Filmed By: Harry Hodge
Year Of Production: Around 1982
Duration: 63 minutes
Rating (out of 10): 7
Available Through: Dick Hoole at Byron Bay or via your favourite surfing mag.
Told in the form of past recollections, this is a dated, but still excellent video, which chronicles the journey of Paul Neilson (the supposed story teller), Wayne Bartholomew, Bruce Raymond and Brian Cregan. This group of surf rats (The Band On The Run) head around the world surfing every playground they could find. They start the journey in South Africa with some absolute classic J-Bay, then onto France and Spain, before heading to the obligatory Hawaii for some very crowded (by the standards of the day) waves. From there they head off to surf the deserted South Seas. The narrator constantly laments the fact that "things are always changing". He should see it today, eh!! It's a good movie to sit and enjoy, and if you really want to lament along with the narrator then you're more than welcome.
Music was by Paul McCartney, J J Cale and the Tim Gaze Band.
Filmed By: (The Late) Chris Bystrom
Year Of Production: Late 1980's
Duration: 94 minutes
Rating (out of 10): 7
Available Through: Dick Hoole at Byron Bay or via your favourite surfing mag.
Starting with a bit of a speel by Chris Bystrom on how everyone was ripped off by buying or viewing this movie, we are initially taken through a who's who of the pro surfing circuit featuring a quick one or two wave view of people like Terry Fitzgerald and Wayne Bartholomew, along with "new-comers" like Martin Potter, Glen Winton, etc.. The first 25 - 30 minutes of the film is taken up with contest surfing - which I have never been overly interested in at the best of times - but following that you'll see a bit of fairly hot bodyboarding, and then to the accompaniment of Richard Clapton you'll be taken on a tour of some of Australia's best point breaks. Of course there's the token semi-naked beach babes to keep the perverts happy, and the backing sound track was from some of the hit groups of the era. Not a bad movie, but taken up by a lot of contest stuff and personal profiles.
Filmed By: Surfer Magazine
Year Of Production: 1989
Duration: 47 minutes
Rating (out of 10): 5
Available Through: Departmental Stores or inquire via Surfer Magazine
Surfer Magazine have produced a number of these mini-videos. They're like a video version of their magazine, with a few different "stories" on each tape. This one is entitled Classic California, and as Matt George, your host says, "let's check out the California scene". The video really is just a bit if a talk-fest set to a background of nice looking waves. You generally get two mini stories on each tape, usually with the same theme. Very American, fairly short, but not bad viewing overall.
Filmed By: Surfer Magazine
Year Of Production: 1989
Duration: 47 minutes
Rating (out of 10): 4
Available Through: Department Stores or inquire via Surfer Magazine
Hawaii, and nothing but Hawaii. Crowded Hawaii. Isolated Hawaii. Crunching Hawaii. See what generates the Aloha spirit. Some good surf action with the annoying voice-over.
Filmed By: Garry Capo
Year Of Production: 1976
Duration: 80 minutes
Rating (out of 10): 8 if you like Hawaii. 3 if you don't.
Available Through: Dick Hoole at Byron Bay or via your favourite surfing mag.
The sport of surfing is made up of many moments, each with it's own magical feeling. This video attempts to capture these. Everything is given the once over here, including hot-dogging, ripping medium Hawaii, and taking the drop on big North Shore. For some reason they insist on chucking in a bunch of snow skiing. The wipeout sequence is pretty gruesome though. The first 45 minutes of this video is dedicated entirely to Hawaii. Only then are we given the opportunity to see that there are indeed classic moments to be had outside of America's 50th state. That only lasts about 5 minutes though, and we are soon back in Hawaii
Filmed By: Alan Rich
Year Of Production: 1977
Duration: 78 minutes
Rating (out of 10): 8
Available Through: Dick Hoole at Byron Bay or via your favourite surfing mag.
This video takes the viewers on a trip to all the "playgrounds" around the world. Looks unusual to see single-fin swallow-tails cutting big arching turns on 10-15 foot Sunset. Pleasant relief not to just see pro after pro doing mechanical moves on perfect waves. This video tends to concentrate more on places than people, but still insists on showing snow skiing for some reason. Chuck in a bit of skate boarding for good measure, and you've got the basic story-line behind this film. Visits to Mexico, France and even a tidal bore in Great Britain compliment this better than average flick.
Filmed By: Surfer Magazine
Year Of Production: Early 90's
Duration: 45 minutes
Rating (out of 10): 6
Available Through: Department Stores or inquire via Surfer Magazine
In this issue, the people from Surfer Magazine take us to the jungles of Costa Rica in search of their "perfect wave". Some nice (and at the time, isolated) waves to be had, but like other Surfer Magazine videos, it is a lot of talk with surfing going on in the background.
Filmed By: David Lourie, Jack McCoy and Dick Hoole
Year Of Production: Around 1983
Duration: 91 minutes
Rating (out of 10): 7
Available Through: Dick Hoole at Byron Bay or via your favourite surfing mag.
With a title like "Storm Riders" what more apt music to start this flick with than Riders On The Storm from The Doors. A couple of things really stand out in this vid. The first was the monstrous waves at the Bells Contest, and the second was seeing Gerry Lopez on his annual pilgrimage to a then desolate part of Indonesia for beautiful uncrowded left-handers. Vast contrast to today, where the same place is like a Sunday Summer in the middle of Sydney. As with a lot of the videos, this one tends to suffer a bit from too much contest surfing. The music is supplied by groups of the day, and although by today's standards is probably pretty tame, seems to suit the particular parts of the flick.
Filmed By: Dick Hoole and Jack McCoy
Year Of Production:
Duration: 85 minutes
Rating (out of 10): 7
Available Through: Dick Hoole at Byron Bay or via your favourite surfing mag.
This is a buy-one-get-one-free deal. Not only do you get Tubular Swells, but you also get a mini-vid entitled "A Day In The Life Of Wayne Lynch".
In the mid to late 70's, Wayne was considered one of the best, if not THE best goofy-footer in Australia. This video basically goes through "a day" in his life, and features a number of hot (or should read, freezing) Victorian surf spots.
The main section of the video, Tubular Swells, takes the viewer all around the world from France to Indonesia, from Australia to Bali, from Bells to Uluwatu, all the time chasing those tubular swells.
There's a fair bit of contest surfing in the video, but the free surfing, especially big North Shore, makes the movie.
Filmed By: Surfer Magazine
Year Of Production: 1989
Duration:
Rating (out of 10): 6
Available Through: Department Stores or inquire via Surfer Magazine
Venture deep into mainland Mexico for a surf fiesta, and then jet off to Barbados. Well that's the way the narrator describes this little flick. Some of the scenery is great, and the waves are pretty good, but all-in-all it's only a pretty average video.
Filmed By: Alan Rich
Year Of Production: 1980
Duration: 93 minutes
Rating (out of 10): 7
Available Through: Dick Hoole at Byron Bay or via your favourite surfing mag.
Mainly consisting of name surfers of the day, this 1980 video showcases their performances both in the contest arena and free surfing. The different surfers add their thoughts to the video by way of mini interviews interspersed amongst the images of their surfing. A lot of the second half is spent in the Indonesian group of islands discovering new surf spots.
Music is supplied by The Angels, Cold Chisel, Icehouse, INXS and Mental As Anything
Filmed By: Chris Bystom
Year of Production: Around 1985
Duration: 85 minutes
Rating (out of 10): 7
Available Through: Dick Hoole at Byron Bay or via your favourite surfing mag.
This is a good video which combines some contest footage (sometimes a bit dragged out) with some free surfing. The backing tracks are from the groups of the day and they work well with the various sequences. The Indonesian sessions are great to see.