Surfing

Step Into Liquid [Blu-ray]

Thanks to Dana Brown's delightful Step Into Liquid, the surfing scene in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, should get a healthy boost. That's because Brown, in the tradition of his father, filmmaker Bruce Brown (The Endless Summer), has captured dazzling images of surfers riding curls in some of the world's most exotic--and sometimes unlikely--places. Besides the action on Lake Michigan, Brown leads us to Costa Rica, where the sport's senior elite (including Summer star Robert August) prove they still have the moves, and Oahu's North Shore, where the legendary Pipeline inspires this quote: "It's so scary, maybe you die a little." Most entertaining is a segment in County Donegal, where the American Malloy brothers startle the locals and meet their Irish counterparts on the grayest ocean imaginable. Great personal stories here, including the tale of Northern California's Dale Webster, who has never missed a day on the waves in 30 years. --Tom Keogh

From the makers of THE ENDLESS SUMMER STEP INTO LIQUID takes us from the terrifying monstrous waves of Oahu's North Shore to the Te xas waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the shores of Ireland and Rapa Nui. Told through the voices of legends pros and everyday surf ers alike it is not just a film for surfers but for anyone with an appreciation for sport and an inkling of what it means to be "s toked."Format: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: SPORTS/GAMES/EXTREME SPORTS Rating: PG UPC: 012236191582 Manufacturer No: 19158

Step into Liquid

Thanks to Dana Brown's delightful Step Into Liquid, the surfing scene in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, should get a healthy boost. That's because Brown, in the tradition of his father, filmmaker Bruce Brown (The Endless Summer), has captured dazzling images of surfers riding curls in some of the world's most exotic--and sometimes unlikely--places. Besides the action on Lake Michigan, Brown leads us to Costa Rica, where the sport's senior elite (including Summer star Robert August) prove they still have the moves, and Oahu's North Shore, where the legendary Pipeline inspires this quote: "It's so scary, maybe you die a little." Most entertaining is a segment in County Donegal, where the American Malloy brothers startle the locals and meet their Irish counterparts on the grayest ocean imaginable. Great personal stories here, including the tale of Northern California's Dale Webster, who has never missed a day on the waves in 30 years. --Tom Keogh

The Endless Summer

The definitive surf movie, this 1966 documentary by Bruce Brown is beautifully shot and thrilling to see in its portrait of youthful freedom on the world's shores. Brown followed two surfers around the globe in their quest for the perfect wave, finding it eventually on a remote beach far from home. The narration by "Big Kahuna Brown" cuts through the reverence a bit, being cheeky in tone. --Tom Keogh

The greatest surf movie ever made. "On any day of the year it is summer somewhere in the world..." Go with Robert August and Mike Hynson as they follow the summer season to Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii and California in search of the perfect wave. Still the ultimate surf film of all time!

Thicker Than Water

Jack Johnson - September Sessions

Billabong Odyssey

An extreme sports adventure! Top professional surfers scour the world's oceans to ride the biggest waves on the planet. Experience the thrills and spills of action-packed big wave surfing.Running Time: 92 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SPORTS/GAMES UPC: 085393431921

In addition to boasting one of the most astonishing opening sequences in the history of extreme-sports filmmaking, Billabong Odyssey offers a breathtaking survey of big-wave surfing at a pivotal stage in its evolution. With the advent of Jet-Ski Waverunners used for "tow-in" access to gigantic waves that paddle-surfers could never reach, this three-year, globe-trotting quest for the world's biggest waves is nothing less than spectacular. As documentaries go it's a bit cruder than 2003's other surfing movie, Step Into Liquid, and many of the same world-class surfers appear in both films (including 49-year-old Ken Bradshaw, still going strong). But Billabong is unrivaled in its abundance of jaw-dropping footage--most of it shot from helicopters hovering in close proximity--showing the sheer, terrifying scale of breaking "tubes"--some reaching 100 feet--at the most challenging big-wave locations on the planet, including Maverick's at Santa Cruz, California; Cortes Bank off the Pacific Coast; "Cyclops" in Australia; Mundaka, Spain; and the treacherous "Jaws" reef on the coast of Maui, Hawaii.

While touching on various hot topics such as safety training, serious wipe-outs, swell-tracking technology, female surfers (like the great Layne Beachley), and hydrofoil surfboards (billed as "the future of the sport"), director Philip Boston applies a casual, competitive structure that's too diffuse and lightweight to have much impact. But when the film focuses on the climactic "Jaws" showdown between Carlos Burle and Mike Parsons, Billabong Odyssey achieves a state of raw power and spiritual intensity, culminating in Parsons' best-ever 10-point ride on a massive tube that constantly threatens to consume him. As dozens of adrenaline-junkie surfers strive for new horizons of unprecedented skill, Billabong Odyssey chronicles their efforts with amazing bird's-eye cinematography. For surfers and non-surfers alike, this movie must be seen to be believed. --Jeff Shannon

Riding Giants (Special Edition)

Riding Giants is more than another blissful surfing movie. It's an outstanding documentary about one era in American alternative lifestyles, when surfing was well-suited to a radical culture of social dropouts. Using an amazing array of amateur film clips, shot for the most part in Hawaii and California from the late 1950s and early '60s, director Stacy Peralta traces the rise of surfing's appeal to young men looking to test themselves in an unorthodox (and sexy) milieu--of "living life to the fullest," as former surfer-turned-screenwriter John Milius (Big Wednesday) puts it at one point. Lengthy chapters on the glories of Oahu's Makaha and the "superstition and dread" that accompanied the big-wave challenge of Waimea Bay are riveting and sometimes heroic, particularly told through the memories of surf legend Greg Noll. Great material, too, about the deadly wonders of surfing Mavericks, California, where the rocks will get one if the violent tides don't. --Tom Keogh

From its early Hawaiian roots to its current status as a recreational lifestyle enjoyed worldwide, bigwave surfing is given the definitive exploration by acclaimed director Stacy Peralta (Dogtown and Z-Boys).

The Endless Summer II

Twenty-eight years after directing the hit documentary The Endless Summer, Bruce Brown went on a similar quest with two surfers to find the perfect wave. With a bigger budget and more sophistication in the production, this sequel is even more spectacular. What is lost in innocence--which The Endless Summer was rich in--is made up for in stunning looks at pristine beaches on exotic and even unlikely (for example, Alaska) shores. --Tom Keogh

Surfwise: The Amazing True Odyssey of the Poskowitz Family

Like many American outsider-adventurers Dorian Doc Paskowitz set out to realize a utopian dream. Abandoning a successful medical practice he sought self-fulfillment by taking up the nomadic life of a surfer. But unlike other American searchers like Thoreau or Kerouac Paskowitz took his wife and nine children along for the ride all eleven of them living in a 24 foot camper. Together they lived a life that would be unfathomable to most but enviable to anyone who ever relinquished their dreams to a straight job. The Paskowitz Family proved that America may be running out of frontiers but it hasn t run out of frontiersman.System Requirements:Running Time: 93 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/BIOGRAPHY Rating: R UPC: 876964000932 Manufacturer No: 10093

American history is filled with legendary characters who turned their backs on society, snubbing its conventions and opting for a simple, contemplative life. Like Thoreau. Kerouac. And.. Paskowitz? Well, actually, yeah. Surfwise, director Doug Pray's 2007 documentary, tells the decidedly offbeat tale of Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz. Now in his mid-80s, the guy who calls himself "one of the few dumb Jewish doctors" was once on a big-time career track; a Stanford-educated physician, he was the head of the American Medical Association in Hawaii, an expert surfer, and a strong, handsome man who often donated his services and was asked to consider a run for governor of that state. But more than 50 years ago, Paskowitz and his third wife, Juliette (his previous marriages had failed due to his own "sexual ignorance"), essentially chucked it all for the sake of family, surfing, and precious little else. They had nine children, all but one of them boys, and the entire brood lived in a 24-foot camper, traveling constantly. Money? There was precious little of that (although years later the family generated some income by establishing a popular surf camp near San Diego). Food? They managed, with Paskowitz enforcing a strict organic regimen. School? "Education be damned," Doc said, and not one of the children ever attended classes regularly. To outsiders, it was an idyllic life; "we were not attached to the physical world at all," says one of the (now middle-aged) kids today. But the downside was deep. Crammed into their tiny space, the children watched and listened as their parents noisily made love every single night (not a great thing for the kids' own later sex lives). Driven--and sometimes abused--by their ultra-controlling, narcissistic dad, they became excellent surfers but were ill-prepared for adult life when finally, in their 20s, some of them began to leave "home." Remarkably, they all seem relatively (so to speak) fine now, with real jobs in surfing, music, and the film business and a fairly clear perspective on their strange upbringing ("Don't do anything a gorilla wouldn't do" was one of Doc's mantras). Extras include outtakes, commentary, surfing footage, and more. --Sam Graham

The Endless Summer Collection

Splash back into the surf with the landmark series that shaped half a century and changed the world of surfing forever! The breakthrough film for surfing's premiere filmmaker, Bruce Brown, The Endless Summer rides the globe in search of the perfect wave with California surfers pursuing their dream from West Africa to Tahiti. Then paddle back out for the spray, speed and spills of The Endless Summer II, which picks up the adventure with a pair of surfing pros from Hawaii's Waimea to the Australian Shark's Bay. Conclude your journey with The Endless Summer Revisited, a collaboration between Bruce Brown and his son, Dana, featuring never-before-seen footage from the original classic complete with incredible footage of fifteen-foot walls of water and the further pursuit of life's greatest pleasure, the perfect wave. Filled with breathtaking scenery and all the fun and foam you could possibly want, this classic trilogy will make it summer in your home all year long!