surf art 74

The Present” in San Francisco–A Surf Movie ReviewMarch 27th was the first day of Spring in San Francisco. A hot sun angling toward the Pacific and the small tickle of wind on the brow demanded that everyone in the city leave their apartments and head for the nearest grassy park. These kinds of days are few and not to be wasted. With some tallboys in street cozies, a couple friends and I swaggered from the outer Richmond through Golden Gate Park to the Victoria Theater in the Mission to watch the premiere of Thomas Campbell’s newest 16mm surf/art film, The Present.

The sun worked its course on the day as we strolled through the largest public park in America. The grassy knolls and slight depressions of the park were littered with parties; forty-seven parties to be precise, all complete with food and beer. And it was in this sun-drunk and pleasantly imbibed mood that we arrived at the theater for the premiere.

We found seats at the front of the hall and sat down as the musically inclined yet mathematically deficient–The Mattson 2 (there were four members)–finished their set and the director took the stage. Thomas Campbell is an artist and filmmaker based in the Santa Cruz mountains who now lays claim to three surf movies (The Seedling and Sprout). All films have been shot on 16mm and released by Woodshed Films–think Jack Johnson and the Malloys.

Campbell was at his most eloquent when he introduced his film: “We are all lucky to be surfers and have the privilege of having an ocean experience. There are a lot of people in this world who never get to have that experience–some people don’t know that. This film is an ode to how lucky we all are.”

So what is The Present? It is an attempt to document the lighthearted joy of surfing, and the experience of sliding on boards of all kinds on waves all over the world.

The Present is Joel Tudor, “The Minister of Change”, detailing why Dora, Edwards, Curren and Lopez are the four most influential surfers of the modern era.

The Present is Dane Reyonlds punting big airs (”Dane is like Kelly but with hair and no Pamela Anderson thing”).

The Present is Alex Knost dancing to hand drums with women in South Africa.

The Present is the alaia. Some of the best footage to date of surfers really laying it down on alaias. The Molloys on alaias at big, really big, Waimea. And, of course, Machado going faster and smoother than anyone else on an alaia.

The Present is the era of women dropping into heavy 18 second barrels that would make most men quiver in the fetal position and wet the bed.

The Present is some weird silly game show where one Malloy rides a board with a ladder attached to it, Knost rides a board with an exercise machine from the early nineties nailed to it, and another Malloy jumps out of coffin on a board while riding a wave.

The Present has its moments of artistic flourish which at times inspire, at times confuse, and at times arrest the movie’s trajectory. Sometimes the narration detracts from the images on screen. But, what you can’t say is that The Present is drab and unoriginal. After three years of filming with his own money, Campbell released a piece of art that in many ways looks back to the days of Bruce Brown when surfers traveled in suits and the director narrated the story, yet embraces this moment in history, this moment in surfing. Campbell asks each viewer to think a little bit differently about their established notions of what a surfer is and what a surfer should be doing, saying, or riding.