"There an irony to him being named Sunny because such a complex, sometimes dark side to him," says Death and Taxes director Michael Oblowitz.
Michael Oblowitz is one of my favorite film makers ever. You may recognize his name from the still unreleased masterpiece Sea of Darkness or the just released Nathan Fletcher film Heavy Water but Michael has also spent the past decade working on an unabridged documentary about the life of Sunny Garcia currently titled Death and Taxes.
A decade working on one film is a long, long time but Sunny necessitated it.
“Right when I think we’re finished…” Michael says through his gravely South African lilt “…Sunny will say, ‘Oh, I also spent my childhood hanging around with such and such.’ And then we have another important interview to chase.”
I called him for a bit of insight.
He has sat with thousands upon thousands of hours of footage of Sunny, with Sunny himself and with so many of Sunny’s friends and family.
“During the 10 years of filming, Sunny has lost so many people close to him. Marvin Foster, Andy Irons, Buttons, Jay Adams. People so integral to his life and that’s just so… hard. I regard Sunny as one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. Where he came from and what he achieved? I mean, a lot of great, great surfers came out of Makaha but only one of them won a world title and what Sunny had to go through to get it, the racism, abuse, cards stacked so high against him, it is a tremendous work.
There’s a line in the film where Sunny says, ‘I wanted to be the Mohammed Ali of surfing.’ And he was. He really was. But for all the love, for all his accomplishments, I don’t know that he ever felt it. We have some footage, after he won the HIC Pro in 2016, which was an amazing victory. There he is with the big cardboard check and his grandson on his arm. It should have been the most victorious feeling but I just don’t think it was for him.
“There an irony to him being named Sunny because such a complex, sometimes dark side to him and I don’t mean drugs and alcohol. I’ve never seen him take so much as one sip of beer. He worked out. That’s how he chased the demons but they were there.”
Oblowitz pauses.
“We are all praying, even atheists are praying. That’s how much we love this guy.”
I popped yer cherry!
How exciting!
Scott I see you on here all the time but never ask – this isn’t Baja FJ Scott is it?
i’m going weepy.
…and want to cry a little too.
I am a fan! Talked to him for a story and it was really fun, actually.
Too true, funnily enough I remember things that I’ve actually paid to see!
Fall from grace is a doozy.. and very few fall gracefully.. Tread lightly on Sunny when he gets up be prepared to ” tak’ um licks”.
Man, I do enjoy Sheman’s BTS shots from back in the day
It’s nice to know that my brand of glorified trolling can brighten someone’s day!
The Billabong curse strikes again
The sad reality is this happening too much across society in general. Its not just Sunny and sports stars, its mums dads and kids and mates we all know!!
Every day should be “ARE U OK DAY”
My best mate hung himself in Arizona 6 years ago – not a week goes by where I don’t think about him and then the fuckers who looked at his posts on FB and did nothing – I only ever talked to him on the phone!!
Fuck social media – go and engage people in real conversation!!
I don’t hide behind an avatar (mainly because was too dumb to set up private disqus account) – my name is Tom and I want to make a difference in this space globally.
Dez and Chas have mentioned there is WSL and others of influence hiding here and viewing.
My challenge to those hiding here drop me an email – get it from Dez. I don’t give a fuck ask me and I will send it to you. Hey Nick Carroll I will come and speak to you mate personally re some ideas I have and research I have, same with Maurice.
There is some good people here I reckon from some of the comments I read – get in touch with me, who knows what can be created?
I already met Channellbottom through here. He is an epic bloke who has reached out to me privately to see how i have been going last few months!! He’s fucking funny on here and a legend too for real.
Sorry rant over!!
All good Tom. Happy to have a chat. Painfully aware I got no answers to any of it though. [email protected] since Negs chucked his out there!
thanks champ will send you email – yeah was laughing as it is day of dropping emails!!
I’ve never had depression but like everyone I’ve been depressed
The last people I would want to talk to about it would be my mates.
Even you couldn’t save your mate.
It’s why all mental illness is very hard to treat as opposed to an illness of any other body part
Try telling someone they have dementia,they don’t get it.,
Maybe GPs should ask about your state of mind on every visit.
You can’t blame people for the results of someone else’s illness
So CB is all right ay.?
Yeah thought so!
its a tough one – some good points
CB is solid guy
Aye aye! “go and engage people in real conversation!!”
You’re a really good guy Tom and I hope what you’ve got in the bag can help lots of people.
Thanks for being a pal and suffering my kookiness in the water.
I’m happy to lend an ear to peeps and relate to my own fuck-ups:
[email protected].
Appreciate the earnestness. My best bud did the same thing 4 years ago. Question with no answer. Smartest guy I knew, but he had lots of demons. Mental. Addiction. Kept everything hidden behind the facade. Fucked me up good for a while. Anger. Rage. Through all my years of addiction and disfunction, I never saw the big exit sign as an option. For some reason, him doing so made it one. I wouldn’t say I “entertained” it, but it haunted me for sure in tougher times. Guess I came out of the woods with all that little over a year ago. Last week, was with a guy who was in a hard spot. Asked him straight up, “I’ve unknowingly had a last conversation with someone before. This isn’t ours, is it?” He was offended, but fuck it, I’d rather offend than keep quiet. Lots of folks live lives of quiet desperation. Lots. Times where I did. Bottling it up or sweeping it under isn’t strength. Ain’t many feats tougher than taking a stark look at oneself in the mirror in a well lit room. I’m Clark at [email protected] if anyone ever needs to rap about any of this.
good message mate!!
I wanna see sea of darkness so fucking bad it hurts. I have spent countless hours looking for that movie online. It’s unbelievable to me that in today’s age of internet piracy that something can actually remain buried. Please help me someone
Send me an email… [email protected]
It’s entertaining but not mind blowing.
Only because some of the good stuff was taken out – allegedly by one of the main characters – and hence the reason it remained “unreleased” as such. Still well worth a watch.
Jeff Chitty is one classic fella. I could have listened to him talk story for days.
I saw a version via the torrent world. Any idea if this was the full version? From memory, it did name a few people…
As LGR says – the version you are seeing is heavily edited from what was originally intended. But its still a good watch if you do not know much about what was going on.
Weird. If it was heavily edited I don’t understand why they didn’t just release that version to the public. I do remember a lot of focus on Boyum and suggestions of other corps/individuals trafficking throughout SE Asia. Names get sporadically dropped throughout the online surfing media (incl. the podcast world). Connect the dots and it makes sense…
Yeah apparently there are different versions, obviously with the original being the best cut.
Spot on. I too spent hours trying to track down a copy. I opened the file on my laptop a few days ago and forgot I’d even watched it!
It left me rather cold, considering all the hype around it. A much more entertaining watch than momentum generation though!
I’ve got it..what country you in
USA but don’t tell commenter I think he thinks I’m an Ausie
I hear there is a torrent out there. Very few seeds though. Might take you 10 years to download.
Ten years to make.?
This guys got his own problems obvs.
It is the Oblowitz way. Dude is such a character in the best possible way.
Oblowitzly!
Can someone please answer this question: what happened?
So much speculation. So little definitive.
if its facts you’re looking for and you know roughly when and where the incident occurred: you can call the law enforcement agency that responded and get some of the basics. public information. i know you know that but some people reading this probably dont
Educated guess would be it was responded to as a medical emergency, in which case the public is not entitled to any information due to privacy laws. You should call the law enforcement agency, they’ll tell you the same thing. Speculating what happened is unfair to his family. I’m sure they’ll release a statement when they damn well feel like it, and until then, people should give them their space. Which is exactly how I believe BeachGrit has handled the news regarding this matter
Damn right, Otto.
Thanks Otto….
You are really ottop of your game.
no argument there re: beach grit or other news outlets using their best discretion and judgment in deciding what to say and when.
but not exactly true regarding what law enforcement agencies report – often if police are called to respond there’s a record, and sometimes there’s dispatch audio as well. hospitals protect patients privacy but police/fire will say what type of incident they went to and sometimes what they found at the scene.
i remember after AI passed away thinking how ridiculous and pointless it was for billabong and others to try and confuse people with that dengue fever BS. the local medical examiner shot that down immediately to any reporter that bothered to pick up the phone and call.
99% of fire departments have established HIPAA compliance policies because morally and ethically it’s good practice to do so. You rarely see fire departments issuing press conferences/releaaes from medical emergencies. In this instance, you got as much as they knew at the time. Unconscious male was found at his home. Transported to hospital. Other than that, you’re not going to find whatever you’re looking for in the PHI report. But more importantly, why go looking? The family is dealing with heavy shit right now and the last thing they need is nosey motherfuckers getting up in their situation. It’s rude. It’s wrong. It’s unfair. Its not helpful to Sunny. It’s not helpful to his family. They deserve room to handle whatever it is they are handling. And in all honesty, it’s really none of our fucking business, even if he is a professional athlete that lives in the spotlight.
Just my opinion on the matter. Not attacking you.
He hung himself