By Cara Nash
Though a major name in the very niche world of surf documentaries (and arguably second only to The Endless Summer helmer Bruce Brown in terms of influence), Jack McCoy remains largely under-celebrated when it comes to mainstream cinema, despite the fact that he creates works of poetic beauty driven by rich visuals and genuine cinematic craft. The fact that McCoy has never shifted into feature filmmaking or even set a set a toe in Hollywood perhaps adds to this general lack of real recognition outside of surfing circles.
Despite the fragmenting of the market over the past few years, Jack McCoy still strives to make his films for the big screen. It’s an ambition that he’s clearly passionate about. “I remember going to watch a surf movie as a kid, and it left a big impression on me,” the laidback McCoy recalled when chatting to FilmInk back in 2011. “It was a huge hub for surfers because it was the only place you could gather to see surfing in action. We met, partied, and went nuts over a surfing film. It felt electric. And then in the early eighties, video came along, and it killed the surf movie, which was really sad. I clearly remember it being a defining moment when we stopped showing surf movies because everyone stayed at home and watched them with their mates.”
Prior to making his own films, McCoy (who was born in LA in 1948, but moved to Australia in the seventies) made a living distributing and showing surf films for a number of years around the country before stepping behind the camera himself, and producing the 1975 surf classic, Tubular Swells. He went on to make an incredible 25 surf docos (including the likes of 1982’s Storm Riders, 1992’s The Green Iguana, 1998’s Occy: The Occumentary and 2004’s Blue Horizon), the latest of which remains 2011’s A Deeper Shade Of Blue, the film which encapsulates McCoy’s philosophy and life pursuit as a filmmaker and avid surfer himself. In many ways, it’s a refute to the more soulless surf films that have been churned out. “In the early nineties, surf films turned into these quick action movies that were just watched by surfers wanting to see the latest manoeuvres,” McCoy laments. “There was no filmmaking craft in them. It was just action and music. It’s still around today. My idea with A Deeper Shade Of Blue was to make a film for people who didn’t surf, and to show where surf culture started, which is something even the surfing industry has very little idea about.”
That surf culture has its roots in Hawaii, where McCoy grew up before moving to Australia, and the documentary traces surfing’s earliest origins. “No one’s ever really gone into that much depth about it,” McCoy says. “Interestingly, Captain Cook travelled all over the Pacific, and had his people take notes on what they saw. They noted that there were people riding waves all over the Pacific, but they were all either in canoes or lying down on pieces of wood. It wasn’t until they got to Hawaii that they actually started recording people standing up on surfboards. Through their sailing and waterman skills, Hawaiians took surfing to another level, and that’s why we credit Hawaii as being the birthplace of surfing as we know it.”
From these origins, the documentary traces the history of surfing via a number of narratives. There’s the evolution of the surfboard; the slew of Hollywood movies (including 1959’s Gidget and 1963’s Beach Party) that saw surfing gain mainstream popularity (McCoy reveals that the surf doco itself largely originated in response to these “phony picture versions”); and the rise in competition surfing, which one gets the feeling McCoy believes has seen surfing shift from its true roots. “In order for the public to understand surfing, the industry has gotten behind competition as a way that people should view surfing,” the filmmaker says. “They’ve worked out a way to judge and score the activity, but surfing is an art form. I don’t call it sport, I call it art. That’s just my take.”
Speaking of art, in capturing the surfers, A Deeper Shade Of Blue reveals footage of McCoy riding behind the waves on an underwater scooter to draw the audience deeper into the thrills. “I’m always trying to challenge myself,” McCoy says. “I’ve made 25 films, and I’m very conscious of trying not to do the same thing twice. With this production, someone introduced me to an underwater jet ski, and this was a dream for capturing behind-the-wave underwater surfing footage. I can’t keep up with the surfers, but I can actually get to places and follow them for small periods of time like I’ve never done before. But it’s a dangerous machine. I spent a year becoming proficient at driving it. If I do get caught inside the wave, I could get thrown on the reef, and this 150-pound machine could crush me and do serious damage. It’s not a toy,” McCoy warns, albeit a little enthusiastically.
At the end of the day, however, McCoy’s goal is to make surfing accessible. “Someone told me the other day that they watched this amazing film about big wave riders,” he recalls, “but they sat there and realised that there was no chance of them ever doing anything like that. But when they watched my movie, they came away feeling like they wanted to go surfing. I feel very proud to be able to leave that feeling with people.”
For much more on Jack McCoy, head to his official website.
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