Dude, You Seen My Movie?

Joel Parkinson teamed up with legendary filmmaker Jack McCoy for his new film Free as a Dog—A True Dog’s Tale, bringing back the sketches and skits of early ‘80s surf movies, Parkinson hopes to supplement his heavy surfing with some light humor.

So, what then? Is the end consumer to feel violated? Just another set of eyeballs sacrificed before the Volcom Stone?

God, no. The beautiful fact of the recent smattering of biographies is quality control. Pro surfers may be laissez-faire, but their number one asset is their image, and they’ll protect it at almost any cost. It’s one thing to team up with an independent movie producer and get some footage down at the local beachbreak, but it’s quite another when your sponsor shells over tens of thousands of dollars to produce a movie bearing your name.

Say what you want about the business savvy of today’s professional surfers, but Bruce Irons isn’t going to let a DVD called The Bruce Movie hit stores unless he approves every scene. Similarly, early word is that Quiksilver’s release of Dane Reynolds’ upcoming documentary is being held up because Dane needs every wave to be perfect.

But the neuroses of the image-minded surf celebrity aren’t the only reason these films are turning out to be good for surfing—as with most endeavors, economics are behind this one as well. In this author’s opinion, The September Sessions is one of the best films of all time. 30 well-cut minutes of the best surfers riding the world’s best surf. But you don’t see that type of restraint in the products of filmmakers who know that they can charge more for a longer product than a shorter one. Whereas an independent filmmaker can justify charging $29.99 if a product is more than 50 minutes long, a Quiksilver or a Billabong doesn’t produce a film with those types of margins in mind. They know they have the world’s best surfers, so they’ll charge what they want. In the typical independent flick, all the end consumer gets is an extra 15 minutes of sub-par material and a numb head.

Looking to set themselves apart, the world’s best young surfers—like Dane Reynolds—are teaming up with the world’s best young filmmakers, which can only lead to quality products.

Like all good things, the biography hysteria has the potential to burn itself out. Early returns are showing a tendency on the part of some surf celebrities to try their hands at acting and comedy, which could combine for some regrettable results. But we’ll probably laugh.

The most successful surf star films are those made in the biography vein. Though Bruce Irons in The Bruce Movie did his best to keep up his walls of defense in an effort to not let anybody see what type of person he truly his, you still walked away from the film feeling like you got at least slightly more insight into Bruce’s life. The Slater film Letting Go succeeds at taking you behind the chaotic scenes of Kelly Slater’s life, which satisfies even the most passing surf fan’s curiosities. Everybody likes to know what goes on behind the scenes, and everybody wants to hear it from the surf celebrity’s own mouth.

Though it’s’ true that celebrity-driven surf movies date back much farther than Kelly Slater, the recent phenomenon is due in large part to Slater’s status.

No matter what stunts surfers are trying to pull either on the waves or in the intermittent skits, the fact of the matter is that surfers are going to see the films. You might not pay to see a film from a young producer who hangs out with Joel Parkinson, but you’ll pay to see a film from Parkinson himself, because it might give you some insight into what he’s like as a person.

So long as we continue to revere the best surfers in the sport, then those surf stars will trade on their celebrity, and these films will be made, engaging a notoriously jaded group of pro surfers who continually get pushed and prodded from handlers and managers to show us what they’re capable of creatively, both on a wave and off.

And regardless of how you feel about them, you’ll be watching the results, whether you admit it or not.