Going Vertical- the movie

[lessormore]

A preview here-

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/03/23/2854238.htm

[matt...]

for some reason, my backwardly thinking IT support team, guys half my age, half my tan, but with twice as many skin imperfections, WON'T LET ME VIEW F. VIDEO ON THE WORK COMPUTER.

but looking forward to it!

[mical]

guys half my age, half my tan, but with twice as many skin imperfections

Brad, is that you?

[surfresearch]

Margret Pomeranz's review on ABC's At the Movies:
Searching for the truth on who started the Shortboard Revolution.

Director: David Bradbury
Producer: Robert Raymond
Screenplay: David Margan, Phil Jarratt

GOING VERTICAL is a documentary about the rivalry between the United States and Australia over who was the first to develop the revolution in surfing created by the design of the short board.

Standing in Australia's corner is BOB MCTAVISH, an endearing larrikin who surfed up and down the eastern coast of Australia before stowing away on a ship bound for that mecca of surfing - Sunset Beach in Hawaii...

Waving the American flag is DICK BREWER, resident of Hawaii, who is quite a bit less charming than McTavish and way more arrogant. But it was McTavish that was driven to master the waves, not just surfing a straight line for the beach, but going vertical up the face of the wave, changing the style of surfing forever...

There is spectacular and funny archival material in this documentary, directed by David Bradbury, and produced by Robert Raymond and narrated by Simon Baker. It is so interesting delving into the history of surfing in this country and discovering the impact that surfers like McTavish and Nat Young had on the world surfing scene.

That summer of love in 1967 was a turning point for surfers everywhere. It's interesting also to see the impact that the 1959 film GIDGET had on surfing much to the disgust of tried and true surfers.

It's a film full of characters, and it's great to see surf filmmaker Paul Witzig featured. I had a ball with this film, it made me quite nostalgic for the good old days.

http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2844450.htm

My comments:
While perhaps entertaining for the general viewer, for anyone with a serious interest in the history of surfriding Going Vertical is demonstrably less than “the truth on who started the Shortboard Revolution.”
Without any of the critical insight evident in the ABC recent “Bombora” documentary (self-interest acknowledged), it simply rounds up the usual suspects and regurgitates a standard collection of well-worn myths and legends.
Hopefully, David Bradbury’s political documentaries exhibit a level of rigorous analysis clearly lacking in this production.
(Paraphrasing Basil Fawlty: “Don’t mention Midget Farrelly … I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it”).
-Geoff Cater

[WANDERER]

The answer has always been George Greenough...

[oldman]

guys half my age, half my tan, but with twice as many skin imperfections

Brad, is that you?

That would explain a few things.

What moisturiser do you use Matt?

The answer has always been George Greenough...

Well I'm not up on the minute by minute detail of this story, but he was way ahead of the 'revolution'.

[WANDERER]

The answer has always been George Greenough...

Well I'm not up on the minute by minute detail of this story, but he was way ahead of the 'revolution'.

egggzacterly!

The only surprising thing is how long he'd been getting shacked and carving it up before people thought maybe a shorter board was the go...

[purple pyramids]

The answer has always been George Greenough...

all hail to the chief!

[oldman]

The nice (ironic?) thing about Greenough is that he is a yank who has lived a large portion of his life in Oz.

So the Oz versus US 'argument' around which this film seems to be based, actually resides within one man, and I bet he isn't battling with it. Goddamn genius I suspect.

But no conflict equals no film.

[el rancho]

they should do a movie on the campbell brothers versus the SA thruster. that'd get pretty heated too i reckon

i'll see this if I can, i like McTavish.

[surfresearch]

The answer has always been George Greenough
Archival footage of George Greenough riding a spoon is included in Going Vertical and his undoubted influence accredited.
Geoff Cater

[daryl]

guys half my age, half my tan, but with twice as many skin imperfections

Brad, is that you?

That would explain a few things.

What moisturiser do you use Matt?

The answer has always been George Greenough...

Well I'm not up on the minute by minute detail of this story, but he was way ahead of the 'revolution'.

almost got past me, ha ha

[surfresearch]

For recent comment on this subject, see
Damien Murphy: Wave of nostalgia swells feud
Sydney Sun Herald, May 9, 2010, page 18.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/wave-of-nosta ... -ukwp.html
- Geoff Cater

[huie]

For recent comment on this subject, see
Damien Murphy: Wave of nostalgia swells feud
Sydney Sun Herald, May 9, 2010, page 18.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/wave-of-nosta ... -ukwp.html
- Geoff Cater

off this part there is no doubt www.farrellysurfboards.com

[Beanpole]

What about Westerley?
Isn't it about time Drouyn claimed ownership of the v bottom as well?

The funny thing is that McTavish put his gonads on the line by taking the thing to Sunset for the Duke Contest.
If Midget was spinning out on one of those things out there then the yanks would associate him with those boards.

From my dim memories surfboard design was way more radical back then and among other things Midget was associated with the first pintails and the infamous side slipper which had a tiny fin and a hyper kicked up nose designed for side slipping and 360s.

I don't hear him taking claim for those boards.

[surfresearch]

beanpole posted:
1. What about Westerley?
Sorry, I am unfamiliar with this individual.

2. Isn't it about time Drouyn claimed ownership of the v bottom as well?
While probably not directly invovled with the development of the V bottom board, it appears that he certainly has some claim to influencing to move to shorter and lighter boards in 1967.
Further research in progress.

3.The funny thing is that McTavish put his gonads on the line by taking the thing to Sunset for the Duke Contest.
In his review of the 1967-1968 Hawaiian winter, published in John Witzig's Surf International Volume 1 Number 4, Midget expressed a similar view:
I arrived in Hawaii that morning and I wouldn't have liked to have been in the (Duke) contest.
McTavish went out there with a board that had never been used at Sunset, ever.
That is to say nobody had ridden that kind of board there.
He went out under average to poor conditions.
He was completely guts-up. (my emphasis)
Whenever he lost his board, he swam so hard that you would have sworn he was a machine.
Whenever he dropped in, he dropped in like he was skydiving.
He really powered down the face, it was only when he went to make his turn that, that wide, flat, fat
tail just wouldn't sink in and bite.

It was kinda like the 'Dam Busters' when he finally hit the bottom to make the turn he just skipped
out and bounced clean along the surface.

4. If Midget was spinning out on one of those things out there then the yanks would associate him with those boards.
In Hawaii that winter, McTavish's and Young's boards were "gunned" versions of the V bottom design, both over 9ft.
Farrelly's board was 7ft 8''.

Some American surfers of the period definitely did associate the V bottom design with Farrelly:
Mike Purpus, who visited Sydney in October-November 1967 for the Windansea Contest noted in a Surfabout interview (Volume 4 Number 4):
"... I talked to Midget Farrelly a great deal and I think his board (illustrated in the Sun Herald article posted above) is the best one I have seen over here and I have seen McTavish's and Young's.
I will take back some of his fundamental ideas and incorporate them in my own model that I have
back in California."

-Geoff Cater

[oldman]

''McTavish had never seen a vee-bottom until then,'' Farrelly, 65, said. ''The past and current shameless hijacking of history continues unabated. As surfers age and the real facts slide into the foggy past, it is easy for the snake-oil salesmen to hoodwink the public at large with books, DVDs, magazine articles and films.''

I like that line.

Was talking to a bloke on the recent easter holiday break, and he claimed to have created a shortboard many years before McTavish and Brewer and Farrelly ever got into it. As Midget's senior by about 16 years, and still surfing, he probably did too, but he isn't going to put his hand up to the likes of you mob.

But as a backyard occasional shaper of the time he ain't gonna get a look in. This is about who made it famous really, rather than who first came up with the design!

It's the winners who write the history. Backyard shapers aren't going to be acknowedged in any shaping developments unless a 'name' picks them up.

Hard to get excited about, for mine.

[steve shearer]

Spent Friday arve on George's verandah, having a bullshitt session, as he so contrapuntally calls his talk-story sessions.

Those with ears listen hard cause George isn't of the ilk to gild the historical lilly.

It's significant that George wasn't involved in any way with Going Vertical and therefore any movie about the shortboard revolution without his official imprimatur has to be taken with a grain of hollywood salt at best.

I haven't seen the movie but George made "Baby" a six foot balsa surfboard in 1960, before embarking on the design tangent that led to velo spoons.