This is an excellent biopic (Yes, biopic!) of iconic Hawaiian surfer/shaper/actor/snpwboarder/yoga practitioner and teacher Gerry Lopez and directed extremely proficiently by award-winning director Stacy Peralta. Lopez himself is the virtual singular talking head, though past and present associates and family members, flesh out intriguing aspects of his enigmatic personality.
The film is divided into roughly two halves and does jump around somewhat between time periods, albeit successfully in my view.
The first half concentrates almost exclusively with Lopez's development as a surfer in Hawaii and his famed relationship with the Banzai Pipeline on Oahu's North Shore, as well as him coming to be the prime representative of the Lightening Bolt brand. Surprisingly although comprehensive and good in the scale of things, I thought this was the least successful side of the movie. The editing here was very quick and jumped almost too quickly between different scenes, giving you the feeling, Peralta felt he had too much material to get through. You do hear from quite a few well - known figures, but I was a little surprised that there was nothing much heard from Lopez's Pipeline compadre surfers of that era. Rory Russell for instance is only there to tender a story about taking Gerry to hospital. It should be noted here that all the surfing/sports footage is exclusively of Gerry Lopez, with some later comparative footage of his son Alex, highlighting their obvious close relationship.
The second half focuses on his international travels, his life as an actor, his early family life and his present family. It is notable that the pace of Yin and Yang notably slows through this half, which I found I much appreciated. There are some great tales told, complemented by some rarely seen footage of his early experiences in Indonesia. And I personally loved his observations about the importance of his family life, coming from a guy, who admits onscreen, he initially felt intimidated and unknowing about being a husband and a father. Th only thing here I felt was missing, was a complete absence of any reference to do with his involvement with Maui's "Strapped Crew" and the development of towed in surfing in huge waves. It's pretty well known that Lopez shaped a lot of their specialised tow boards in the 1990's, not to mention that he towed into some huge ways himself wth them at Peahi on Maui.
Whilst obviously being an "authorised" look into Lopez's life, Yin and Yang is not just an uncritical paean to one of the world's most influential and revered surfers. Gerry Lopez is strongly self - judgemental of himself, especially in his earlier life as arguably the most well - known surfer emerging from the 1970's and I include world champions here. But ultimately he comes across as this exceedingly interesting, compassionate human being, who now in his 70's, is very much content with his contribution both to surfing and his life in general.
