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Waves of Reflection is a documentary about surfing in Maryland and Delaware beginning in 1962: although local in content, it is universal in spirit.  Family friends and attitude are at the soul of the sport. This movie is a fun, informative and emotional look at the early days of surfing.  It is a collection of interviews, old photos, and 8mm movies provided by various sources.  East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame Legends Bill Wise and Skip Savage as well as Dave (Doc) Dalkiwicz, Dana Smith & George Smith reflect on their memories of surfing in its infancy.

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I (Will Lucas) started this project out of curiosity.  Although I started surfing in Ocean City in 1964, I really had no idea about our heritage.  I had already done some interviews with East Coast Surfing Legend, Skip Savage, and he suggested that I talk with Bill Wise:  Bill and his partner George Pittman opened the first Hobie shops in Maryland and Delaware in the early 60's after selling the Ole and Velzy brand boards for a short period.  As Dana Smith says in the video: "I only know Bill Wise and George Pittman by reputation."  Such was the case with me.  My first interview with Bill was in March 1999 and I returned again in November.  Bill Wise's contribution to this project is immense.  His interviews and photos speak for themselves.

George Pittman lives out of the area, so I settled with a phone conversation, after which he was kind enough to furnish me with a copy of Bill's classic photo of the old rental bus parked in north Ocean City.  George's actions and contributions to surfing are barely covered in this video, but he plays one of the most important roles in our past.  As you will see, George was there when he was needed. 

After my last interview with Bill, he suggested that I talk with Skill Johnson. This gave me an excuse to return to the North Shore in January 2000.  Although Skill opted out of the project, it is evident from Bill's pictures and the comments of the other surfers in the video, that Skill and his brothers influenced surfing more than anyone else in Ocean City in the mid 60's. 

Will Lucas - Surf 64 Productions Ltd., will donate a portion of the revenues of the sale of this video to the Surfrider Foundation in a fund, which has been established in Bill Wise's name.  This project is dedicated to Bill's wife Rosalie for her courage and dedication over the past 40 years. 

A while later, I did another interview with Skip Savage while he was still living in Delaware.  Among his many perspectives on the sport, Skip offered some great insight into the world of surfing as a dealer trying to survive as the products he supplied were going through a huge transition in design.  During this same period, I was digitally organizing my own photos and surf films.  I started asking other surfers for permission to copy and use their old material as well.  Kip Martin was the first, and as I was trying to copy the film, Kip was so excited that he kept pointing and sticking his finger in front of the lens:  it took me forever.  That was the first time that I had seen the Skip Valliant footage - he surfs like Phil Edwards.  There's also some footage of Kip on a Super Mini, as well as he and Skip Valliant skateboarding.  The skim boarding scene is priceless.

 

I was also fortunate enough to sit with Dana and George Smith at their home and listen to some of their great stories.  Unfortunately, they lost all of their photos in a fire, but their stories live on in memory; now told on video as only a married surfing couple could tell.  They did have some old video from the mid 60's owned by the Suit family of Ocean City, of which Mrs. Carolyn Suit was kind enough to give me permission to use. 

Although Dave (Doc) Dalkiewicz was not part of the original O C surf crew, his knowledge of surfing from the mid 60's is a great addition to this work.  I've never known Doc to talk a lot; but he is extremely forthcoming in his thoughts, and sums up the spirit of surfing in one profound statement.  There's so much background noise during his interview, you really feel like you're in his shop.  Hey Doc - how much are those Sundecks?

Delaware surfer, Jack Powell brought over some of his classic film as well.  The power surfing shown by Jack, the Clark brothers and Gary Revel at Shits and Southside, blew me away.  You won't believe you're in Delaware.  Jack is surfing just as well today.

Another influential Delaware surfer, Neil Stevenson, also came by and contributed some of his home movies showing some of the early transitional boards.  He and Gary Revel were surfing Greg Noll Jack's Pin Tail boards which they purchased at Skip's shop. 

The video also includes some of my own pictures and video scattered throughout the project:  the best being some tape shot in late September 2001.  Martin Furst, who is featured on some awesome waves, helped provide names to many of these surfers.  Ironically, the Smith's sons, Will and Ted, were part of this sequence.  I did not know this until the project was almost completed. 

Thanks to everybody who helped me with this project, especially to Bill for trusting me to present some of his most personal stories.  I drove poor Bill crazy trying to put names to as many of his photos as possible.  My video work could be better - a friend described it as raw.  I liked that.  George Pittman told me that it wasn't the story as he would have written it, but admitted that if you asked 12 people, there would be 12 stories.  I like to describe the project as soup:  the individual ingredients take on a new flavor when mixed together.  I apologize to all those who will remain nameless in this feature.  I also realize that there were many other prominent surfers of the time that were not featured.  This was not done with intent.  I worked with the material that I had available.  As a result, there are many other stories to be told.  I am hopeful that this documentary will inspire others to come forward with their own pictures and film, and share their stories with all. 

I am working on other similar projects.  If you have interesting surf photos, movies or stories, please contact me by e-mail:  will@surf64.com

East Coast Surf Documentaries on DVD

Informative Interviews - Vintage Movies - Good Tunes

$29.95 Each - Free Shipping in U.S.

Featuring East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame Legends

Claude Codgen   Peter Pan   Skip Savage   Yancy Spencer   Bill Wise   Bill Yerkes

Where There’s A Will, There’s A Wave ^sm