The Far Shore, A Soul Carvers production.
Book Review by Andrew Foote
"The Far Shore" is a
flashback in super-8 of a ten-year surf odyssey undergone by
Kevin Naughton and Craig Peterson between 1972-82. The quest
for the perfect wave took them to four continents and almost
lost them their lives more than once. The film has many of the
qualities of surf film classic "The Endless Summer"
mainly due to the era it was shot and the handheld cine-camera
work, but "The Far Shore" has the benefit of hindsight,
and it is its reflective reminiscences and placing of surf culture
within the context of these changing times that makes it so endearing.
It was the aftermath of the moon landings and Vietnam, exciting
new discoveries and people empowering themselves through protest,
so Craig and Kevin decided to take off and make some discoveries
of their own.
I think super-8 has an amazing quality to it. I have a camera I picked up in a second hand shop in London. Each film lasts three minutes so no one gets bored when you play them your holiday footage, it always has a retro feel to it even if it's shot in the 21st century and unlike video it is silent, so people's throwaway fill-in comments don't get kept for all eternity making even the most important occasions seem trite. The super-8 filming is beautiful throughout "The Far Shore," the opening shots of 70's California make you want to travel back in time and the South American leg through El Salvador, Costa Rica and Mexico, where they find the Mecca of Petacalco makes your feet itch so bad to get back on the road. Kevin and Craig scraped a living by writing for surfer magazine and when they were sent death threats for revealing the existence of Petacalco, they moved on to Africa.
Craig was also a photographer
for Surfer magazine and his stills help sew the narrative together.
The patchwork quilt of grainy super-8 and razor sharp, professional,
highly beautiful still shots work wonderfully. My one gripe is
that the cuts to the present day, when we see the travelers reliving
the past, are shot on videotape which lacks the aesthetic appeal
of the majority of the film.
The African section is in very much the same vein as "The Endless Summer" leg in the Dark Continent. Although the "The Far Shore" lacks Bruce Browning's sharp narrative, it draws deeply on the dark paths any journey can take. Whilst Kevin took off for Ireland, Craig stayed on in Africa working on freighters. He found his own Heart of Darkness, sleeping with a gun or a knife under his pillow, fearful of marauding pirates. He got out just before the darkness got forever embedded in his psyche and caught up with Craig in Ireland.
They then head to the Bay of Biscay, France, where I nearly drowned surfing five years ago, by now they are stony broke and rely on combing the beach for discarded francs. They find themselves in Fiji by the early eighties, this is before the discovery of G-land and Fiji is another great unknown.
I love the spiritual side of surfing and I love using sports and now my work as a whale researcher as an excuse to travel, it makes you immediately have something in common with some of the locals. If you feel the same then you will love "The Far Shore."
The end of the film finds Craig and Kevin, and many of the characters they met on their travels, reflecting on the past and the changes that have taken place in the technology and the opportunities, but also to contemplate the similarity in the spirit of surf travelers today. They interview Dawn, a Canadian surfer who has the same drive and goals they did 30 years ago and is living the same dream. I guess there always will be someone out there searching for the perfect wave where no one ever thought of looking before on some far shore.
Highly recommended.
Andy Foote
Andy Foote can currently be found in a tiny shed next to a tiny lighthouse in the San Juans eavesdropping on marine mammals and pinging bottomfish.
©Get Lost Magazine 1999-2010