The other day Juan texted me this YouTube link of Thomas Campbell’s 2009 The Present. I saved the link as usual to view for later, but then Juan sent another text of him watching this on a big computer monitor — Dave ‘Rasta’ Rastovich doing big, arcing turns on a twin fin on some huge right hander. “Ok,” I thought, “I’ll give this one a watch.” I first watched without sound — well I was listening to a podcast about why Bernie Sanders lost — and was immediately blown away by the first section in Sumatra with Dan Malloy, Chelsea Hedges, Sofia Mulanovich, Ry Craike, and Danny Hess. This was the first time I’d ever seen women and men thrown together on the same surf trip, in the same heavy waves, riding the same heavy tubes with perfect technique and gusto. “I have to share this with the CSC peeps,” was my next thought. As the Indo section moved into boiler plate interstitial shots — again, I had sound off — I became bored, and was like, “Well I’ll post it on the blog, and let people watch.” Then, yesterday, I said to myself, “Just put your headphones on and watch the whole film Dion. Write a review.” And so I did. And I am glad I did. Here it is.
The Present is, one the one hand, a standard surf movie, or surf ‘porn’, in that it adheres to a time-tested formula of surf filmmaking: film great surfers surfing great waves both at home (or in their home environments) and abroad. Loop in a bit of travel narrative, some interstitial shots of sunrises and sunsets, breaking waves without people on them, and people of local cultures doing their everyday things, set it to music, and voila. But in response to many surf movies, especially the white-male-short-board-centric films of the 1990s and early 2000s, Campbell has a bit of a ‘political’ agenda, which is manifested in the film’s title, The Present. Campbell’s goal in this film is to redefine surfing’s “present” — 2009 — as marked by the “ride everything surfing ethos", which incorporates a larger historical view of surfing culture and aims towards a more inclusive approach to presenting the skills of “wave-sliders” of both genders by incorporating women and a variety of board types into the overall action of the film.
The point of The Present is to see how any given moment is always shaped by the past. It makes the point that it is important to incorporate ideas and techniques from the past that are worth saving, and to discard or transform those that aren’t. In Campbell’s case, he thinks the use of 16mm analog film, and voice overs ala Bruce Brown’s epic, albeit colonialist, racist, sexist, surf film The Endless Summer (1966) are worth retaining for the rich aesthetic and educational information they provide. Also like The Endless Summer, Campbell wants to bring you a “long form” surf film. This one ends up at 1hr and 14 min, so plan time for it — make some popcorn (which happens to be my favorite “junk food” both pre and post pandemic — I pop mine on the stove), crack a beer or a La Croix, and sit back.
The film begins with a montage and Campbell’s philosurfical cosmic musings about what surfing “is”. In answer to the question, “Which meaning of the ‘The Present’?” he answers, “Actually, both in definition. The idea of this film is to express a collective wonderment for the occasion we all participate in on this vast functioning earth . . .” Interestingly ‘wonderment’ or ‘wonder’ is something foundational that surfing and philosophy have in common. Both are infinitely engaging because of a continued reproduction of this sense of wonder at the world we find ourselves in — wonder at its beauty, its awesomeness, but also wonder at the gross injustices and inequalities. Campbell is not blind to both of these forms of wonder. The film has a a bit of a sustainability message, although not completely worked out, and it also tries to redo the Africa narrative of Brown’s Endless Summer by celebrating rather than denigrating the local black culture.
Chelsea Hedges threds a throaty backside tube in Submersion 1: Sumatra.
The Present is organized in chapters Campbell calls “submersions”. Submersion 1 features insane tube riding in Indonesia/Sumatra and stars Dan Malloy, Sofia Mulanovich, Chelsea Hedges, Danny Hess, and Ry Craike. Dan Malloy narrates this section and explains why Indo is so damn good and worth traveling for. Not sure what travel looks like in our current ‘present’ and in the future ‘present’, but Indo will remain one of my own desired places to visit. Campbell and Malloy succeed in giving a picture of local life without the element of voyeurism and orientalism that is common in, among others, the Taylor Steele movies of the 90s and 00s. The tube riding by Mulanovich and Hedges is extraordinary, and Malloy remarks that he was astonished to see women surfing the tube this well, and that this gives him great hope for the future of women’s surfing. I think most women surfers would probably tell you that women have always been surfing well, but due to some intricate cultural factors have simply been left in the dark through the late 70s on through the 80s, 90s, and 00s. Kudos to Campbell, however, for seeing that surfing’s future does include more women — because that was the case with its ancient past. Hawaiian queens were central to early surfing culture, so it would make sense that any full blooded, well rounded surfing “present” includes women. It can and should include more women than are in this video, but this is a great start.
In terms of surf form in this section you watch for knee down (folded under) technique and slight tube adjustments backside and frontside, backside pig dog technique, rail grabbing cutbacks, how much time they wait before placing maneuvers, going from rail to rail with patience and purpose — this is called “holding a line”.
Submersion 2 takes places in NZ and stars modern legends of longboarding Kassia Meador, Devon Howard, and CJ Nelson. Campbell defines “logging” as riding “heavily weighted longboards”. Watch for: use of the tail to set up the nose rides. How they walk towards the part of the rail engaged in the wave to keep it locked in as they go up to the nose. How they do the nose ride in the critical section of the wave. Low or quiet arms and hands.
This is followed by an interstitial skit starring Rob Machado and Dane Reynolds as sports forecasters for the “Express Your Inner Monkey Expression Session.” Costumes and names of contestants are pretty hilarious. This cuts into Submersion 3, which features Dane surfing at home in Ventura, CA. Dane is outspoken about not feeling like he totally fits into the pro surfing mold, which is why Campbell highlights him as one of surfing’s great weirdos.
Submersion 4 strings together all the previous interstitial build up of phone calls between Al Knost and Michel Junod. This is the Africa trip that is meant to update The Endless Summer. Al and Michel don suits just like Mike Hynson and Robert August did and check into the airport counter holding boards not in board bags. They meet up with Rasta in Africa and they get together with some local musicians to play drum music. They score an epic right hander and run into a “feral” alaia rider named Jacob Stuth. In order to portray Jacob as “primitive” they cake mud on his face for the shot, which is probably not so cool in hindsight. What to look for: Al Knost’s paddle ins. He takes his time and establishes glide. Cool intergenerational feel to this section too with Junod’s solid, clean surfing. Frontside pop up and hand placement techniques for regular foots. Wave touching. Use of tail for control. Staying close to the power source of the wave.
Submersion 5 is a feature on Joel Tudor and how he has influenced the “ride everything ethos”. Campbell gives a lion’s share of the credit for this new way of conceiving of surfing and surfboard design to Tudor. I think Tudor is an incredible surfer and extraordinarily influential, but I am wary of pinning any great historical shift in anything to one historical actor. As a follower of Tudor’s IG account, I can’t say I hold the highest opinion of his intellect or abilities to reason on land. He is an absolute genius in the water, no doubt. In this section Joel claims that 4 surfers initiated modern surfing: Phil Edwards, Gerry Lopez, Tom Curren, and Miki Dora. But as the section progresses, other surfers are blended into this mix. I am grateful that the part on Miki focuses on his surfing rather than his untenable political positions. It is clear, however, that Tudor idolizes Miki as an “everyman” of surfing who would “do anything to keep up the lifestyle.” I am extremely critical of Dora’s actions and views, and am willing to admit to his charisma and great surfing, but I think that overall he should be seen with a bit of an asterisk next to his name. I think it’s really important to think about how surfing well does not necessarily make one an imitable human being. Yes, to be a good surfer one does have to figure out how to have enough time to do a lot of surfing, but I hope that for most of us that doesn’t look like stealing your friends’ checkbooks or pulling off credit card scams.
Jacob Stuth alaia trim in the Africa submersion.
The last full submersion, Submersion 6, looks into surfing history and takes it back to its birthplace in Hawaii. Central figures in the film, Rastovich and Malloy, newly inspired by ancient Hawaiian designs, decide to ride alaias in large Hawaiian surf. The alaia is a thin surfboard made of wood with no fins. They were the main kind of surfboard used by ancient Hawaiians, as they were accessible to all class backgrounds, unlike the heavy olos, which could only be ridden by nobility. With these thin wooden boards you basically have to swim into the wave, which is incredibly difficult in terms of positioning and strength. They go very fast because there is literally no friction. I have one and love to surf it in clean peeling surf (not the right equipment for closeouts except as a a long boogie board). One drop Rasta pulls at Waimea is insane. Overall this is an incredible medly of hot alaia surfing. Notice how high the chest must be upon entering the wave, and how the back rail needs to be engaged because the board is so flat and the nose dips easily.
In classic surf film formula, it ends with another montage of the great rides, and Campbell solidifies his point that as surfing moves forward, it needs to include all the kinds of shapes and designs of surfboards that people can have fun wave sliding on. “Riding anything that floats your boat is the way to go depending on what nature offers up.” It is certainly not cool to negatively judge people solely on their choice of equipment, but it does matter whether or not you are able to achieve glide, flow, and efficient sliding on the tool(s) (or lack thereof) that you choose to engage with. I love the term “wave-sliders” because that really does get more towards what anyone who engages with waves is doing. It takes the emphasis off standing, and puts on waves, and sliding on them, however you achieve that. I hope that as more time goes on, more surf films will feature wave-sliders of various genders, age-groups, ethnic make ups, and identifications are featured surfing a variety of surf craft in grace and harmony together. That’s a constant ideal present that I’d love to see manifest for us in the future.