Film Fest Success

A bit late, but I didn’t forget. A week ago yesterday, the first Canadian Surf Film Festival went down. An art show and three nights of great films preceded a killer Matt Mays concert that capped off a smooth and fun filled weekend.

(one of the festival's organizers Keith Madison (right) at the pre-fest art show)

The films didn’t disappoint – lots of great variety with something for everyone. The first showing featured Fiberglass and Megapixels, a documentary style feature about cameramen that live for the lineup at pipeline. A scary position to get some killer insider insight on. Musica Surfica brought an incredible story about finless surfing fused with virtuosic classical music. As a classic music nerd, seeing this film was really special for me, although many in attendance found it a bit long. 180° South also showed Thursday night. An incredible adventure with a great message, some cool history and great cinematography. Definitely a must-see.


First on Friday’s bill was the short film contest sponsored by SANS. There were a bunch of great films, but none better than Nico Manos’ dominant surfing that he captured on film while in Indo earlier this year. Westsiders and Searching for Michael Peterson finished off Saturday night. These two films highlighted incredible stories you’re probably somewhat aware of, featuring some of professional surfing’s veterans.



I only caught the first half of Saturday night’s bill – bailing early to head to the concert, but saving Idiosyncrasies and Stoked and Broke for the last night was a great call. These movies were my favorite by far. Incredible profiles on a few really intriguing characters in Idiosyncrasies and a hilarious and awesome walkabout down 30 odd miles of California coast by internet and camera/edit wizard Cyrus Sutton ( more of his stuff at http://korduroy.tv). Sutton was accompanied by Ryan Burch, an incredible gentleman in his own right who can surf ANYTHING. He’s in the tube on a sub-5-foot piece of foam at least a few times. This expense free surf trip filled everyone in the theatre with some honest stoke, inspiration and a bit of jealousy.

Saturday and Sunday saw some great waves hit the coast, allowing many of us to get a much-needed fix. After watching so much great action on the big screen, it would have been ugly if the ocean went flat. I must admit I was a bit movied-out by the end of the weekend, but that’s all part of a film fest.

Congrats to those who organized the event and picked the flicks.


note: Stoked and Broke took home Best Film and Manos’ Indo action took home best short.