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you always knew that just one word would dry up all my tears -
(pre website edit)
First things first – this is a great surf movie.
Let’s forget the bar-tab running out 45 mins after the doors opened, before the film started.
Let’s forget the half-filled venue.
Let’s forget the grainy projector fed screen.
Let’s forget the notable absence of one, J Dub.Deep breath. Calm blue ocean. Righto.
From the get-go Scratching the Surface pulls you in and beats you upside the head with the talent that is Julian Wilson.
More real than Mod Coll and quite a fair bit more accessible than Castles in the Sky, Scratching the Surface was worth the wait.
After the ubiquitous hi-fi intro, we’re thrust into a Julian coming of age montage, which is sometimes funny, sometimes touching, but mostly blindingly embarrassing to ones own surf ability. By the age of 10, J Dub had mastered things that many of us haven’t even figured out by the age of 25, if at all – both on long and short boards (not to mention skateboards and snowboards!)The lengthy path that Julian has already traveled is succinctly edited into a worthy highlights reel, cut with a perfect song, helping to emphasize the legacy that is the Wilson clan and lay foundation for the craziness to come – both in the film and in real life.
From here, the viewer is taken on a no-expenses-spared trip around the world – Hawaii, Europe, Indo, Africa, Australia. With a bunch of buds in tow (Dane, Taj, Dusty, Mick) the crew dismantle a variety of average to super surf in a somewhat daunting hint of what is to come in Pro surfing - Hang on! Dane, Julian, Dusty? The future is now brah! (You’ve really got to feel for the guys that just got knocked from the ‘CT hey, once they see this, they’ll be ringing up council faster than you can say ‘How do I start my own surf school?’)
So what were the highlights oh avid and curious reader?
For one, the soundtrack was rulin’! Werd.
Second, I don’t think you can go past the two sessions at a pumping Greenbush. Giant left-hand barrels might not be everyones cup of tea – but they’re my cup of tea, so you’ll enjoy them or else! The swell they score is ridiculous, the wave is ridiculous and the crew trade deep keg after deep keg – it’s a great counter-balance to the air and rail work that makes up the bulk of the rest of the movie.
Thirdly, on that air and rail work, jeezars! The kid can fly can’t he!? The 18 months Julian took to make this film has helped to round and complete his surfing. There are absurd airs of all kinds; tweaked, tail-high reverses, bizarrely large straight airs and some alley-oops that were just plain silly. But what really stood out was everything that linked these together. The amount of flow and style that Julian has is akin to that of a surfer with far more years experience, he’s got the new ASP judging criteria fulfilled and then some. If he chooses to go down that path, it’s on!
If Julian wanted to produce a product that makes you not want to miss a wave from the film, whilst simultaneously wanting to turn it off, drop everything and go surf your brains out (see: Dane – First Chapter, Kelly Slater in B&W, Sabotaj, Montaj and to a lesser extent Fair Bits) then he has succeeded ten-fold.
Of course, we must remember the whole film was shot in HD and utilised some ridiculous technology. Heard of RED camera? Well check out Phantom (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKbgjAQFajM&feature=related)… this shit will blow your mind (if you’re into that kind of thing.) Despite the grainy projector fed screen (it was actually more rewarding to squint and watch the small screens next to the giant screen to get a feel for the HD) there were moments where they really used the Phantom to its full capacity – just when you forget they’re using it, bam! A double helicopter slow motion aerial angle. Pow! A super slow-mo finner. Thankfully these features weren’t overused.
The downfalls?
Well, I guess if we’re picking the eyes out of it (we are, it’s a review) then there isn’t a great deal of a storyline. Apart from the Julian Wilson coming-of-age section, the viewer doesn’t really get to know Julian a great deal better than we had at the start.
Secondly, although one of our other magazine buds has already mentioned it, what is the deal with the Frenchy in the back of the Euro super car? Just plain odd.
Finally, I would have liked a free copy to watch it all again.
Last things last – this is a great surf movie.
Let’s forget the bar-tab running out 45 mins after the doors opened, before the film started.
Let’s forget the half-filled venue.
Let’s forget the grainy projector fed screen.
Let’s forget the notable absence of one J Dub.
4 1/2 puka shell necklaces out of 5 -
Dog Surfing Championship Draws Terrible Puns
As the world’s best competitive surfers battle it out at one of California’s most iconic waves, the dog-eat-dog world of U.S. competitive canine surfing put on a showcase nary a few shakes of the tail down the coast, at Del Mar Main Beach, San Diego on the 14th of September.
Bobby Gorgeous with a one-footer… he made it. Pic. Rover Surf
6 year old Pomeranian Bobby Gorgeous took out the main event from a crowd of dogged competitors – Pugs to Pinscher, Burmese to Border Collies – it was shown that in the world of competitive canine surfing, every dog has its day.
Of the win, Gorgeous was rabid, “I didn’t think I had a chance, that bitch that was ripping (Fluffy Smith). I snuck a couple while she was gnawing away at her fleas, and then that bigger one I got when she was sniffing Peanut’s arse… it was a screamer…next thing I knew, the buzzer sounded and I was top dog.”
Contest director Michael ‘Chew-Toy’ Arms, was wrapped with the event. ‘It just doesn’t get any greater than San Diego showing its love for dogs and surfing.’ With 4000 people on the beach, doubling attendance from the previous year’s competition, if the exponential trend continues as such, by 2020, the event will host over 8 million spectators. Nothing to bark at…
Next year, the aim is to take the contest to a global level with competitors from around the world. Fur will fly on the qualifying series as the world’s best strive to ignore the urge to chase their tail and sniff their own butt and string a decent combination of turns together. Only the most trained and focused will bound into the U.S. in a year’s time and they will be hounding Gorgeous for his title…
‘Chew-Toy’ Arms summed the day and future event aspirations perfectly, “What could be more fun!?!”
What indeed.
For a potentially more accurate, and less laboured, account of the days happenings visit the Telegraph’s website. -
You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place, I told him, like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you’ll never be this way ever again."
Azar Nafisi -
the best thing…
to have ever happened to amy winehouse, kate moss, carl barat et al.
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The Bible
we are merely disciples
watch and learn
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south.
Desire. Need. Necessity.
Steroid-induced, Ed Hardy-wearing, Mermaid Tavern-frequenting, silicon-breasted, football-loving, Origin-watching, Radio Metro-listening, plebs of society.
It all gets a little too much sometimes.
South.
A bastion of freedom. An escape from reality. Fucking good waves.
My gorgeous girl. My best mates. My favourite board.
South.
A hundred roads to nowhere.
Exactly where I want to be.
Photos: 1/2 Stu Collins, 3/4 Fran Doll
