User Reviews

Surf Movies, Hmmmm.........

In an era of unrestricted travel and sophisticated media manipulation it's truly wonderful to find a film that drags the viewer's jaded palette to a zone of such raw stoke, especially when it only takes a 60 mile trip up the coast.

Believe it or not surfing used to be fun. "The Living Curl" provides the evidence - undeniable.While it's true that by 1965 Malibu (at the time the most famous spot anywhere) was already crowded beyond capacity, this film shows what most surfers on a limited budget could do - head up the coast.

Great shots at, what were at the time, mysterious locations. Great shots of surfers who were the icons of the day demonstrating their trademark styles as well as some front edge progressive moves. Great footage of early contests which were won more for takeoff rights in the line-up than anything else.

Technically the film looks as clean as on the day of its first screening. Long lost and pretty much forgotten it has been dug out of the vaults and restored under the auspices of Scott Starr, well known and tireless surf archivist.

The new soundtrack and narration are wonderful. Jamie Budge has lost none of the stoke that inspired him to produce the film in the first place. His loss of memory with regard to surf contestants adds a comfortable charm for those of us who were there.

There was a time when all surfing was was fun, see it happen.

Review by Balsa Bill Yerkes

The first time I ever met Jamie Budge was in 1965. I was working in Keller's Surf Shop in Lavallette, N. J. It was just a couple of days before the Atlantic States Surfing Contest in Seaside Heights. Jaime wanted to enter the contest but I was given strict orders. The contest was full. The closing date had passed. No more entries.

Jaime pleaded. He had just come in from California. Couldn't I make an exception? Well, I figured, what's one more entry? I took his fee, and snuck his entry form into the stack back in the office. No one would know.

A couple of days later, Jaime won the contest. First place. Besides being an excellent surfer, we found out the following week, that he was a very talented filmmaker when he showed "The Living Curl" at the Seaside Heights American Legion Hall.

The Seaside Heights American Legion Hall was the most popular local venue for surf movies in the sixties. I was to find out why when I showed my film there a couple of years later. The hall rental fee was $25.

We all agreed that night, my friends and I, that "The Living Curl" may have been the best surf film that we'd seen up 'til then.

Of course we'd seen Bruce Brown's soundtracked versions of Surfing Hollow Days, Barefoot Adventure and Waterlogged. We'd even seen "The Endless Summer" narrated in person by the man himself. It's a classic of course with some great travel scenes. But for hard core surfing, we were more into Grant Rholoff , Dale Davis, Walt Phillips or Jim Freeman's films.

Jaime, though had made a film that concentrated on the small glassy waves of California with the hottest of the hotdoggers. No Hawaii. No big waves. No survival stances. No travelogues. Just mostly small California point waves with the best performance surfing we'd seen up until then.

The film is heavy on Malibu, Jaime's home break. What a great setting for a surf film in the early sixties. The perfect California point wave and the guys who invented hot dogging. All of the Malibu regulars are featured: Mickey (Miki) Chapin Dora (Mr Malibu, the Cat, Da Cat), Lance Carson, Johnny Fain, Dewey Weber, Bob "Porkchop" Baron, Dave Rochlen in wave after wave of nose rides, cut backs, fives, tens and island pull outs.

The pan shot down the beach, at the opposite angle of what you normally see featuring the classic early sixties boards with laminated wood fin after laminated wood fin will make the collectors go absolutely crazy.

We get to meet young up and coming contest winners Corky Carroll, David Nuuiwa and Mark Martinson while they were still juniors and surfing the contest circuit: The Oceanside Invitational, The Laguna Masters (at Redondo Breakwater, named after the swimwear company not the beach town). We also get to see the legends of the day including Mike Hynson and Robert August battling it out at the Malibu Invitational.

A surfari up the coast features Secos (Arroyo Sequit) before it was Leo Carrillo State Park, California Street, Rincon, Santa Cruz, and for a break from all the perfect point breaks the Hollywood by the Sea sequence is a nice change of pace: bigger lefts in fast closing beach breaks.

For those of us that grew up surfing in the sixties, "The Living Curl" is like having Surfer Magazine circa 1961-1964 come alive.

I've been hoping for this to come out on DVD for quite a while now. Since getting my personal autographed copy a couple of days ago I've probably viewed the film 10 times since I've had it running constantly in my surf shop in Satellite Beach, Florida. I'm not tired of it yet.

When you wait 43 years to see one of your favorite surf films the question is, will you be disappointed when it finally come out? I can say "The Living Curl" lived up to my memory and my expectations.

Balsa Bill www.BalsaBill.com

In the context of "The Endless Summer", "Dogtown and Z Boys" and "Big Wednesday" . . . "The Living Curl" covers a time right after the first Gidget movie when surfing caught on like wildfire in Southern California.

"The Living Curl" relives the early days of surfing in the sixties thru the eyes of young film-maker and surfer, Jamie Budge. His "home movies" of himself and his friends soon evolved into classic footage of the top surfers of the day at their best, at their home breaks.

Many of the legends of Malibu such as Miki Dora, Johnny Fain, Dewey Weber, Harold Iggy, Bob "Porkchops" Barron, Lance Carson and Dave Rochlen are featured in their prime, "inventing" maneuvers that became the mainstays of modern surfing.

Surfers such as Mike Doyle, L.J. Richards, Rusty Miller and Robert August show the styles that made them the first royalty of surfing in Southern California.

"New" up and comers, like Corky Carroll, David Nuuhiwa, John Peck, Rick Irons, Mark Martinson, Jackie Baxter are shown pushing the envelope of the surfing of the day to new frontiers that includes the first cheater fives, backside bottom turns, tube rides in contests and aggressive beach break surfing.

When surfing backside at the time was considered to be a disadvantage, Budge shows how various surfers such as Richard Roche and John Peck turned this disadvantage into a positive pursuit of a new dimension of the sport.

Although snowboards, wakeboards and sandboards hadn't been invented yet, it is interesting to see the surfers of that time carving the sand slopes of Point Mugu on sawed off water skis.

Before the "invention" of the skateboard, Budge documents one of the first conversions of roller skates to a board for early experiments in "Sidewalk Surfing".

Pioneering innovation runs throughout the film, from Miki Dora riding a 7ft. 11in. "short board" (circa 1962) to Jamie Budge exploring the inside of tubes and his own nose rides with a home made "water proof" camera.

"The Living Curl" takes the audience on a brisk trip thru surfing in Southern California in the early sixties. It is indeed a "trip" to see Pacific Coast Highway filled with woodie wagons, Volkswagon buses, Plymouth coupes and wing tailed Chevrolets.

And nostalgic to see Topanga Beach hosting the production of "Beach Blanket Bingo", with "extras" Miki Dora and Johnny Fain. To see Stanley's Diner at its best, before the freeway off-ramp put an end to surfing there forever. And to witness the Oil Piers when they were main stop on days when the surf was too small for Rincon itself.

Budge's commentary as a historian of the time is both "informative and funny", says Scott Starr of starrfilms.com

Although Budge's humor is a bit sophomoric at times, "The Living Curl" includes a bit that fellow surf-film maker Jim Freeman once said is, "The funniest gag ever in a surf film".

Balsa Bill says, "At the time, my friends and I said it was the best surf film we'd seen." and "Jamie was the most under-rated surf film makers of the sixties".

Surfing Legend Mike Doyle once said about Jamie's films: "Thank you . . . after watching your films, it felt just like I was there."

As it says on an early poster for Jamie Budge's, "The Living Curl": "His movie is for the audience he's part of, the California Surfer ".

The Living Curl is a classic surfing film!

Legendary surf photographer & film archivist Scott Starr lends his talents in producing & authoring this DVD version of Jamie's vintage surfing film. Starr refined the music track and added in Jamie's narration which is humble and humorous, and provides so much back story to the footage. Jamie shares with the viewer the cool surf slang of the era, and the names of the greatest surfers on the scene back then. It's wonderful to hear his commentary while watching the footage he shot so many years ago.

I'd place The Living Curl on par with other surf classics like Endless Summer I & II, and Big Wednesday. The is a film documentary that both surfers and beach people will enjoy. Besides the great surfing footage, the film will also appeal to people who dig vintage cars and the hairstyles, clothing & beach fashions of the period.

In this age of "extreme sports" it's refreshing to see old school surfing at its best.

Kudos to Scott Starr for helping bring back this important "lost treasure" of surfing. I highly recommend Jamie's film, available on DVD and worthy of a permanent place in your DVD collection.

Hunter Mann,

founder of Highway Cinema

The Living Curl "The Living Curl" isn't just a "blast from the past," it's a classic surfing film that will BLAST you there! It's entertaining, it's funny, it's real and it manages to both document and convey the spirit of the time when Southern California was the center of the surfing world.

To me there are several things that make this film likable and unique.

To start with - unlike many surf filmmakers - Jamie Budge is a gifted, polished surfer in his own right and it's that athlete's "eye" that gives him an edge when picking the surfers, the waves and the shots in the film.

He's not just shooting a film about someone else surfing, he's making a film about the people, places and waves he knows.

Then there are the film's many sequences of Miki Dora's artistry. They are simply superb and demonstrate why Da Cat will always be considered Malibu's all-time Wavemaster.

The film's other feature surfers also read like a who's who of 60's surfing elite: Johnny Fain, Dewey Weber, Lance Carson, Harold Iggy, Mike Doyle, Rusty Miller, John Peck, Rick Irons, Corky Carroll, Mickey Muñoz, Mark Martinson, Jacky Baxter, Denny Lennehan and David Nuuhiwa.

In addition is rare surfing footage of Malibu locals like Dave Rochlen, Bob "Porkchops" Barron, Jo Jo Perrin, John Gale, Brian Haimes, George Szgetti and H2o magazine publisher, Martin Surgarman.

Of course, these were the days before wetsuits and leg ropes ... when surfing expeditions up and down the Californian coast were an adventure to look forward to. After all, old cars were cheap, gas was around 25 cents a gallon and the Pacific Coast Highway connected coastal communities rather than separating them.

Captured by Jamie's camera the film takes us on a journey up and down Highway 101 and shows us nostalgic glimpses of the coast as it used to be, before the money changers took over the temple.

Today's viewers will also see Southern Californian surfing spots as they used to be and some that no longer exist, like Stanley's Dinner, the Rincon Oil Piers and Dana Point.

My only criticism of the film is the soundtrack. While the accompanying background music comes through both stereo channels, the narration is only on the left channel. But that's small thing and Jamie Budge's dry humor alone makes the narration worth paying attention to. The Living Curl "The Living Curl" isn't just a "blast from the past," it's a classic surfing film that will BLAST you there! It's entertaining, it's funny, it's real and it manages to both document and convey the spirit of the time when Southern California was the center of the surfing world.

To me there are several things that make this film likable and unique.

To start with - unlike many surf filmmakers - Jamie Budge is a gifted, polished surfer in his own right and it's that athlete's "eye" that gives him an edge when picking the surfers, the waves and the shots in the film.

He's not just shooting a film about someone else surfing, he's making a film about the people, places and waves he knows.

Then there are the film's many sequences of Miki Dora's artistry. They are simply superb and demonstrate why Da Cat will always be considered Malibu's all-time Wavemaster.

The film's other feature surfers also read like a who's who of 60's surfing elite: Johnny Fain, Dewey Weber, Lance Carson, Harold Iggy, Mike Doyle, Rusty Miller, John Peck, Rick Irons, Corky Carroll, Mickey Muñoz, Mark Martinson, Jacky Baxter, Denny Lennehan and David Nuuhiwa.

In addition is rare surfing footage of Malibu locals like Dave Rochlen, Bob "Porkchops" Barron, Jo Jo Perrin, John Gale, Brian Haimes, George Szgetti and H2o magazine publisher, Martin Surgarman.

Of course, these were the days before wetsuits and leg ropes ... when surfing expeditions up and down the Californian coast were an adventure to look forward to. After all, old cars were cheap, gas was around 25 cents a gallon and the Pacific Coast Highway connected coastal communities rather than separating them.

Captured by Jamie's camera the film takes us on a journey up and down Highway 101 and shows us nostalgic glimpses of the coast as it used to be, before the money changers took over the temple.

Today's viewers will also see Southern Californian surfing spots as they used to be and some that no longer exist, like Stanley's Dinner, the Rincon Oil Piers and Dana Point.

My only criticism of the film is the soundtrack. While the accompanying background music comes through both stereo channels, the narration is only on the left channel. But that's small thing and Jamie Budge's dry humor alone makes the narration worth paying attention to.