We spent the first half of September working on this with the 4th crew… The trip will be the main feature in the next issue of the magazine, out at the end of the month, and the film of the trip premieres this weekend at the London Surf /Film Festival…
We wanted to create a movie, that really reflected the 4th brand and our team riders in an honest way, we didn’t want to try and be something we aren’t, our brief was pretty simple really just to be ourselves and document what happened. As a group of surfers the 4th team have such varied personalities and styles we wanted to capture that along side their high performance surfing. We wanted to capture what makes “us” as a team, we are not sure what it even is but hopefully people will get it and see how much fun this crew had together in a different environment, how they stood out as individuals, in an amazing setting with really fun waves. The result, captured by various angles sewn together with an eclectic soundtrack from punk to swing and anything in between is “us.” We hope you like it.
The Fourth Team in the Mentawais. Tom Butler, Alan Stokes, Oli Adams, Gearoid McDaid, Tassy Swallow, Adam ‘Bearman’ Griffiths, Corrine Evans, Angus Scotney, Em Williams, Lee Bartlett.
Produced by Fourth Surfboards and Magicseaweed. Supported by The Powerful Water Company. Film and Edit by Mr B. Stills and additional footage by Roger Sharp, Ben Jones, Luke Hart. Created by 4th Surfboards.
With cutting edge surfing and amazing art direction Volcom’s films have cut a swathe through surf culture since 1993. Their latest is set to be let loose in September. Come with us behind the scenes and chat to Mitch and Ozzie some of the main protagonists.
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What’s it like to be in a Volcom movie? As a kid BS was the highlight of my career. Everything I’d ever done surfing it all came down to that … it was the pinnacle. It’s all downhill from here.
Did the old movies like Magnaplasm inspire you as a grom? I remember watching them all and thinking ‘that would be the coolest thing in the world.’ Not getting into specifics of particular movies but even before I was sponsored being in a Volcom movie seemed liked the ultimate. To end up being sponsored and appearing in them now is mad. It was a pivotal moment when it came to figuring out what I wanted to do with my life.
The films helped you get to where you are now? For sure. It gave me a level to achieve.I wanted to be Dustin Cuizon so badly. Then when I was on the team I got two waves in Creepy Fingers. It’s not what I wanted but to be featured as a kid was huge. I was still stoked. Any young kid would be. You’re being showcased on a world wide stage. I’m still so grateful to be involved in anything they do.
How is being in Indo filming with Ozzie Wright… Ozzie’s 156 Tricks from my childhood memories … was so different. I had a whole wall of his photos and art. Pretty baffling that I’m here now on a trip with him filming for a section.
He’s still a big influence? He’s certainly got longevity… He’s a legend. An actual legend. If I can get a section in a movie when I’m nearing my forties… He’s still reinventing himself. He’s still surfing more than anyone on this boat trip and having more fun than anyone. Surfing all kinds of boards … whether it’s one foot or whatever. He’s stoked if he’s doing the biggest air of the day or a cheater five.
Stoked to be working with RT on this project? I’m excited for this movie. He has a vision. We are all working towards the same goal. I can’t wait to see it unfold. I want to do more trips, film more with this crew, get the best I can for the film. I’m really excited too see how it turns out. You’re involved with what he’s trying to accomplish, you’re part of the film, rather than a puppet on a string.
Best filming trip? Definitely South Australia with Ozzie. Just us two in the water. Pretty low key, it’s an isolated spot, you don’t get many camera crews allowed down there. It was a privilege. We partied with the locals, the waves were just insane, it’s the sickest spot.We all got to embrace the real Australia. I love going to the desert. That was the best for me.
Tell us about Carlos Munoz? Everyone on this trip has baffled me in some way … in the way that they surf. I’ve been surfing with him a few years now and even more than Dane Reynolds he is the most sporadic surfer in the world. You never know what the kid is going to do when he takes off on a wave.
How about Yago? Intimidating to surf with him? (Mitch does a hearty laugh) He’s out there every second of the day doing back flips. As soon as the boat pulls up he’s out there. You can’t even try and comprehend. You just have to stick to your own game plan. He will blow you out of the water nine times out of ten. I’m just trying to keep up now with the way that everyone’s surfing. He’s definitely proven to me over and over again he’s the future. One of the coolest kids coming out of Brazil and I’m stoked on the path he’s taking. He’s doing it right and I’m stoked to be working with him. The kid’s insane.
Droid? He is been my favourite surfer to watch on this trip. So different to everyone else. It makes you think about the way you surf. He shapes boards for specific turns that he wants to do?! The shit that he does is so different to anything I’d ever try. It’s just baffling.
Miguel Tudela? Peru’s pretty sick. He did two flips the other day at Lance’s Right which was pretty baffling. I was all ‘it’s perfect flip conditions’ the kid went out and did two. I was all ‘right, I’m going back to the boat!’ I’ve known him for a few years and the worldwide crew from all over are so sick. He’s been ripping the whole trip.
How do you see your career path if you weren’t with Volcom? I couldn’t picture myself anywhere else. I would probably not be surfing. I’d be f@cked. What we’ve been trying to accomplish in all parts of my career they’ve been amazing. It’s the raddest thing in the world.
What was your first impression of Volcom films? The first film I watched was ‘Alive We Ride’ before I rode for Volcom and my friend Spillsy surfed for them and was like the first Aussie rider in there and I was like ‘Oh my God.’ It changed the way I looked at everything and it was the first time I had ever seen such awesome youth. I don’t know, it just made me want to shred so much. It changed my life. I had to ride for Volcom and I was stoked when I got to. I think they are just the best movies they are cult classics … So much heart and soul.
The trips I have done for the films have taken me to the next level. I mean I got to go on trips with people like the late Barney Barron. Barney was such a big influence on me. He was the life of the party in and out of the water every day. If you were surfing with Barney it was like being at party. Every wave he surfed made me laugh my head off. He was always painting and drawing and just being hilarious. I did crazy trips with Bruce Irons and he was shredding … it was awesome.
What do you think about this movie? I can’t wait to see it. The Volcom team is in a really awesome spot. The characters in the team are massive and everyone has a really good personality and surf with a lot of character so yeah I can’t wait to see it.
What do you think of Mitch? Mitch is heavy hitter. He don’t muck around, he wants serious shit. If the surf isn’t the best best waves you have ever seen he just stays asleep. He gets lots of sleep and that’s good for health and healing and when he does surf like three foot he does airs that are like five feet. He does he biggest airs, it’s sick. Mitch rips.
What do you think of Yago? Yago is like a freak of nature. He’s like ‘Robotron’. He is 16 and six feet tall, his bones are made of rubber even though they have broken. He rips everything. He is cross between Damian Hardman and Christian Fletcher. He can do eight turns to the beach and the craziest airs you have ever seen. He’s an absolute freak.
Carlos? Costa Rica’s finest. Looks like a palm tree and surfs like a God! He’s classic!
Droid? Droid is one the biggest natural talents the world has seen. He is super humble and the natural ability inside of him is another level. It is so instinctual. He can play the guitar like a freak and he can surf with pure instinct. It is really good to watch. He fits the wave, there’s no thinking, he is an animal.
What’s this trip been like and what’s it like to be a veteran on the team now? It’s been a really cool ride and the flavour of the South and Central Americans … to have that international vibe is amazing. They come from such different backgrounds. As an Aussie we are brought up on the Aussies and Americans owning all the media and whatever you see, so it is good to see the guys having the chance to display their moves and personalities and I think it will bring something new. I would love to know all about these guys and where they grew up as opposed to us who grew up in first world countries like spoilt brats. A lot of these guys come from places where they had to fight so hard for anything and you can see it in the lineup … they are working so hard.
Who are your favourite guys that you have filmed with over the years? Gavin Beschen who is one of the most unique individuals I have ever met. He’s a really inspirational guy but you will never got to the bottom of him. You will never figure him out. And then we had like Brad Anderson who filmed ‘Computer Body’ in Australia who was really funny. Somedays you would look at the surf and it was would be really good and you’d be like ‘Where’s Brad?’ and he would have like disappeared into town an hour’s drive away to pay for some exotic massages.
156 Tricks was sick because I met ‘Hollywood’ who was making movies way before iMovie and the like. We call him ‘Hollywood’ because he was he only person we knew that could make movies! Then he decided he didn’t want to travel around the world visiting amazing places for a year filming, so I had a friend ‘Cowboy’ who was like one of my oldest buddies and a cabinet maker, so we hired him! We had one day in France where I surfed a shorey and I was having a full shorey bash and it ended up with like 50-60 people all on the beach screaming and applauding and it was like best session of year. Cowboy was in the next town shacked up with a beautiful French woman. I couldn’t blame him … But I was definitely bummed! But he did a great job on that film. He is the kind of guy that can do anything, modelling, filming, cabinet making, drumming.
Do you think that part of surfing is gone: party first and everything else falls into place, instead of work your brains out until they are fried? I do feel it is so professional now and everyone has to try so hard. There is something to be said about living your life and surfing when you are in the mood and capturing it when the planets come together. You just get that special feel. Like you can have surfing as a job but I don’t think you should ever feel it is a job. It should be a celebration of how you feel. Volcom has always embodied that and captured the life we live.
How has surfing for Volcom affected your life? For me it was almost like college. I quit school and hooked up with Volcom and luckily it wasn’t a bunch of robots doing their job, it was a bunch of artists that were so into everything: music, art, surf and skate. There were so many mentors who schooled me on everything I need to know. I wouldn’t be half he person I am now without their help.
What has this Indo trip been like? The surf hasn’t been that great a lot of the time so this trip has been a little like a slumber party with 15 dudes all wrapped up in blankets in a dark a room with the air-con on watching movie after movie after American teen movie. The other day was hilarious, Yago said, ‘Hey you guys, what’s a boner?’ Haha! He opened a Pandora’s Box of ‘A boner is…’ and fifty words to describe it. We had a boner-thesaurus.
So one filming trip went to South Oz which is a really sharky. How does it feel being a father surfing these places? It is pretty unnerving to surf these places. The first day we had to surf a spot where I know a kid had been killed. And my leggy broke and I had to swim across the channel worrying about being eaten by a shark. The second day we came in and Nate, one of the filmers, was like, ‘Did you see that Great White, there was a 20 footer right there. I would have screamed but you guys were already coming in.’ I looked down the beach and saw a 20 foot Great White jump out of the water and eat a seal. It is pretty frightening, no one is ever in the water and the waves are incredible but … every beach you go to there is a remembrance plaque where someone has been eaten by a shark. So the ratio is terrible. It is scary. For me now as a family man with two children I definitely self preserve a lot more than I used to and try to stay alive as long as I can. So surfing death defying waves I’m over it! And sharks … I don’t like them!
Surfing and Hollywood have never been easy bedfellows. To represent our zealously guarded subculture to the masses has rarely worked out all that well. Surfing, like the extreme sports subcultures it inspired, don’t favour being paraded for the mainstream. Sure the recent documentaries have kind of worked but the great Hollywood surf film remains to be made. Join us on a romp through the celluloid highs and lows of Tinsel Town’s dalliances with the glide. This list is by no means exhaustive, just the films that have had an impact.
GIDGET (1959)
Few of you reading will be old enough to remember the first foray of Hollywood into the fledgling Californian surf culture.
Inspired by a real girl, Kathy Kohler, Gidget was based on the half million selling book written by her father Frederick. He wrote the book after listening to her tales of the Malibu scene. Cheesy as it was the tale of a cute girl discovering boys and surfing was a nationwide hit. It’s widely regarded as the film that alerted America to the fact there was more to the beach than just sun-baking and swimming; ushering in the classic ‘surfing sixties’ era when the Beach Boys and Californian lifestyle were the envy of the world. Legends like Mickey Dora, Mike Doyle and Micky Munoz featured as stunt doubles. Ironically the ‘Malibu’ tale was filmed up the coast as Malibu was already too busy. Perversely Surfer magazine debuted the following year.
Factoid:Gidget is a contraction of girl-midget as she stood a towering five foot tall.
ENDLESS SUMMER (1964, theatrical release 1966)
Bruce Brown’s iconic all-time classic is that rare beast: a pure surf movie that became a mainstream success. Even though stripped back it’s a simple travelogue following Robert August and Mike Hynson searching the world for the perfect wave it captured the essence of surfing like no film before or since. After being toured around the beach towns, as was the way in those days, it was test screened in Kansas in winter. It went down so well it was blown up to 35mm for the proper cinema crowd and put on general release. The one man crew film cost $50,000 to make and went on to make $30 million. Not a bad for a filmmaker in his late twenties. Even today the imagery, narration, music and poster design are timeless. It’s one of the few essential movies every surfer should watch.
BIG WEDNESDAY (1978)
Big Wednesday is beloved by many. Directed and co-written by John Milius it’s coming of age theme hits home with all surfers. Weirdly it was a flop at the cinema and became a cult success once home video took off. It’s one of those films that’s gifted us with many much repeated quotes. In the limited pantheon of Hollywood surf films that aren’t stinkers this is probably the most rounded feature film. Surfing is the one thing that can glue friendship together no matter what life throws our way.
Factoid: Milieus and friends George Lucas and Steven Spielberg exchanged a percentage point of the income from their upcoming movies 1977 Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. They were both convinced it was going to be a huge hit. So while the surf movie tanked that deal must’ve been quite a zinger as those other directors did ‘okay’.
APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
Surfing is an element, not the focus, of Francis Ford Coppola’s legendary film. But it is possibly the strangest bit of surfing committed to celluloid. The classic ‘I love the smell of napalm in the morning’ scene is delivered by Colonel ‘Charlie don’t surf’ Kilgore in the midst of a battle to secure a Vietnamese beach village so they can surf the river mouth peaks. People surf as shells explode around them. All kinds of bonkers. Written by Big Wednesday man John Milius it was nearly directed by George Lucas but he got Star Wars green-lit and went on to do that instead. The film is also credited with introducing surfing to the Philippines where the ‘Nam scenes were filmed.
NORTH SHORE (1987)
Possibly the best cheesy surf movie ever. Rick Kane’s odyssey from Arizona wave pool hero to the learning the ropes on the fabled North Shore is essential viewing for all surfers. Mainly so you can know when other surfers are dropping one of the many quotable bits of dialogue. That and it’s a handy guide to learning Hawaiian pidgin. It features cameos from many legends like Occy, Pagey, Laird and Lopez. A perfect time capsule of eighties surfing and something you gots to see.
SURF NAZIS MUST DIE (1987)
The best slash worst surf B-movie ever made. Surf Nazis was made seemingly on a budget of about a tenner. The surf ‘gangs’ tend to have a maximum of four people in them and it’s utterly hilarious in it’s own mad post apocalyptic way. The eighties was the era of home video becoming a big thing so polished turds like this could get released straight to video without having to be good enough to be in cinemas. A definite winner of the so bad it’s good category.
POINT BREAK (1991)
Kathryn Bigelow is more famous for the epic Iraq movie The Hurt Locker but she cut her action teeth on this crime surf caper that has a place in our hearts no matter how wrong it might be considered by some. The late Patrick Swayze is perfect as the groovy villain Bodhi and Keanu is as wooden as ever but it works. It’s a pop corn film about bank robbers that surf a bit. You have to have seen it, just so you can have an opinion. It does feature the immortal line from Utah, ‘Wars of religion always make me laugh because basically you’re fighting over who has the best imaginary friend.’ Keanu actually learned to surf for the movie and still does. Swayze also did his own skydiving stunts.
ENDLESS SUMMER 2 (1994)
The reboot of Endless Summer followed Robert ‘Wingnut’ Weaver and Pat O’Connell on a modern version of the original. Whilst appreciated by surfers it didn’t hit the box office like the original. Bruce Brown’s son Dana went on to make Step Into Liquid which is kinda Endless Summer 3.
BLUE JUICE (1995)
The lone Cornish entry in the mainstream movie field has, in retrospect, a pretty heavyweight cast. Catherine Zeta Jones and Ewan McGregor went on to be global megastars. It’s actually a good film, funny dialogue and a story that all surfing couples can relate to. The pressures of growing up and being a productive member of society versus the head in the clouds surf obsession. Many local Cornish faces are in there as extras.
IN GODS HANDS (1998)
You know… There’s a wave…
Shane Dorian might be an all time surfing MVP and hero to many but in some surfer’s closets is an embarrassing Hollywood outing. This was Dozzas. The surfing at least doesn’t involve stunt doubles and is well shot. It’s only the dialogue that’s ugly. Directed by an erotica specialist, Zalman King, more famous for 9 & A Half Weeks, it was written by surf journo Matt George who also starred. It tanked hard at the box office. Reviews featured words like: turgid, pretentious, abysmal, tepid, bogus and vapid. Suffice to say it never made the 10 mill back it cost to make. It did at least feature the likes of Shaun Tomson, Brian Keaulana, Darrick Doerner, Brock Little and Mike Stewart.
Factoid: The production company was owned by Charlie Sheen and that Bret bloke off of Poison. So they could afford to take the hit.
BLUE CRUSH (2002)
Seeing as the first surf movie was about a girl surfer it’s pretty poor it took over forty years for there to be another one. Whilst the story is forgettable the surfing is well shot and it inspired a generation of women to get in the water. We were there on the North Shore they were shooting it and somehow the shot Sonny Miller took of Sharpy pretending to shoot photos never made the final cut… The swines.
RIDING GIANTS (2004)
A rarity as a documentary that made it to big screen. If there’s one thing that really works on the big screen it’s big wave surfing and Stacy Peralta didn’t disappoint. The film charts the evolution of surfing from its humble origins to the state of the art of big wave surfing in the mid-noughties. It was the first documentary film to open the Sundance Film Festival, introduced by Robert Redford himself, which after Peralta’s Dogtown and Z-Boys is no great surprise.
SURF’S UP (2007)
Yes. It’s an animation. But some of the best work in Hollywood is being done by the animation studios and this penguin based surf odyssey had the pull to get Kelly Slater and Rob Machado involved as cameo commentators. It’s similar tale to North Shore as the young outsider learns from a wise old surfer to beat the establishment while learning lessons on love and life along the way. It’s charming and the perfect first kids surf flick with enough surf smarts to keep adults happy.
CHASING MAVERICKS (2012)
The tragic story of Maverick’s legend Jay Moriarty should’ve been left well alone.
Factoid: According to imdb.com six Red Epic cameras were lost during filming. Not cheap that.
POINT BREAK 2 (2015)
Coming this Christmas. It faces the final instalment of the Hunger Games trilogy (in four parts) and the new totally awesome looking Star Wars. Gulp. It’s not a sequel, more an ‘inspired by’ as the criminals in the new one aren’t just surfers. They seem adept at every extreme sport known to man. Apart from kayaking and skateboarding. But who knows those could be in the final edit. Whilst the trailer has been met with universal derision and vitriolic hate by fans of the original we’ll have to wait and see if it can harness any of the charm of the inspirational material. All we know is somehow they’ve taken the incredible spectacle of huge Teahupoo and CGI’d the surfers even smaller?! Which seems a bit daft seeing as it will blow the mainstream viewer away as is.
So there you go. Over fifty years of surfing in the cinema and we’re still waiting on one that we can really be truly proud of.
So. It’s finally here. The trailer for whatever you’d like to call this new version of Point Break. A reimagining? A homage? A bastard child? Who knows.
The original, in surfing circles at least, is a cult classic. Not so much for it’s surfing but more for just being a mainstream Hollywood film with surfing in it that wasn’t a total cringe fest. Hell it had cameos from Matt Archbold and Dino Andino, not to mention Mr Chili Pepper as a classic, surf-Nazi, grumpy local.
Admittedly the reason the original flew, apart from the sure handed direction of Kathryn Bigelow (who went on to make The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty), was the cast. Patrick Swayze was a deadset screen icon already. Gary Busey a firm favourite in surfing circles thanks to his barnstorming showing as Leroy the Masochist in Big Wednesday and Keanu Reeves dropped the, admittedly very funny, dopey Bill and Ted schtick to man up in his first grown up role.
It was a simple story of bank robbing, adrenalin junky, surfers up against the Feds. Outside of surfing circles it’s become one of the nineties action cop classics as immortalised in Hot Fuzz:
Danny: Have you ever fired your gun up in the air and gone ‘Arrrrrghhhh!!!’ Nicholas: No.
Now the new version. We know they filmed some surfing sequences at big Teahupoo. Apart from that it seems to be an energy drink advertising campaign gone mad. No longer are the protagonists surfers with a penchant for skydiving. They are ‘extreme athletes’. So they’re snowboarding, motor-crossing, base-jumping, skydiving, surfing, climbing, multi-discipline specialists. Impressive in its self that anyone has the time to be proficient at all the above.
If nothing else it looks impressive. The stars don’t have the pull of the original cast but that’s not always a bad thing. Who’d heard of anyone in Star Wars before that blew the doors off of cinema history? The suspension of disbelief is sometimes a good thing. They’ve also borrowed the sound effects CD from the Transformers franchise which is no bad thing.
It’s not in cinemas until December so we will gladly sit through it then, unless it opens on the same night as the new Star Wars in which case, err, no.
Edit: The people have spoken … the consensus on a fired up Carve FB is a big fat glass of ‘nope!’
Below is some free surfing from the filming session at Teahupoo.
