Oct. 11th, 2007
By: Roy Harrell
Lights, camera, waves… action
It's been a solid run of decent surf all week. As I review those days in my mind, the images blend together, the sessions like an old rough-cut 8mm movie, making it tough to remember the details of every day. Some things stand out, of course, like the fog bank that stayed just over the beach that seemed to be prevalent practically all week long. On big Thursday, the day I figured it wouldn't be epic and decided to go to work, only to find out later that it had been head-high plus and glassy. But what will stick out in my mind the most about this week was thedouble-dipping sessions each morning and evening, catching waves as the sun came up and again that evening as the sun set, then getting up at dawn the next day and doing it all over again, and so on every day for a solid week. That doesn't happen all that frequently in Delmarva, and when it does, it deserves to be savored.
Once again, all the big-named storms petered out due to wind shear while still far out in the middle of the Atlantic. But our familiar nontropical low situated just over the Bahamas got the job done anyway with a super-long fetch that kept the wind a little onshore but the waves in the fun zone. Depending on the day and the local wind conditions, the waves ranged from being a little messy; but rideable, to offshore and bombing.
There is an unfortunate component to good waves for my family though. Most of the time I carry an old video camera locked and loaded in the back of the truck, ready to document for family posterity all those epic sessions we get around here. But what ends up happening is that when the waves look fun, I get caught up in all the excitement and leave the bag in the car, forgetting all about filming until the sessions over. So the film that does get left to posterity will only end up showing those miserable little days that were too small for me to want to surf.
That's why I have so much respect for the guys who are willing to sacrifice their own enjoyment in order to document photographically the waves and the surfers that ride them. To get decent surf footage around here, you have to be on it first of all, .and then, secondly be willing to stay on the beach filming while it’s going off, knowing that by the time you're done, the swell will have faded or the wind will be on it, or the tide will be too high. So it's a sacrifice, and we should honor those that are willing to serve the sport that way.
Last week, I got a package in the mail from just such a guy; Will Lucas. Once an Ocean City regular, Will has "retired" to Melbourne Beach, Fla. Most of you might be familiar with a couple of his past movies that featured local Delmarva and East Coast surfers such as ."Cruising Atlantic Avenue" and "Waves of Reflection." The package I received this week was Lucas's latest y his most polished offering to date: "Board Shorts: Recollections of East and Gulf Coast surfing in the 1960s and 70’s.”
With the making of this latest movie, Will continues his retrospective on the peculiarities of our unique surf culture that is a must-have for any serious surf-history buffs, But it's not just a lot of old scratchy films put together on a Beach Boys soundtrack. As Will made each of his previous movies, more and more material was unearthed from the archives of other. surfers back in the day and interviewing and collecting that rare footage demanded that it be kept and preserved for posterity. After all, the struggle to gain acceptance for surfing by the municipalities that initially outlawed it, and the ensuing surf culture that developed in beach towns up and down the coast, is a story that begs to be told to a new. generation who needs to be informed of the sacrifice the "old guys" made, which enabled us to be able to enjoy surfing the way we do today.
There is a bunch of current footage also, featuring lots of local surfers such as young guns Wyatt Harrison, Vince Boulanger and Aviad Sasi, along with the older crew such as Nick Carter, Lee Gerachis, Skip Savage, Gary Ferguson, Shelly Dawson and others. With a unique, original soundtrack, the movie is a lot of fun to listen to, as well. Ask for it at your local surf shop or contact Will at www.surf64.com.