Film features big surf but few surprises
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| "Billabong Odyssey" tracks a star-studded team that used advanced technology to hunt down the world's greatest swells.
'Billabong Odyssey' |
By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
It may indeed be true that, give or take a few camera angles and a few exotic beaches, if you've seen one surf movie, you've seen them all.
That certainly won't dissuade hard-core fans of surfing and surf movies from seeking out
"Billabong Odyssey," which opens in Hawai'i today.
Nor should it.
True, "Odyssey" is familiar stuff for people who have seen "Step Into Liquid" or any of the other generally well-made films cashing in on surfing's latest breakthrough period.
There's the requisite hold-your-breath intro — this one tracks a single surfer getting towed by a jet watercraft toward a forming wave, releasing the tow line and, as the camera draws back for a wider angle, holding on for dear life as a wave the size of Maui comes to life beneath his board — with the usual canned business about the changing demographic of modern surfing, the rote recitation of personal surfing histories by salty-haired surfer dudes, and the chapter-by-chapter presentation of big-time big-wave surfers surfing in locales near and far.
It's nothing surfers haven't seen before and, very likely, nothing they wouldn't love to see again. "Billabong Odyssey" delivers the waves, the rides and, for those who care, some up-close moments with some of big-wave surfing's biggest names.
"Odyssey," filmed over the course of two years, tracks the adventures of the Billabong Odyssey team as they use high-tech weather forecasting and high-powered watercraft to hunt down the world's largest waves — some with faces 60 or 70 feet high.
The team included old rivals Mike Parsons and Brad Gerlach; Santa Cruz goofballs Flea Virostko, Barney Barron, Ken "Skindog" Collins and Josh Loya; tow-surfing pioneer Ken Bradshaw; and women's world champion Layne Beachley. Also profiled are veteran Hawai'i waterman Brian Keaulana (who helped train the group in survival skills) and hydrofoil surfboard innovator Rush Randle.
Shot in 35mm and high-definition digital formats, the film follows the surfers as they travel to California, Hawai'i ("Jaws"), Washington, Mexico, Spain, France, Australia, Tahiti, and Cortes Bank, a notorious big-wave spot 105 miles off San Diego.
The surf sequences are, as one might expect, mind-blowing, though director Philip Boston could have kept things fresher by easing up on the slow motion and avoiding the temptation to turn each segment into a music video.
And, even at just under 1 1/2 hours, the film could also have used another editing session or two. Beachley's segment, for example, felt like a half-hearted nod to the rise of women's surfing and little else. It would have been better to see her mix it up with the guys.
And then there are the slow-down moments with the riders surf-waxing philosophic about the sport, the lifestyle and the evolution of surfing.
Over the last 30 years, surfing has become acutely aware of itself, not just as a sport but as a vibrant subculture, and surfers such as Parsons and Gerlach have become well-practiced in defining themselves and their lifestyle in the context of a "real world." When "Odyssey" comes out on DVD, those are the sections nonsurfers will likely want to skip.
