A lie but a beautiful lie!
I am very excited to watch the Momentum
Generation, it’s true, though wasn’t always. When I very
first heard of the concept I was dubious. It’s not like the stars
of those Taylor Steele films, Rob Machado, Kelly Slater, Benji
Weatherly, Ross Williams, Shane Dorian, Kalani Robb, etc. had
disappeared without a trace. They had each been fixtures in the
surf industry, their stories well-known and well understood. What
could a modern film about them teach us?
David Lee Scales watched the film at the Florida Surf Film
Festival, though, and told me it was great featuring introspection
and moments of beautiful tenderness. It won the best documentary
feature there, will certainly win many more awards and will also
play on HBO on Dec. 11. An early Christmas treat for all.
In any case, I have read a quote from Kelly Slater taken from
the film many times now, most recently this morning in a Washington Post
story about Stephanie Gilmore and equal pay.
“Surfing was not a career path,” Slater recalled of his
youth, in the HBO surf documentary “Momentum Generation.” ‘’It was
just something you enjoyed doing.”
The first time stumbling across it I wrinkled my nose. The
second time I scratched my head. The third time I said, “Really?”
but quietly in my mind. The fourth time I said, “Did Kelly
confusingly think he was part of the Bustin’ Down the Door
generation?” out loud and thought it very clever but no was around
to hear it so I’m typing it and still think it very clever.
Because what the hell?
Kelly was born in 1972,
winning every amateur competition at 11, turned pro at 18 and
directly won the Body Glove Surf Bout at Trestles which boasted a
purse of $100,000 after which he signed a six-figure deal with
Quiksilver. Not only was there big money in that early 90s surf
industry, it had ballooned in the generation proceeding Kelly’s
with Tom Curren, Tom Carroll, ’89 World Champ Martin Potter, etc.
each making a good living out of nothing but surfing.
It certainly was a career path and a well-established one at
that.
Kelly’s revisionist history makes me smile, though, because it
proves the “surfing as rebellion” narrative is still tucked
somewhere in the folds. I don’t doubt that he really believes it
wasn’t a career path for him because that makes surfing like
accounting, computer programming, dentistry or any other career
path.
Something you have to do.
No, surfing is a passion, man, a feeling that moms and dads and
the system just don’t understand and I am very much looking forward
to The Brother Movie airing on HBO in 2030 where a grey Kolohe
Andino looks at the camera and says, “Surfing was not a career
path… it was just something you enjoyed doing.”
Viva the rebellion!
