The Living Curl (1965)

Jamie Budge captured through his lenses the golden era of Californinan surf

"The Living Curl" is one of the local classics of the 60´that kept all its charm up to the present. Much thanks to the figure of legendary surfer Jamie Budge, who also became a prominent surf filmmaker, an activity that he began at an early age. He started filming with 8 mm with only 16 years of age. The stars of those first "homemade" filmings were Budge himself and his friends. However, Budge soon earned status as a film director and great californian surfers of the time (such as Dewey Weber, Lance Carson or Miki Dora) followed to be the main subjects of his next movies.

In "The Living Curl", Budge captures the Malibu scene in all its splendor. Another reviewer summed up with great exactitude the quality of this movie: "Great shots of surfers who were the icons of the day demonstrating their trademark styles as well as some front edge progressive moves. Great footage of early contests which were won more for takeoff rights in the line-up than anything else.

Essentially what you get with this piece of history is the essence of the golden era of american surf.

TLDR: For those of us that grew up surfing in the sixties, "The Living Curl" is like having Surfer Magazine circa 1961-1964 come alive.

Castles in the Sky (2010)

Taylor Steele reached excellence... once again

..nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people

                                                                  Mark Twain

Castles in the Sky is the incredible sequel to Sipping Jetstreams, the epic 2006 movie about Taylor Steele´s and Dustin Humphrey´s surfing travels around the world. What made that flick so appealing resided in the distinctive philosophy that both filmmakers shared on the whole concept behind the making of surf films . In their website it is written that "they decided to scrap the old surf-travel strategy of fly in, surf, fly out in a favour of true exploration of a culture - physical, spiritual, musical, and emotional. Ten-day trips were replaced with two-month sabbaticals. They gave up the `sure to score´ mentality that had dominated surf travel for decades in favor of a more rhythmyc journey into the heart of a place". You don´t get this kind of approach in many surf movies today, do you?

Because the project behind Sipping Jetstreams appeared to a larger-than-life enterprise, both filmmakers rapidly realized that the solution would be to make a new movie, where the new corners that were going to be explored could be included. For this second feature you also get a whole cast of world class surf pros. From the hottest beaches to the coldest waves, every surfer and his respective destination can even take you by surprise: Dane Reynolds in Iceland, Dave Rastovich in India, Rob Machado in Peru, just to name a few.

However, the great triumph in "Castles in the sky" (and of the duology) is the enormous talent of Taylor Steele. He expresses in his movies a sensitive look that goes behind the typical surf clip, a trait that puts is work alongside with any other masterpiece of cinema. Verdict: 9/10

TLDR: Sipping Jetstreams isn't just a film, a book or an article in a magazine...it's a movement.

To know more about the movie crew check here.

Magnificent Surf filming

Some days ago I posted this video and it was the most viewed post on Great Surf Movies. Like me, I presume you loved to watch the act of surfing from a new perspective. One of my interests in watching so many surf movies is to retain the filming techniques used by the best directors. When you want to catch the perfect ride, the use of cinematography plays the most important role in the whole process. So it is with great enthusiasm that I am happy to show you the HD super slow motion video of big wave surfer Dylan Longbottom. Just enjoy.

Shelter (2001)

 There is just something about 16 mm that makes it the perfect film for every surfing movie. The light takes on a nostalgic tone and makes the flicks look like the great classics of the 60´s. But not only the type of film used takes us back to the past. The objective of joining a bunch of great surfers in an isolated house on the australian coast, without any competitive or commercial reasons and just being there to surf for the surf´s sake, is one more peculiar feature to add to this movie with a touch of surf´s glorious past.

 But unlike other surf movies, the film´s quality is not only supported solely by magnificent filming techniques or a solid soundtrack headed by Joachim Cooder (from the award winning documentary "Buena Vista Social Club"), but by a true meeting of giants. What a cast you can expect to find: Rob Machado, Taylor Knox, Joel Tudor, Mick Fanning, Kelly Slatter, Joe Curren, just to name some of the few. And what better reason could there be to join so many big names than to make them just enjoy themselves, taking the waves without the pressure of competition and the feeling the surf with the detachment of ten year old kids.

I recomend this flick to all who expect to find in every surf movie an ecletic piece of art of its own. Taylor Steele and Chris Malloy had to face very difficult choices on editing the whole thirty hour footage and very good material had to be put aside to fit in the 42 minutes duration of the film (undoubtedly the biggest flaw of Shelter"). Like a fine piece of swiss chocolate you will have to bet satisfied with a tiny little bit of the stuff, but what great sensations it will produce. Verdict: 7/10

Endless Summer II (1994)

       

 Few are the sequels that are up to the quality of the original movie and Endless Summer II belongs to that restricted club. It  managed to keep the level of excelence of Bruce Brown´s masterpiece made 28 years before. Like the first flick it is a road movie. But instead of just discovering new waves, surfers Pat O´Connel and Robert Weaver retrace the steps of the first duo Mike Hynson and Robert August. What follows is a journey where the two american surfers observe what has changed on the places that the first film portrayed which such an innocent beauty.

       Endless Summer II has everything that made Bruce Brown the Spielberg of surf movies. The footage and specially the photography are near to cinematographic perfection. The surfing itself is masterfully filmed (the     underwater camera work is almost symphonic in its composition!) but as any surf film connoisseur knows what takes every surf movie to another level are the quality of the segments in between of the surfing clips, and solely for that Endless Summer is a masterpiece. The narration is humorous and the treatment of the ocean, landscape, cultures and people encountered will stay etched in the memory of every surfer for a long time.

Verdict: 9/10

Chasing the Lotus (2006)

          

     If there should be a surfing movie that represented something like a compendium of surf history this is it. The project was itself colossal: to reunite 40 years of surf history based on surf photos mainly taken by legendary surf photographer Greg Weaver from Surfer magazine and also footage from many landmark movies. The task was largely unmeasured and the expectations were maybe too high but, after all, lets be reallistic: 40 years of the rich history of surf would never fit into only 90 minutes of film. However, some good aspects are effective in hiding some of the flaws found in the movie. The interviews and the interviewed are excellent, and the authors (Greg mad it together with Spyder Willis) are sucessfull in grasping the adventure like sentiment and wanderlust that surround surfing since its invention. Oh, and Jeff "The Dude" Bridges does the narration.

verdict: 7/10 Check a more detailed review in the next link:  http://www.onelastwave.com/SurfFlickReviews/ChasingTheLotus.htm