Where is Matt Johnson ?

General Discussion
1

Was Matt Johnson [big Wednesday] a real person or just an enigma?

 

If he is real, I suspect. He is probably a surfboard shaper hear on

 

Swaylock's.

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xgBnGQhAUI

2

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xgBnGQhAUI]

3

If I’m not mistaken Matt Johnson was Billy Hamilton and J. Riddle.

Best Hollywood surf movie ever…which is not saying much.

4

Spouse there is a bit of a resemblance and he’s a

Legend. What proof is out there?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdZ9Fs2hyQs

5


In 1976, Hamilton was chosen to do the surfing for Jan Michael Vincent’s character, Matt Johnson, in John Milius’ Big Wednesday, as well as the scene in which lifeguards abandon their small boat in the pit of a giant, oncoming wave. Afterward, Hamilton began shaping under the Bear label depicted in the movie. Business boomed with the late '80s surfwear explosion as Bear expanded its line, replacing fishing as his main source of income. The success was fleeting as Milius sued for patent rights, leaving Hamilton back where he started.

 

 

Hears proof that Billy was the stunt dubble but not the enigma

Or the base character 

 

 

http://www.surfline.com/surfing-a-to-z/billy-hamilton-biography-and-photos_825/

6

And the real Matt Johnson is Denny Aaberg  books.google.com.auDavid Rensin - 2009 - 496 pages - Google eBook - Preview 

Denny Aaberg's is fabulous. If you ever get a chance to see John Milius's filmBig Wednesday, just before the movie ends a guy paddles out and talks to another guy who is talking about selling drugs to the kids. That's Denny doing Miki.

I am trying to find footage of him surfing, has anyone on sway’s met

Denny Aaberg is he a shaper and what’s his label?

7

 

 

This is the man playing the guitar 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZnImbC2spw

 

 

 

 

8

http://www.lancecarsonsurfboards.com/

sorry this is Matt Johnson / Lance Carson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyThkb112Tw And theirs
the undisputable truth !

9

 

Aaberg wrote much of the screenplay for Big Wednesday. The Matt Johnson character was based on Lance Carson. Some of the scenes in the film were actual incidents involving Carson as witnessed by Aaberg. Such as, the pissing in his friend’s mom’s steam iron. Search for an article in Surfer Mag by Aaberg titled “No Pants Mance”.

 

PS: Milius is a jerk.

 

10

let lance be seen.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1Y4-57L9WI

millius ia the guy with the beard

then we have dora:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=tchHtWNZkDE&feature=endscreen

 

count the guys out surfing.

 

any body could play the drum

solo on their school desk or dash board in the car

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG2naf70MbY

 

well maybe I am stoked again enough to shape.

…ambrose…

and glass

11

Aaberg, Denny**
Good-natured surfer/writer/musician from Pacific Palisades, California; best known as co-writer of Warner Brothers’ 1978 surfing film Big Wednesday. Aaberg was born (1947) in Boston, Massachusetts, and moved with his family at age two to the west Los Angeles town of Pacific Palisades. By the time he began surfing in ’59, as a 12-year-old, his older brother Kemp was regarded as one of California’s top surfers. Aaberg’s involvement in the sport branched out as he played guitar for the soundtrack on Innermost Limits of Pure Fun, a 1970 surf movie, and contributed a song to Big Wednesday — a movie inspired by “No-Pants Mance,” a 1974 Surfer magazine short story written by Aaberg that looked back at his wave- and beer-soaked salad days at Malibu in the early ’60s. The sandy-haired Aaberg continued to serve as keeper of the Malibu flame, appearing in the ’87 documentary The Legends of Malibu, and describing in detail Malibu’s characters, scene and rituals in “Tres Amigos,” a ’94 Longboard magazine feature. “Malibu was rough theater,” Aaberg wrote. “In ancient Greece, plays lasted all day, beginning at dawn and not ending until dusk. Malibu was the same way.” See also Big Wednesday.

12

So, who was the ‘masochist?’  Who was that charactor based on?  Anyone know?  Mike

13

http://www.bigsurf.com/products/clarchives/masochist.html

14

my friend roger grew up with the aabergs. he and denny were best friends, surfed together,etc. has some great stories of things that went on back then, both in and out of the water. the three main characters in BW were each a conglomeration of a few real folks rolled into one. eg, matt was based on lance but not entirely. same with the other two.  j riddle did surf for some of the matt scenes.others that were top names then that surfed as doubles were pt and ian.

15

 

Correct. PT doubled for Katt, and Cairns doubled for Busey. However, some of the footage of “Matt” was really J M Vincent. Of all the Hollywood actors who claimed to surf, he actually knew how.

16

The crew that did the water photography, along with some of the stunt (surf) doubles became known as the “A Team Water Unit”. This was before the TV show with a similar name existed.

Here is a crew shirt I own.

17

well maybe I am stoked again enough to shape.

...ambrose...

and glass

ambrose m.curry III

 

 

That’s what I’m talking about ! 

18

well maybe I am stoked again enough to shape.

…ambrose…

and glass

ambrose m.curry III

**That’s what I’m
talking about ! **

I hear that!!!

19

marta backed into a tree

today was fix her bumper

and hammer out dents

in a piece of sheet metal

got up at dawn to reurect

a little girl’s fave board.

didn’t shape today

except for foiling a

glasson…

…ambrose…

20

Bill Hamilton also did some of the Matt doubles