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Synopsis Awed by the beauty of epic California surf conditions a surfer sets out to film his local breaks when they are at their all too rare perfect conditions. The tale begins with a fun filled trip to one of the most unique surf breaks in the world, when a fluke transforms his journey. Undeterred by misfortune he sets out on the path less traveled. Making use of technological breakthroughs and clean power the journey becomes just as fun as the destination. Setbacks lead to new discoveries and begin to completely redefine the concept of a surf trip. The thrill of adventure and the excitement of chasing waves stay with this surfer on a journey that are beyond his wildest dreams. Director’s Bio I started making movies in 1999. Going to school part time and working part time allowed me the flexibility to surf every day. After several years of traveling up and down the California coast I scored a lot of spots when they were as good as they get. The memories of riding those perfect waves stick in my mind like it was yesterday. There are sessions that I’ll never forget. Days when spots that are usually mediocre became as good as any great California point break. The sun was out, no wind, the water blue and glassy, the waves were hollow and consistent and everyone in and out of the water couldn’t get over how good it was. I realized how inspiring it would be to have those days recorded on video. Seeing those magical days would be a fantastic reminder that epic surf can be found everywhere. I dug my dad’s old 8 mm out of the closet and brought it with me everywhere I went. The results of filming a few good days were far from spectacular, and standing on the cliff at Mavericks during that giant swell of 1999 I realized that if I wanted to capture great footage I would have to invest in a better camera. I bought the best camera I could afford and made a short test movie. After some positive feedback I bought a plane ticket and went looking for perfect waves. That trip inspired me to experiment with different filming techniques. I strapped a waterproof camera head to a helmet and using duck tape and some zip lock bags I kept the camera dry long enough to video a few sessions. Seeing the results of that test video started my obsession with point of view (POV) video. After having some success capturing POV video a plot idea began to form in my head. I spent several months roughing out a script and I knew if I could capture the POV video that I imagined it would be an amazing way to tell the story. I wanted to bring the viewer close to the action and give the audience the feeling of being along for the ride. Surfing great waves would get me all fired up to try and capture that video, but the camera equipment I needed didn’t exist. I started spending a lot of time building camera rigs and every clean swell that came along would get me a little closer to capturing the scenes I wanted. But after every swell, at least one if not all of my camera rigs would be broken by the surf. Any money that I was making went towards building and repairing camera rigs. Thousands of hours and dollars later I finally figured out how to capture those scenes. In the winter of 2008/2009 I was able to get good video on every clean swell. Towards the end of the winter I finally got it dialed and I had all the shots I needed to tell the story. It’s been a lot of hard work but it was also a lot of fun. When I love what I’m doing it doesn’t feel like work. I hope you enjoy watching “Clay Island a surf tale” as much as I enjoyed making it. |