General, Surfing

Surf Movie Report – “Scratching The Surface”

Just wanted to give a quick report about a cool surf movie premier I went to last night at Victoria Hall here in Santa Barbara, CA. The name of the movie is “Scratching The Surface”, and it was written, directed and produced by local SB resident Seth Brayer. The film was premiered as part of the 2003 Santa Barbara Film Festival, which for the first time in its history has a “Surf Movie” component in its program lineup.

The film was shot entirely in digital video, is 47 minutes long, and features surfing from the Santa Barbara, CA area, as well as a few spots in Australia (Noosa and some others I didn’t recognize). While there’s some footage of well-known surfers such as Tom Curren, Occy, Bobby Martinez, Kevin Connelly, and Jimmy Gamboa, the bulk of the surfing is done by local riders in each locale.

What makes the film stand out is the extensive use of handheld, on-board photography. Many people saw Seth out in the water while he was shooting the film, where he used a slick little holster device that allowed him to pull the camera out after he stood up. Basically, he surfs along either in front of or behind his subject, and films them. What’s really hot is that either he or they are often doing go-behinds, noseriding, or similar…Seth is a great surfer, and considering he’s surfing while shooting the footage, it’s pretty impressive once you start to think about the multi-tasking he’s pulling off, quite nicely. There’s also plenty of really nice Greenough-esque shots of the inside of tubes.

Local Santa Barbara area surfers featured include Tom Curren, Daniel Graham, Oliver Parker, Lauran Yater (son of Renny), Wayne Rich, and even a few shots of the illustrious International Man of Hey-Now, Randall Rod Stoker.

There were also a bunch of surfers from Australia, including Ray Gleave, Jye Byrnes, Heith Norrish, and many others. There’s a sort of running joke about teaching the Seppos how to eat Vegemite. Ugh, how can you Aussies eat that stuff? LOL j/k

The soundtrack for the film was excellent, and thankfully, there was very little by way of narration (I’m not really into narration in surf movies, having been permanently burnt-out on the technique after too many years watching Dale Davis and Bruce Brown films). Overall, I give the film an A-, but that may be generous considering the film depicts my home breaks and people that I often surf with. In any event, it’s a great little film that serves as a snapshot of the Santa Barbara surf scene as this particular moment in time. If you ever get the chance to check it out, I recommend that you do so.