Author: Zak Stoltz and Mandla Gobledale
If you’ve never seen a surf video, you should. If you’ve never tried surfing, now is the time. Now is The Present.
On Tuesday March 10, we were invited to the Los Angeles premiere of Thomas Campbell’s new surf film The Present (tell me it doesn’t pay off to be on the Weekly’s staff). After waiting in line for a good hour and a half, we entered the Montalban Nike Theater, grabbed a beer, a vodka-and-fruity something, as much candy as we could stuff into our pockets and sat down in the retro theater.
Before any film premiere at the Montalban there is always a reception, and on this occasion we were greeted by the innovative jazz sounds of Ray Barbee and the Mattson 2’s dueling guitars and drums. The band supplied some of the tunes for the film’s soundtrack and they played for about 30 minutes before Mr. Campbell himself came out on stage to host a raffle and provide a brief introduction.
Thomas Campbell introduced his film by explaining the ambiguity of its title. It is the present in the sense that we are given a glimpse of where surfing is at this point in Earth’s history. And at this time, the world has decided to grace us with the presence of killer swells. So, in that sense, this moment we are given is the present. But it is also the present in the sense that this point in time is a gift.
The Present presents itself as a pure celebration of the art of surfing. The film follows a group of long and short board surfers around the globe, as they enjoy life on the waves and try out some innovative new boards (which are in fact returns to past designs). The top-notch surfing abilities of Dave Rastovich, Dane Reynolds, Sofia Mulanovich and many more were featured in the film. Riding pipeline and overhead breaks looked as easy as brushing one’s teeth (to these folks it probably is).
Although the surfers age ranged from 24 to 60, age did not seem to hinder any of these surfers on the waves.
The soundtrack was quite fitting. Each chapter of the film seemed to have its own song and each chapter had its own “solos” or “cameos” by different surfers. Seeing the film at the Montalban heightened the experience of this viewing. Having just heard the jazz trio before the film, the jazz soundtrack seemed particularly appropriate to the experience. As each surfer completed a maneuver, the audience would cheer and clap and the same happened at the end of each chapter– highlighted by the transition to a new world location– as if we were hearing a jazz band play live and acknowledging each soloist as they carried out their parts.
The highlights of surfboard design were also interesting. Campbell explores the replenished interest in old Hawaiian-style boards which were fin-less pieces of sanded wood. The options and style of a surfer on these boards drastically changes and their speed and agility is taken to new heights. The boards have been ridden by Hawaiian surfers for hundreds of years and are catching on again within some surfing communities.
Despite the stunning surfing visuals, the film fell flat with its lo-fi, scripted filler clips. These appeared as background summaries for each new country in which the crew was featured surfing. Each area was amazing (West Africa, Indonesia and Calfornia), but the cheaply filmed and horribly acted skits were poorly executed and came off as clunky.
This was a drastic contrast to all of the crystal-clear high quality water and helicopter shots of surfing. Why Campbell decided to put these in was not evident and they certainly took away from the flow of the movie. This would have been better handled had it been left to a voice-over as Bruce Brown did it back in 1966 with The Endless Summer.
One hokey scene that spoke out as just plain fun and silliness was one in which surfers competed in a mock competition. Each dressed up and carried out ridiculous physical tasks on their board including rising out of a coffin, surfing while standing on a ladder, watering giant potted plants precariously balanced on the end of a board and finally, utilizing a ski machine while surfing.
At the end Campbell simply returned to the joy of surfing and the strange phenomenon of riding oddly-shaped forms of water. A really strange but purely delightful pastime.
Though it has its flaws, the beauty of the surf and the astounding physical capabilities of the surfers made The Present a real treat to experience.
Zak: As someone who has never seen a surf video, The Present was a welcome departure from my normal viewing experience. It’s got some great imagery, but it’s by no means a great film.
Mandla: The surfing was really, really good. It was amazing to be able to see it in such clarity on a giant screen, but Campbell’s cheesy skits brought his film way down.
The Present is like breakfast cereal. It is crisp at first, but it gets mushy after a while.
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