Surfwise

Dorian Paskowitz marches to a different drummer and he marched his wife and 9 children to that same beat. The sad theme was that "Doc" naively behaved as if his children were clones of him.

Anyone who is emotionally invested in eliminating diversity from our society will probably have a strong negative reaction to this film.

I'm glad the family decided to pull together for this film. Keeping group of siblings on good terms is a challenge for any family. This family has very special reasons for harboring animosity towards each other and I think it is a testament to the power of love and discipline that they seem to have come to terms with their lot in life.

If Doc and Juliette had been abusive alcoholics living in welfare housing there would have been no movie, nothing unique and certainly no happy reunion at the end. Those families are more acceptable and less remarkable than the Paskowitz family to the American sensibilities because they do not eschew the State but are assimilated into its worst functions.

I wish the kids would have spoken out against family violence. The film doesn't sweep it under the carpet but it certainly doesn't use the opportunity to speak out against it either. Jahfre

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.

After, "Crumb", "Capturing The Friedmans", and to a much lesser extent, "The Devil And Daniel Johnston", I assumed I had seen my fair share of dysfunctional documentary families, but the Paskowitz also known as the "First Family Of Surfing", maybe the new heavy weights.

Assume for a second you father is a Jewish Stanford educated Dr., President of the medical association for the island of Hawaii, who has a mental breakdown/breakthrough...gives up his possessions, and moves to Isreal to live off the land. Here he introduces surfing to the 'Holy Land", and is in turn, taught the finer things in life, such as the application and enjoyment of Cunnilingus (an event which Dr. P claims "completely changed his life".) Dr. P, decides to abandon the pursuit of money or financial security, live in his van with his wife, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and surf. Dr. P, has 9 children who he raises in such a Camper.

The family is something of a surfing Partriges of the 70's, and are seen as a symbol of freedom, escape, and adventure to just about everyone they meet. Of course the kids are miserable, desperate to join the real world, which there father forbids them involvement with. . They listen to their parents have loud energetic sex, every single night, separated by a bed sheet. They are forbidden to have any formal education(one actually wants to be a DR.). At one point a family photo is on screen, everyone out in the water and smiling, and one brother says, "Adams bleeding in this picture actually, he didn't want to be in it. Dad made him". Which is the movie itself in microcosm.

More on that latter....

A look at a fascinating family, headed by a hardcore noncomformist - Dorian Paskowitz, a washed-up doctor, surfer, adventurer, and oddball who, along with his wife, created one of the weirdest families ever. The Paskowitz clan (2 parents and 9 kids!) travelled around the USA in the 1960s and 70s, surfing, just barely scraping by, not going to school, and having legendary adventures. Eventually they kind of settled down and opened a surfing school. This vivaciously edited documentary shows both the good and the bad, the joys but also the pains of growing up in a brilliant, loony environment. As cool as the surfing and endless summers must have been, many of the boys (and they were mostly boys - only 1 daughter in this litter) ended up at loose ends, butting heads with each other and with the world.

This movie is not about surfing, although that is the background. It is a movie about parenting.

"Doc" Paskowitz drops out and becomes a surfer. he marries and has nine children. They all travel about the country in a 24' trailer.

Now, one can imagine the effect on the children as their brothers and sisters were being made right before their eyes in that trailer. They had sex every single night. "Doc" had his life, but what about them? No schools, no friends, just traveling from place to place so daddy can find himself.

Of course, you may accept his beliefs that "cultures (like ours) that are all f*cked up about f*cking, will decline and cause wars." And, maybe you can accept that having a bad family is better than no family.

But, you have to agree that his method of parenting had serious implications for how his children lived in the real world.

I couldn't have went back.