text via Postmodern Surfer
I just finished directing my first feature film. It’s called The Westsiders. It’s about the rise and fall of The Westsiders Surf Tribe from Santa Cruz, California. This following is part of the story of how I got here today.
I met Flea in sixth grade. He came to school with half his face-swollen shut. I couldn’t believe it when he told me he was out surfing at Steamer Lane when his board hit him in the face. I had heard of Steamer Lane, but only knew it as a place to stay away from. You see there was something called, “Helgy Beatings” and what that meant was that the older kids would hold you down and give you beatings. There was nowhere worse for beatings than Steamer Lane.
If you could take your beatings, then prove yourself in the big waves, then you could count yourself as one of The Westsiders. Vince Collier, VC, was the biggest brute force in the water at Steamer Lane, and he got any wave he wanted and he ruled with an iron fist and a lion’s heart. We were scared of Vince, but we respected him.
I started surfing with Jason Ratboy Collins, Darryl Flea Virostko and then went on to meet Sean Barney Barron, Kenny Skindog Collins, Anthony Ruffo and Mike Brummit, I became part of the family.
Fate turned against Ratboy when he lost his father at age 12, but it brought the whole surfing community together. We supported each other, through thick and thin. Our family was our best friends and the Mom’s that fed us.
In my mind, even then, I knew that this was a story worth telling, little did I know the journey I was on and twenty years later, finally I am telling the story of our lives.
I documented my friends with the advent of the video camera and chronicled their rising surfing fame in a surfing action video series, named The Kill. My friends rose to the top of the surfing world. All the while I was going to film school at University of California, Santa Barbara. I was learning from studying the masters, De Sica, Ford, Spielberg, Kurosawa and Wells.
In 2003 I decided that it was time. I had to start The Westsiders Movie full time and craft a comprehensive and compelling feature. I had no choice, every bone in my body said make this film.
I would especially like to thank every one who has been involved in this film, from my video productions teacher in High School to Mike DeNicola the art director/producer and Brian Hirrel the executive producer. So, many people were generous, it is a miracle. But most especially the families and people in the film who shared their lives so openly and honestly. The Collins, Virosko, Barron, and Collier families and the entire city of Santa Cruz, both Eastsiders and Westsiders, this movie is dedicated to you.
http://thewestsiders.com/home.html
text via Postmodern Surfer
I just finished directing my first feature film. It’s called The Westsiders. It’s about the rise and fall of The Westsiders Surf Tribe from Santa Cruz, California. This following is part of the story of how I got here today.
I met Flea in sixth grade. He came to school with half his face-swollen shut. I couldn’t believe it when he told me he was out surfing at Steamer Lane when his board hit him in the face. I had heard of Steamer Lane, but only knew it as a place to stay away from. You see there was something called, “Helgy Beatings” and what that meant was that the older kids would hold you down and give you beatings. There was nowhere worse for beatings than Steamer Lane.
If you could take your beatings, then prove yourself in the big waves, then you could count yourself as one of The Westsiders. Vince Collier, VC, was the biggest brute force in the water at Steamer Lane, and he got any wave he wanted and he ruled with an iron fist and a lion’s heart. We were scared of Vince, but we respected him.
I started surfing with Jason Ratboy Collins, Darryl Flea Virostko and then went on to meet Sean Barney Barron, Kenny Skindog Collins, Anthony Ruffo and Mike Brummit, I became part of the family.
Fate turned against Ratboy when he lost his father at age 12, but it brought the whole surfing community together. We supported each other, through thick and thin. Our family was our best friends and the Mom’s that fed us.
In my mind, even then, I knew that this was a story worth telling, little did I know the journey I was on and twenty years later, finally I am telling the story of our lives.
I documented my friends with the advent of the video camera and chronicled their rising surfing fame in a surfing action video series, named The Kill. My friends rose to the top of the surfing world. All the while I was going to film school at University of California, Santa Barbara. I was learning from studying the masters, De Sica, Ford, Spielberg, Kurosawa and Wells.
In 2003 I decided that it was time. I had to start The Westsiders Movie full time and craft a comprehensive and compelling feature. I had no choice, every bone in my body said make this film.
I would especially like to thank every one who has been involved in this film, from my video productions teacher in High School to Mike DeNicola the art director/producer and Brian Hirrel the executive producer. So, many people were generous, it is a miracle. But most especially the families and people in the film who shared their lives so openly and honestly. The Collins, Virosko, Barron, and Collier families and the entire city of Santa Cruz, both Eastsiders and Westsiders, this movie is dedicated to you.
http://thewestsiders.com/home.html
