Cyrus Sutton found inspiration for his debut film in his backyard. As a kid surfing at Seal Beach and growing up in Long Beach, California, he looked up to surfers like Rob Machado and Joel Tudor. So when he went to make his first film (at the precocious age of 19), he recruited local heroes Machado and Tudor as well as Donovan Frankenrieter, Dane Reynolds, and John Peck. Riding Waves is the result.
As surf documentaries go, Riding Waves is an exceptionally insightful film. Probably because Sutton has spent a lot of time with his surfers just hanging out, you get a real sense of how these riders fit surfing into their everyday lives. Riding Waves explores the daily practice of surfing rather than its superlatives. There are no monster waves or gnarly wipeouts in this movie. Instead, Sutton gives us a look at five great riders in pretty average Southern California waves.
Sutton’s aesthetic — long takes, completed rides — works well with the surfers he has selected. All the surfers in this movie have a highly developed sense of flow. Machado and Tudor especially could be called flowmasters. Their subtle adjustments of trim to changing wave conditions are like a graduate-level seminar in style for aspiring surfers.
Riding Waves is one of those rare films that gets close to the heart of why we do this thing called surfing.
You can see a chill video of Cy putting a new longboard through its paces here, or sample one of his more recent films Under The Sun here.
