Surfwise

Generally speaking, I'm not that big on documentaries but I can of course appreciate a good one and can get intrigued by a great and interesting concept. And while it's not like this movie has an incredible subject, it still manages to be a great watch.

This is not a documentary about an all important subject or world changing event, or a legendary, influential person. It's the story of a not so very ordinary man, living a not so very ordinary live, with his wife and 9 children.

It's the story of a man, giving up basically everything he had in life and had build up with other persons, to explore himself and to do just the things he wants to do. That means surfing and traveling from beach to beach, in a camper, without a steady income or responsibilities to anyone else. He's living by his own ideologies and has his very own, sometimes very peculiar, ideas about what true happiness, wisdom is and how to achieve it all and what is good for you and not. It would be fine if he lived this life on his own but having a kid and 9 children living in a small camper with you, living by the same ideologies it's of course a bit troublesome and perhaps even irresponsible.

But it's not like the documentary is picking sides with anyone or condemns anything. Actually the things I really liked about this documentary was that for its first half it showed one big, happy family, that were really living the life and everything seemed just perfect. But then suddenly the second half started to show a far more less happy side of things and suddenly everything seemed not as cool and perfect as it did before. It shines two different lights on the same subject basically, which was an admirable and a bit of an unexpected thing for this documentary to do.

It's also a documentary that is good and pleasant to watch due to its pace. Some documentaries tend to dwell on for too long because they are so love in love with their subject. This documentary doesn't do this. It doesn't put anyone on a pedestal and actually does a rather surprising good job at giving as many people as possible an equal amount of screen time. This is a documentary about a large family, consisting out of 2 parents with 9 children but everyone gets to tell their side of things- and their own personal story, without ever making the documentary feel overlong. It tells you just enough and everything you really need to know.

Just in case you hadn't figured; a great documentary to watch!

8/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Don't be fooled by the title. Surfwise is much more than a surfing movie. It chronicles the amazing journey of "Doc" Paskowitz, his nine kids and his beautiful and understanding wife Juliette. After two failed marriages, the doc packs up his "normal" life and goes Bohemian, living off the earth while teaching people how to surf. The highly religious man meets his life partner in Juliette and they immediately start having kids - one after the other. But that's where the normalcy ends. They travel around the country in a 24' cramped trailer – all eleven of them, eating healthy, the kids getting home schooled, surfing everyday, and staying below the radar from truant officers. To make money, the Paskowitz' start a surf school and "Doc" would occasionally take low-level medical positions. As was the case with "Doc," the kids became champion surfers and the family was profiled numerous times in magazine articles and television segments. Although many outsiders found this nomadic lifestyle idyllic, the kids started to rebel against "Doc." He was unyielding, he didn't offer them options, and it was either his way or "off" the highway as it were. It also didn't help that their parents were having sex just about every night in a small trailer with the nine of them watching and listening. As their hormones kicked in, they needed sexual release as well, but those needs were not met because they were constantly travelling without any chance to make their own relationships. One by one, they left the fold. Many of the kids became estranged from their parents and each other. But through it all, the kids turned out to be smart, intelligent, good parents, creative and successful in many ways. The cynicism in many would think that out of this dysfunctional upbringing would come the typical end game of suicides, failed marriages, or any other downers. But this couldn't be further from the truth.

What lingers is the fact that I really liked these people. I wanted to get to know them better and hang out with them. What "Doc" was preaching years ago is now fact – eating well, preserving the planet and loving one another is essential to survival. And although he didn't give his kids a choice and forced them to live life "his way," one can't really fault him for trying to give them the best that he thought was right.

Doug Pray makes great documentaries and I look forward to his next one.

Screened at the Starz Denver Film Festival.

Just as the Godfather is a movie about family not crime, so is Surfwise a movie about family not surfing. And although this movie (or the vast majority of all movies) doesn't come close to the cinematic value of the Godfather, it's still one hell of good ride.

The film follows the lives of the Paskowitz family, detailing their strange upbringing that is in equal parts inspirational, radical, and debilitating. There family is so large, personalities so varied, talents so strong that it's easy to get lost between everyone yet the film manages to tie it all wonderfully together.

Full of home video footage, mixed with interviews and some lines causing me to spew whatever I was drinking in laughter and astonishment, this documentary keeps you engaged and thinking the entire time.

It's a powerful story, a mind-boggling piece of 'what if' psychology, and easily appreciated even if you are not a fan of surfing.

I found Surfwise to be a compelling watch. It's all about Dorian Paskowitz, a Stanford educated doctor who, after two failed marriages, decides to travel the world as an organic- living surf bum. With him is his wife Juliette, and their brood of nine (yes, nine) children. All boys and one girl. They travel everywhere in a camper, living poor and off the grid, going from wave to wave.

The Paskowitz family found some fame in the 70s and 80s, when their kids were young and winning surf contests. But as each child hit their late teens or early 20s, they wanted to go their own way, and this was considered treason by Dorian.

We meet each of the Paskowitz kids (now in their 30s and 40s) and Dorian "Doc" (in his 80s) and they each recount the adventures of traveling around like nomads and being the envy of normal, school-going kids wherever they went. That's the other thing. Dorian didn't send his kids to school. Whoops.

Bizarre as it may sound, this Stanford-educated guy actually rationalizes his unbelievably poor decision to not school any of his children. His attitude towards everything is self- serving. Did he never once pause and think "what if one of my children wants to become a doctor?". Maybe, but he didn't seem to care.

In fact, he rationalizes A LOT of self-serving decisions. Like trying to have sex with a 100 different women as fast as possible. Like having sex with his wife every night in the camper while his children were forced to listen.

As a result of the lifestyle they grew up with, the Paskowitz's seem fairly bitter. Like they were forced to stay on vacation for a decade. If you think about it, what would a childhood spent riding in the back of a camper with nothing but your siblings to keep you company be like? After the first few weeks, it would seem LIKE HELL!!!!!!!!!!

And Dorian's wife is eerily complicit with everything. The kids admit that they were beaten and that Dorian was basically a dictator. Did she say nothing?

I found the surfing aspect to the story fascinating as I can certainly understand Dorian's love of the sport and desire to drop out of mainstream existence. But in between his flights of poetic description in comparing surfing to "the jaguar, and the leap of the gazelle" (admittedly enticing) is his creepily propulsive swearing and messiah complex.

Frankly, Dorian just struck me overall as kind of a creepy weirdo who I wouldn't let near kids in the first place. Him and his wife. Their blank stares as they gaze at the cameras reminiscing about how they told their daughter to always thank someone for having sex with her. Bizarre.

Anyway, good surfing footage, and watch this movie for a good examples of how not to raise kids.

Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz has been riding the waves for nigh unto three-quarters of a century now. In 1956, at the age of 45, he abandoned a career as a doctor to pursue a life dedicated almost exclusively to surfing and raising a family - and he hasn't looked back since. In fact, Doc and his family have achieved a notoriety of sorts (in surfing circles, at least) for their nonconformist, iconoclastic lifestyle, which involved all eleven of them living together in a cramped 24-foot camper trailer, avoiding any kind of formal schooling, and flitting from one beach to another in search of the perfect wave. Now, in his mid 80s, Doc, along with his wife, Juliette, and their nine kids - eight of whom are named after Biblical figures - discuss their lives and upbringings in the fascinating documentary "Surfwise" by director Doug Pray. Life literally has been a beach for these people.

The thing that strikes us most about Doc is that he is no self-conscious radical trying to make an ideological point with his life; rather, he's a fairly average guy who's honest enough to admit that he never much cared for school or the money-grubbing rat race of the corporate or business world and that he is simply much healthier and happier when in the water. And it is these values that he has chosen to instill in his children, along with a devotion to their Jewish heritage and a healthy attitude towards sex (apparently, he and his wife were less than shy about showing their affection for one another in front of the children, much to the kids' consternation at times).

But there has been a definite downside to this nonconformity as well, and the movie does not shy away from depicting it - whether it be in Doc's dictatorial, even violent, methods of maintaining his authority over the kids or in the children's understandable desire to break free of their upbringing to lead a lifestyle more in accord with social norms. And, of course, there's the resentment they've come to harbor in their later years towards a father who, by willfully choosing to separate them from the outside world, rendered them ill-equipped to function in that world once they became adults (one son laments that he could never attend medical school because he was too far behind all the other applicants in basic knowledge to successfully compete with them). The movie raises the thorny issue of just how much right a parent has to deny his children the privileges and benefits that come from being socialized into the society around them. Was Doc practicing a form of child abuse - or simple providing his kids with a rare and perhaps enviable opportunity to live life as one long summer camp? (The family does actually run a camp of sorts dedicated to teaching the fine art of surfing to crowds of eager youngsters). Even the kids themselves can't agree on the answer to that question, with some feeling the need to defend their dad and the way in which he raised them and others choosing to lash out at and lambaste him for the same reason. Yet, the children could hardly be classified as dysfunctional adults, with each of them pursuing respectable careers and raising apparently stable and healthy families. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the documentary is that it leaves it up to the viewer to formulate his own assessment of Doc. We're never pushed to take sides in the conflict.

Through Doc's story, "Surfwise" provides a fascinating look at what it means to be a family, what it means to be a parent, and why it's important to find a balance between the overindulgences of the modern world and the deprivations of a simple life, not completely ignoring one at the expense of the other. The movie ends on an upbeat note with a long overdue reunion where old wounds are healed and old grudges put aside - all in the name of Family. Which is, I suppose, as it should be.