The Living Curl Review from the IMDb website
This review of The Living Curl appeared on the IMDb Movie database website.
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The Living Curl (1965)
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A Local Classic Brought Back To Life, 15 December 2008/9/10
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.
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Yes, and The Living Curl captures just what “when surfing was fun” meant to all of us who were there. Surfing was fun. The films that they make today about surfing take themselves too seriously and we sometimes feel that surfing has become far too serious, and even skateboarding. But we are glad to have all the new surfers and skateboardings around, but we are more focused on surfing than the latter. Skateboarding, like surfing, was once so innocent.
We used to camp overnight at Cowell’s Beach in Santa Cruz when the old O’Neill’s Surf Shope was just below The Dream Inn. We loved those small waves and hanging at Cowell’s in 1965-66 come summer. Glad to see the footage of Cowell’s in The Living Curl. We purchased the film at a surf shop in Carpenteria, CA, recently and just love it!
Nick and Mike Campbell
Nick and Mike Campbell
19 Apr 09 at 9:36 am