Liquid Assets

LET US SPRAY: Keala Kennely off the coast of Tahiti.

Rambling and clunky, Step Into Liquid still offers breathtaking surfing footage.

by Cindy Fuchs

"No special effects, no stuntmen, no stereotypes." As these opening titles suggest, Dana Brownís surfing documentary is nothing if not earnest. It is also gorgeous to behold, slightly rambling and prone to prosaic observations: surfers are a "tribe of people," "the stoke is a global thing" and, of course, surfing is not a lifestyle, but "a life."

And another thing: That whole slacker-stoner-dude business, the Spicoli thing, is tired. In Step Into Liquid, surfers are cool. They step into another world, without defined edges and awkward angles. They have a sense of mission, or at least an understanding of why they take the risk -- "the moment when the impossible is conquered." The seriousness of the risk is indicated in a segment on Jesse Billauer, who broke his neck surfing and still surfs.

Thanks to incredible camera work by John-Paul Beeghly and his crew, you begin to get a sense of what this means: repeated shots of huge ("gimungous") curling waves, riders crouching "in the tube," "wave dancing" and, in the case of Australia's phenomenal Taj Burrow (deemed "the future" of surfing), evincing joyous creativity -- hot-dogging on water.

The film also journeys to locations where less than ideal weather conditions inspire innovation. Only dedicated surfers would brave the brown waters of Lake Michigan (near Sheboygan, Wis.) or chase the wake of oil tankers off the shores of Galveston, Texas. A Vietnam vet takes his teenage son with him to Danang, where they find a committed surf club of 10 members and lame waves; they eventually resort to surfing sand dunes. A cloying episode follows the brothers Malloy, Irish Americans who surf in the frigid waters off County Donegal and spend a day teaching Protestant and Catholic kids to board.

The stunning Southern California surf is, of course, familiar surfer-doc territory, displayed in loving detail by earlier films to which Dana Brown pays appropriate tribute, with footage from his dad Bruce Brown's The Endless Summer (1966) and The Endless Summer 2 (1994, a collaboration between father and son), as well as new shots of Robert August, now surfing with his son, Sam, and Robert "Wingnut" Weaver. (Bruce also appears as an enthusiastic talking head, with the caption "Academy Award nominee.")

Updating the previous films, Step Into Liquid also includes a section on women stars -- Keala Kennelly, Rochelle Ballard and Layne Beachley -- who note the pleasure of surfing amid estrogen instead of testosterone. The section's structure is occasionally clunky and only provides a superficial look at various aspects, including the loss of exclusiveness that comes with mainstreaming (here the breaking point is 1959's Gidget) as well as the lack of stateside media coverage; in Australia, U.S.-born, six-time world champion Kelly Slater is all over prime time.

In Santa Cruz, the film introduces the rowdy Maverick's Crew, with nicknames like "Condor" and "Skindog." At film's end, these two hook up with two more surfers from Hawaii's North Shore and travel to Rapa Nui where conditions are only conducive to surfing "once in a lifetime." They take a boat to an area 100 miles offshore, where they find 60-foot waves. The images here do take your breath away.

STEP INTO LIQUID

Directed by Dana Brown An Artisan release Opens Friday at Ritz Bourse.

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