Marvin had gone to a party in San Clemente with some old friends. It was an impactful enough experience that he told me about it while walking over to the parking lot showers after finishing a surf, on whichever following weekday we went out. He described mingling with creative types, the party’s premise being a screening of some friend-of-friend’s surf documentary. Apparently, they rip, and presumably cut together footage of ripping overhead Jell-O barrels in Bali or something. Or so I imagine. Writing this now, I’m chuckling a bit at the light disdain, and frankly, jealousy, with which I’ve described this event and film and allude to the personalities of people I’ve never met. I trust Marvin to be a good judge of character; I’m sure his San Clemente friends are nice people.
I think this disdain comes from the fact that I don’t rip, at least not yet. I’ve been properly working at getting better at surfing for about 2 years. Marvin was (and is) a key accountability buddy. Without his coaxing, which typically takes the form of an evening phone call in which he “wishes to discuss the surf” for the following morning, I would probably have 10% the reps that I do now. And yet, I’m still not where I want to be. Never have I spent so much time and effort working for a thing with so little to show for it.
I digress. The disdain. Disdain is a strong feeling, and at that moment it provided sufficient passion for me to ask “why can’t we have a surf documentary?”
Surf Documentary Ideas
- Shoot on 2000s era DSLR that has footage quality that looks like my Canon EOS Rebel XTi. Want vintage look which is cool but not too vintage to be pretentious
- Write and record original soundtrack
- Call it “Oyster Day” in reference to Marvin’s saying “the day is your oyster” after surfing
- Subtitle: a surf video (homage to stickers)
- Interview Bolsa Dave
- Side plot to figure out who/what is “surf video” stickers around Long Beach
- Does this need to have a throughline? Ideas:
- No. Surf clips, surf video investigation, complete hodge podge. Several vignettes. Meta through line
- Yes. Track improvement progress over some time span and reflect on what surfing means to people
- Yes. Focus on Bolsa Chica and do profiles on the locals
- Yes. Focus on a strike mission trip to a place with adventure
- Yes. Focus on surfboard shaping
- Plot point: Meet, surf with, and film Marvin’s friend of friend who inspired this
- Build a microphone to record music voiceovers talking heads etc?
Surf Video
Another inspiration for this project has been these “SURF VIDEO” stickers I see all over Long Beach, near where I live. Bold stickers. Super generic though, literally impossible to find any info online because Google thinks I just want to watch surf videos. I took a Sunday afternoon to take photographs of every one that I could find, and interviewed people to try and determine their origin. Every sticker I encounter is a call to action for me to fight the resistance and make this surf video. Here are a selection of my better photos and an account of my leads so far:
Ozzy, my barber had no idea who they are, generally amused by the sticker being put on his barbershop door.
Skate shop employee at 4th street skate with long hair and stubble had no idea who they are but acknowledged seeing them everywhere
Boutique employees at Seams on 4th street who sell surfboards but don’t surf believe it’s a band, whose former drummer (not on Instagram unfortunately) works at the military surplus store on Bellflower.
Employee at military surplus store on Bellflower who answered the phone is not the drummer for Surf Video, and has no clue which employee I could be talking about.
ACLU donation jockey outside the brewery on 4th st moved down here from Oakland, where they knew the tagging scene and are convinced that the stickers are a cost-saving collaboration between two taggers/graffiti artists ostensibly named Surf and Video.
Bartender at Vine on 4th st knows nothing, is amused, and acknowledges seeing them everywhere while grabbing a hoppy refresher and a non-alcoholic IPA from the fridge behind the bar. Request for a glass for the beverages is affirmed, and ultimately forgotten in the rush. I was mildly annoyed at myself for not having the courage to remind the bartender of this.
Izzy has seen these stickers everywhere, and offers to ask his tagger friend in the scene for more information. I gotta remember to ask him about this again on Monday.
