film seemed long, it’s all been done before. More than once. It’s like a poor movie sequel or a feature length film based on a TV show. Where’s the creativity?
The filmmakers were just lucky they got some of the best run of winter waves and weather in recent memory or the film would have screamed redundancy.
WHEN WILL WE SEE IT IN AUSTRALIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!???
really very keen
Any idea who is distributing it?
I would love to see it but have no idea where to look for it.
It’s almost Nov.
I want a copy.
i have been watching the trailer over and over i cant wait till it comes out on dvd.
is it a sprout copy?
or is it original?
Hello,
I saw it in Donostia’s Surfilm Festival last june and I loved it.
And one detail from the movie, in Tudor’s house there’s on the wall a stamp of ‘Saint Miguelito Dora’. It is one of the mitical stamps made by Didac (Montjuich Surfboards shaper) and he gave it to Joel about 6 years ago… You can imagine Tudor’s face when a freaky spanish dressed as a catholic monk gave him the stamp…
david
I’ll second that! The film was a lot of fun; it had a great variety of styles and approaches to surfing.
There’s nothing like 16mm film if you compare it to the digital video trends of today. This 5 year project showed more in its production and investment in the pair’s time, commitment, and editing than anything I’ve seen in a few years. Those early morning scenes in low light were a pleasure to see, in a packed movie house on the big screen.
Along with Jim Gamboa’s dis/hull snippet’s, I liked seeing his Longboard rides on the Gamboa model shaped by Wayne Rich. They have been building a variety of boards in limited runs for a few years now. The Longboard scenes in slomo, along with their stellar music tracks made the film very enjoyable.
I like how they paid tribute to the past ala Velzy, and how respectful they were to Skip. Skip, shaping, surfing, talking philosophy, and picking up trash at the pubic beach. That guys talks the talk and walks the walk. Also, Tudor at Big Rock (I think) was really special.
My thoughts after being hyped up about seeing it…
The Tudor section was epic… that guy gets better and better!
I enjoyed the historical info/tribute.
I dug lance carson and skip’s humilty about right place right time.
I’d love to have a surf with Jimmy Gamboa… that guy seems hilarious.
D.Perlee was hardcore among those rocks… and his finless looked pretty carl olsen inspired.
I was HUGELY annoyed with the alex knost / tyler warren section. All the california hipster art crap is quite lame. As is all the whining about “I just want to ride what I want to ride…I don’t want to be seen as retro…” Give me a freaking break, get over yourself, and just go surfing for crying out loud.
I surfed for 3 hours in waist high wind torn crap before watching that movie (an it was a fun session!). All I could think about the whole time was how the guys in the movie seem to have more waves than they know what to do with.
OK , sorry, had to get that off my chest.
hunter
“I was HUGELY annoyed with the alex knost / tyler warren section. All the california hipster art crap is quite lame. As is all the whining about “I just want to ride what I want to ride…I don’t want to be seen as retro…” Give me a freaking break, get over yourself, and just go surfing for crying out loud.”
I’m pretty sure they are talking about attitudes like yours…
That guy has one of the most unique styles i’ve ever seen. It’s like pure creativity and zero thought. I really dug his surfing. I don’t know what you think he “needs to get over”
D.Perlee was hardcore among those rocks… and his finless looked pretty carl olsen inspired.
I had the pleasure of watching Dane(or was it Tanner Becket?) in the finals at Malibu a few years ago in beautiful minus tide / shoulder high surf. He and another Santa Cruz guy were pretty much owning it. I think DP won the event. Carl can clarify I hope. I believe there is, or was a trio of shapers at Arrow about Carl’s age. Great guys all around.
“I was HUGELY annoyed with the alex knost / tyler warren section. All the california hipster art crap is quite lame. As is all the whining about “I just want to ride what I want to ride…I don’t want to be seen as retro…” Give me a freaking break, get over yourself, and just go surfing for crying out loud.”
I’m pretty sure they are talking about attitudes like yours…
That guy has one of the most unique styles i’ve ever seen. It’s like pure creativity and zero thought. I really dug his surfing. I don’t know what you think he “needs to get over”
I dunno about all of that. Many dedicated longboarders like myself, who get what Knost is talking about and even agree with him and appreciate his otherworldly talent, still find him and his whole hipster persona totally friggin annoying. For what its worth, I’ve never seen “theboys” denigrate what anybody rides and if you go back and look through his contributions at Sways you’ll see he is the type who appreciates all facets of the ride. I think Knost is more talking about the whole “longboards are for fat old losers” type attitude, or some variant thereof.
Well, i definitely meant no disrespect to theboys…
And yes, i will admit that his style (outside the water) seems to be very contrived. But they guy has talent, that’s all i’ll say.
theboys: hope my earlier comments didn’t come off too harsh towards you…and i reread your post…and the more i remember his outfit, the more i tend to agree with you. You just seemed to come off pretty strong. All good though. The hipster thing kind of bugs me too, but to each their own.
not a fan of the knost/crew thing like mentioned before…but they were RIPPING on those skateboards…WEEEEHOOOOO!!
the first scene had me stunned; before even a shot of a wave showed, with the music they chose and the scenery/beauty of an ugly city, i told my girlfriend next to me if the movie is anythign like this for the rest of the way ill be the first to buy it.
i WILL be the first to buy it.
i was stoked, sat cross armed and intent through the whole thing just studying the boards and the waterflow off of them from the great camera angles they showed…totally stoked on that movie, well worth the money.
loved watching tudor drop at big rock, the slide sideways in the pocket, stalling on the tail of that fish, then get pitted over and over and over…so many waves were almost identical but i could have watched it a thousand more times.
gamboa section had me planning my next hull adventures, and next experiments as well…cant wait to buy the movie!
Just saw the movie tonight. Read a little of this thread before I went. Must say the Alex Knost section was a little annoying. I can’t believe he went from being a stoked kid in Step into Liquid to an emo skinny pants hipster. Don’t get me wrong, dude surfs like a god, but I can’t stand the sight of him.
The “Sprout crew parading” comment definitely said exactly what I wanted to. Loved Sprout, it’s my favorite surf film, but I didn’t really need to watch parts of it reenacted. Tyler is an amazing shaper and surfer, but all those scenes might as well have been from Singlefin: Yellow. I was hoping for something a little different and not as long. My friends and I were definitely sitting there trying to figure out when it ended.
Probably won’t be buying it since I already the two movies it’s based on. I also don’t feel it was worth the $10 I paid. For $5 I could have been a lot happier.