Bye Bye BodhiWhy the movies always get surfing wrong—and John From Cincinnati gets it right.
By Thad ZiolkowskiPosted Friday, June 8, 2007, at 7:17 AM ET
Related in Slate
Greg Milner argued that
Blue Crush was actually a realistic portrayal of surf life in Hawaii. Jeff MacIntyre looked at the genius of
David Milch, writer/producer of
Deadwood and
JFC.
But if JFC wants to deepen its surf reality, it's not the supernatural that needs emphasis but the mundane. The daily reality of surfing is one of checking the waves (at the beach or, these days, on a Web cam), surfing if there are any waves (and often there aren't and if there are, they aren't particularly good), looking at magazine spreads of exceptional surf photographed elsewhere in the world, watching surf videos, and daydreaming.
The show's inclusion of average surf is the right idea. There's a moment early in the first episode when Shaunie Yost is shown passing up a small wave. The shot is too tight to allow us to see why, whether the wave is uncatchable or not worth catching or someone is already riding it. He's just shown looking it over and pulling back. That's surfing—elegant, unclimactic moments of paddling, of taking quiet pleasure in hard-won wave knowledge, of simply being in the ocean on a board. But it's not high drama, which is why Hollywood can never seem to get surfing right. The question may not be whether JFC can continue to get surfing right, but does it dare.
Thad Ziolkowski, author of the surf memoir On a Wave
, directs the writing program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Still from John From Cincinnati by John P. Johnson © HBO. All rights reserved. Photograph of surfer on Slate's home page by John Foxx/Stockbyte.
Remarks from the Fray:
All the hype of the Sopranos finale reminded me of my own fanaticism around David Milch's Deadwood. Just as that show was beginning to sort out some of the more complex plot lines, production abruptly ended.
I could never have imagined that "The Gem" would have been brought down by a (I generously assume) highbrow surfer show. I will forgive Milch only if Ian McShane is cast as the owner of the local sno-cone shop.
--Plurabello
(To reply, click here.)
Thad Ziolkowski's article on John from Cincinnati inadvertently captures the grade-school clannishness and social anxiety that ruins surfing for so many.
Long board vs short board. Labels vs no labels. Worrying about what you drive. Laughing at people who are less skilled than you are. Adding menace to these childish debates by creating social cliques out of these beliefs, then insulting the outsiders, or threatening them out on the line.
There may be too many people and too few good waves out there, but the self-appointed representatives of surf culture ruin what they have with their bad attitudes and selfishness. Yuppie surfers and the self-confident old-timers are often the only civil people on a break - all the rest should be grateful that these newcomers are too 'dumb' not to buy the new lightweight boards and improved wetsuits, so 'selfish' that they organize to protect coastlines and improve beach access for all.
--pcorning
(To reply, click here.)
Having been surfing for almost (gulp!) forty years now (I'm 47) and having been in the "surf industry" for for about 30 years, I am a little surprised that I hadn't heard about this show before reading about it in both today's LA Times and NY Times.
The show sounds like something I might get around to watching if it makes it to DVD.
Why the hesitation? Probably the potential cringe-factor (I actually kind of liked "Blue Crush" because it was so unrealistic and silly and had cute girls and nice water shots- what's not to like?). But the "reality" of a surfer's life (especially a "lifer") is so utterly incomprehensible to a non-surfer that I wouldn't even attempt to explain it.
--Bintang
(To reply, click here.)
(6/9)
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Remarks from the Fray:
All the hype of the Sopranos finale reminded me of my own fanaticism around David Milch's Deadwood. Just as that show was beginning to sort out some of the more complex plot lines, production abruptly ended.
I could never have imagined that "The Gem" would have been brought down by a (I generously assume) highbrow surfer show. I will forgive Milch only if Ian McShane is cast as the owner of the local sno-cone shop.
--Plurabello
(To reply, click here.)
Thad Ziolkowski's article on John from Cincinnati inadvertently captures the grade-school clannishness and social anxiety that ruins surfing for so many.
Long board vs short board. Labels vs no labels. Worrying about what you drive. Laughing at people who are less skilled than you are. Adding menace to these childish debates by creating social cliques out of these beliefs, then insulting the outsiders, or threatening them out on the line.
There may be too many people and too few good waves out there, but the self-appointed representatives of surf culture ruin what they have with their bad attitudes and selfishness. Yuppie surfers and the self-confident old-timers are often the only civil people on a break - all the rest should be grateful that these newcomers are too 'dumb' not to buy the new lightweight boards and improved wetsuits, so 'selfish' that they organize to protect coastlines and improve beach access for all.
--pcorning
(To reply, click here.)
Having been surfing for almost (gulp!) forty years now (I'm 47) and having been in the "surf industry" for for about 30 years, I am a little surprised that I hadn't heard about this show before reading about it in both today's LA Times and NY Times.
The show sounds like something I might get around to watching if it makes it to DVD.
Why the hesitation? Probably the potential cringe-factor (I actually kind of liked "Blue Crush" because it was so unrealistic and silly and had cute girls and nice water shots- what's not to like?). But the "reality" of a surfer's life (especially a "lifer") is so utterly incomprehensible to a non-surfer that I wouldn't even attempt to explain it.
--Bintang
(To reply, click here.)
(6/9)