Festival to feature new surfing films

Advertiser Staff

Rabbit Kekai, left, Woody Brown, middle, and John Kelly are featured in the movie "Surfing For Life." The award-winning documentary, narrated by Beau Bridges, looks at how a handful of surfers have stayed active well into their 70s and 80s, serving as a model for healthy aging. It contains interviews and contemporary footage. Advertiser Library photo • 1999 New Waves Film Festival The ARTS at Mark's Garage Showings between Wednesday and Sept. 5. Tickets are $6. For ticket information, call 521-2903.

"Gondwana"

• 7 and 9 p.m. July 3, July 5
• Produced with pro surfer Pancho Sullivan, this film features top surfers in their respective disciplines: Sunny Garcia, Andy Irons, Bruce Irons, Miles Padacca, Braden Dias, Rob Machado, Jamie O'Brien, Manoa Drollet and more. Includes surfing footage from Tahiti, North Shore O'ahu, West Australia, Maverick's, Indonesia and the Deep South Pacific, along with water, helicopter, board and athlete camshooting.
• (56 min.)

"Backdoor Shootout" and "Maverick's"

• 7 and 9 p.m. July 17-18
• The North Shore's 'Ehukai Beach is the setting for "Backdoor Shootout," a display of surfing prowess among both local and international surfers at the 1999 Shootout. (26 min.)
• "Mavericks" takes place just north of Half Moon Bay in Northern California at a notorious surf spot. For decades, local surfers simply considered the monster waves, four stories high, totally unridable. Along came Jeff Clark, who paddled out alone at age 17 in 1975 and did the unthinkable.
• For the next 15 years, Clark was the only rider fool enough to take Maverick's thunderous beatings.
• The footage of the rides evokes real terror, particularly one wave in which local surfer Mark Foo tragically lost his life. (52 min.)

"Surfing For Life" and "Waves of Serenity"

• 8 p.m. July 30-31
• This award-winning documentary offers a fresh look at 10 legendary surfers who model healthy aging by staying active and engaged into their 70s and 80s. Narrated by Beau Bridges, with interviews, contemporary footage, and a wealth of rare archival material, the film provides an eloquent and powerful antidote to the negative images of aging presented in America's youth-obsessed culture.
• Features surfers Anona Napoleon, John Kelly, Woody Brown, Fred Van Dyke, Eve Fletcher, Rabbit Kekai, Peter Cole, and Shay Bintliff. (58 min.)
• Local cinematographer Mike Prickett introduces "Waves of Serenity," a film that displays some of the techniques he has used to capture surf footage around the world (including many of the films in this series). The screening provides an opportunity to meet the person behind the lens. (26 min.)

"Year of the Drag-In"

• 7 and 9 p.m. August 7-8
• The Maverick's winter of 1999-2000 will be remembered forever for a handful of surfers who took on the biggest waves ever ridden in California, as captured in "Year of the Drag-In."
• The season's first big swell caught most surfers by surprise with one wave that observers swear had an 80-foot face. It was a throwback, like a scene from the early days at Waimea Bay: Giant waves being ridden by a select few, and no pretenders in the water. Pioneered in the early '90s by Laird Hamilton, Darrick Doerner and Buzzy Kerbox in Hawai'i, tow-in surfing remained a well-kept secret until 1995. (52 min.)

"Whipped!"

• 7 and 9 p.m. August 26-27
• From the producers of "Year of the Drag-In" comes another Big Wave Surf Video, winner of the 2001 X-Games Tube Action Sports Film Festival Viewer's Choice Award.
• It features big-wave surf legends Peter Mel, Jay Moriarity, Occy, Grant Washburn, Jeff Clark, and Kelly Slater, and includes segments on "the Shark Attack Story," the "XXL Big Wave Contest," a "Journey to Cortes Bank," and "the Biggest West Coast Ever" with exclusive helicopter footage.
• Dedicated to the memory of Jay Moriarity. (58 min.)

"Strapped: Origins of Big Wave Surfing" and "Laird"

• 7 and 9 p.m. Sept. 4-5
• In "Strapped: Origins of Big Wave Surfing," the originators of big-wave surfing, Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama, Rush Randall, Pete Cabrinha, Darrick Doerner, Mike Waltz, Brett Lickle and Mark Angullo, take viewers on a visual history of tow-in wave riding at "Jaws" on Maui.
• The film includes footage of the biggest waves ever ridden, progressive aerials, and futuristic hydrofoil surfing. (38 min.)
• "Laird" takes place in Tahiti, where the wave was deemed unridable, but Laird Hamilton took it on. (46 min.)