Text Box: Now retired after working as an executive "in a firm in Washington D.C. (where) I lost my mind and quit my job about five years ago," Lucas said he had been doing "little surf videos as a hobby." "Waves of Reflection" was his first documentary endeavor. "It is local in content but universal in spirit," he said. "There was curiosity on my part. I started surfing in Ocean City in '64. I knew a lot of the names of people who were very involved. I don't compete but I knew names of people who did compete. I thought I knew who had the first surf shops ... I said, 'I want to set this straight,'" he said earlier this week, just after arriving in Ocean City. "I learned mostly about the human spirit," he said, launching into a heartwarming story about a fellow surfer. "Bill Wise worked for the Beachcomber for a number of years ...he and his partner George Pittman opened the very first surf shop in Ocean City on 18th Street. In 1965, Bill fell off his surfboard in Delaware and broke his neck. He's a quadriplegic. "After he got himself together with the help of friends and family, some friends told him to get off his butt and he did. For 10 years he took pictures and wrote articles for The Beachcomber using his teeth," Lucas said. "In Bill's particular case, friends helped him throughout the years to overcome and get out and do things and today he is the most positive person I ever met in my life. When you look at this video ... You wouldn't even know he was handicapped," Lucas said. Wise, he said, "exemplifies the spirit of surfing." "I 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," Lucas states on his web site, http://www.surf64.com. "Bill and his partner George Pittman opened the first Hobie shops in Maryland and Delaware after selling the Ole and Velzy brand boards for a short period." "After my last interview with Bill, he suggested that I talk with Skill Johnson. This gave me an opportunity 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 from the other surfers in the video that Skill and his brothers influenced surfing more than anyone else in Ocean City in the mid '60s," Lucas explained on the Web site. "I was also fortunate enough to sit with Dana and George Smith at their home and listen to their great stories." "Although Dave (Doc) Dalkiewicz was not part of the original O.C. surf crew, his knowledge of surfing from the mid '60s is a great addition to this work." "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.

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Beachcomber / Susan Canfora  - June 11 - 17, 2004

 

Surfer rides 'Waves of Reflections' in new film

 OCEAN CITY  - Will Lucas is in town this weekend, having made the long drive from his home in Florida, and he's excited about the premier of the surfing documentary he made, "Waves of Reflection."

 The self described 58-year-old surfer wanted to trace the history of the sport in Ocean City and Delaware, so he created the documentary with contributions from others, surfers who shared names, stories, old 8mm movies and photographs.  Lucas handled the editing and storyline.