Surfer film dips its toe in Honolulu

Advertiser Staff

Australia-born surfer Layne Beachley is featured in "Step Into Liquid." Top Secret Productions LLC

The film also opens today in New York and Los Angeles, but at a Tuesday premiere here, filmmaker Dana Brown said Honolulu was key.

"In New York, if they don't like it, I don't care," he said jokingly. "You guys make me nervous."

Surfers and fans filled a 400-seat theater at the Art House at Restaurant Row for the premiere, giving Brown a good reception. Among the guests: Mark Martinson, a 1960s surf champ who was in "Endless Summer"; Brian Keaulana, a Hawai'i surfer, water safety specialist and Hollywood film consultant; Ben Aipa, an old-school Hawaiian surfer, coach and surfboard shaper; Jock Sutherland, Sunset stylist from the '60s and '70s; '60s surf champ Joey Cabell, owner of the Chart House; big-wave pioneer Peter Cole; monster-wave rider Ken Bradshaw; Don King, a surf photographer and cinematographer who shot footage for "Blue Crush" and the latest James Bond film; up-and-coming Hawai'i surfer Keone Watson; and bodysurfer Mark Cunningham, subject of black-and-white photos by Wayne Levin on display at the theater.

Jesse Billauer, a pro surfer paralyzed in a surf accident who is featured in the film, attended and helped introduce the film. "Step Into Liquid" shows Billauer catching waves with the help of fellow surfers. (Find more about Billauer at www.liferollson.org.)

Dana Brown's father, Bruce Brown, directed the prototypical surf film "The Endless Summer."