Film: “Sid Abruzzi and the forever stoke!”

Rory Parker reviews the surf doco '77 Overlin. And single fin shortboards. One he likes, one he hates!

Cold water masochists are weird. But that’s okay, I like weird people. Like Sid Abruzzi. Some colorful character from the great white north who’s managed to keep the stoke alive for way too long. Seen his name pop up constantly in both the skate and surf world my entire life. Takes some doing, earning that crossover respect.

While Abruzzi ain’t never been part of my scene, I’ll watch something with him in it. I don’t go in for nostalgia type stuff, but he’s an original type cat and I dig those.

Some interesting tidbits in there. A connection between Heinlein and Rhode Island surfing. Do you grok it?

 ’77 Overlin is a slightly over 15 minute long video best for those who are into the Rhode Island olden days. Or like retro boards. Or are just interested in what’s going on with Abruzzi.

But the clip has some problems. Decently shot, good edits, but the sound quality is terrible. I understand how difficult it is to properly capture noise, but the filmmaker needs to step up his boom mic game moving forward. When a clip is based around speech more than images you’ve really gotta get that shit down tight.

And I struggled to appreciate the core concept, which is remaking an old single fin shortboard Abruzzi had stashed away. Because old single fin shortboards absolutely suck. There’s a reason everyone dropped them the moment multiple fin setups hit the scene.

I also got hung up on the part where Neil Toracinta, of Tora Surfboards, works on his copy of Abruzzi’s board. Invest in a better respirator, Neil. Wear some fucking eye protection, Neil. Have you ever met an old glasser? Seen what decades of poo-pooing proper gear gets you? It ain’t pretty.

’77 Overlin didn’t amp me up, didn’t make me want to surf. But I don’t think that was the point. And the very notion of putting on a hood and gloves and paddling out into ice water makes my dick crawl inside my body. I’m sure that colors my opinion.

If you’re into the history of surfing you’ll probably love ’77 Overlin. If you’re like me when it comes to that stuff you’ll still kinda enjoy it. You’ll learn a thing or two about the origins of Rhode Island surf culture. Learning new stuff is always good.

Certain sections should’ve been cut a bit shorter.  The two minutes watching Tora shape dragged.  The boys checking out the board clifftop wasn’t necessary. The surfing could’ve been better.  I’ll chalk up the audio problems to budget limitations. Yeah, it sounds like shit, but you do the best with what you’ve got.