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Kelly Slater in Black and White (1991)

Facts are facts: 10 world titles and 46 WTC wins. Ladies and Gentleman: Kelly Slater. Not only arguably the best competition surfer of all time but also the only one that made the breakthrough into american mainstream culture, achieving something like a rock star celebrity status. However, Kelly´s success didn´t came out of the blue. Kelly allied from the beginning of his career talent and consistency in his performances taking many of them to absolute perfection.

In the early nineties, when "Kelly Slater in Black and White" was being filmed, his career was already booming: world champion at the tender age of twenty. All the traits of his surf style were already there. You see a young Slater (with lots of hair back then) clean-cutting Lowers´s waves like no other.

The final result is nothing special. The film is basically a collection of surf clips and interviews that in some cases are quite dull. The music is mostly made by Seattle bands from the nineties, such as Mother Love Bone and others. In short, the very importance of this movie is as an historical document that shows of the dawn of a legend in surfing. Just that makes it a solid recommendation for everyone who enjoys to watch surf history as it happened.

Next watch a video where Kelly talks about the movie.

A pleasant surprise (2009)

Well, the titles sums it all up really. Who would expect that one of the best surf movies of the last decade would come straight out of New Jersey? With this flick the garden state surfing community has definitely conquered its place and respect.

The film follows day by day the fast growing surf scene in N.J. Surfing in the east is much harder than many would imagine: thumping beach breaks, cold water and quick tropical storms are just a tiny fraction of what many endure to make what they truly love to do in those meloncolic beaches.

Beautifully filmed in 16 mm, the duo of directors Nick Zegel and Kyle Pahlow made an astonishing peace of art. After all, it is the culmination of three years of footage and standing interaction with the locals. The account you get is both realistic and entertaining.

The movie completes its uniqueness with an ecletic set of music bands: Yeasayer, Mondoggies, The Rubies, Here we go Magic and many others.

Here you can find an interesting interview with the directors.

Check out on http://www.apleasantsurprisefilm.com/ for more.

Riding giants (2004)

Big wave riders will always have a special place among the community. When the smallest waves are 20 feet high everything is being taken to a whole new level. Not only the hazards involved are life threatening but also the challenge becomes too unbearable for even the most of the world´s skilled surfers.

When Z-Boy Stacy Peralta decided to start the project of making a movie about the world´s best town inners everyone knew it was going to be in good hands. After all Stacey helped to define surf culture as we know it today. Riding Giants is the first film Stacy did after the resounding success of "Dogtown and Z boys", which was the account of his own youth as part of the legendary zephyr skateboard team.

Riding giants remains the best movie on the subject we can find. It is an accurate historical overview over the beginnings of giant waves riding from the beaches of hawaii to the coast of California. It helps us understand how legendary waves such as Teahupoo,Cyclops, Pipeline or Mavericks together with names like Greg Noll, Jeff Clark or Mickey Munoz became more and more ingrained in surf mythology. Unmissable.

Morning of the earth (1971)

Forget the jet skis, the highly planned trips, the satellite imaging, or those expensive surfsuits. In 1971 all people had were surfboards and some maps. It was an age filled with pure romanticism around the surf community. Firm believers of these principles, a group of australians took the decision to surf the coasts of north Australia, Hawaii and Bali having only by company the old volkswagen and a video camera.

Far from living for themselves, the surfers connected with the local communities and embodied an attitude of liberty and peace towards nature and other surfers.You get the idea: hippie culture was in its heyday and more than any other, this film reflects in every sense that era. A must-watch for every surfer.

Next, watch the famous opening sequence of the film.

Bustin´ down the door (2008)

Once in a while there is a surf movie that actually gets to break into the main film industry and conquer the appraise of most critics. I could enumerate many reasons for this breakthrough and maybe the easiest ones would be to point that this is not an hardcore surf movie, which is true - it is a documentary -, I could also say that the narration by Edward Norton must have attracted people that otherwise would´nt give a f##k about it, which, if you think about it, is also true.

However, the secret for the imense success that the film attracted relied mostly on a group of crazy ozzies and south africans that almost alone revolutionized surf.The personalties of these mad, fearless but overly talented surfers reverbate in every minute of the movie. Solely, they are the soul and matter of what the film is made.

But let´s take it from the beginning. In the early seventies the surf spots of Australia and South Africa were not the surf meccas they are today. Those places were overshadowed by mighty Hawaii and its bunch of feared pro surfers. By the time, the famous Nort Shore was the place were the best surfers of the world came to show what they were worth. Reputations were either destroyed or gained.

Locals were dominating the scene, but not for long. In the year of 1973, six underdogs called Wayne "Rabbit", Peter Townend, Mark Richards, Ian Cairns and the cousins Michael and Shaun Tomson came to take the center stage for the surprise (and envy) of many. Their agressive style impressed the otherwise laid back hawaiian surfers and set the beginning of a strong competition in the years to come. Those bad boys with strange accents and rude attitudes were about to change the surf sport forever.They left everything to show americans what the dangerous waters were they grew teached them. What follows is pure adrenaline filled surf history...

Bustin´dow the door is after all a story about growing up and defying everything to make your own goals come true.