Essential-ish viewing.

Ventura surfer Eithan Osborne is twenty and his mammy is a “French-speaking Jewish humanitarian” with a Motorhead sticker on the back of her Volvo stationwagon.

Eclectic!

Eithan is a Hebrew name which you pronounce A-ton. He was courted by the head of the Israeli ISA when he won a WQS event there and soon he was on the Israeli team for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

This movie The Happiest Jew in Ventura is almost twenty minutes long, also features Dane Reynolds and Micky Clarke and was shot on Kodak 16mm film by clever Andrew Schoener.

And click here for The Happiest Jew in Ventura e–zine! 

A too short but utterly lovely collection of one of the best surfers around.

If one were to give human semblance to the America of today, this hated and often misunderstood country, I would choose Dane Reynolds to be the model.

I would choose him as he is now, in the middle of his thirty-fifth year, in the midst of maturity full of pain.

This body is heavy, massive like the country that gave him birth. Short arms, dainty hands.

When he surfs he becomes like a  cowboy of the Westerns: ready to fire his guns at the drop of a hat, getting into a rage at the least provocation.

Essential viewing, as always.

Also, includes brief lesbian kiss and a big spin… 

Noah Beschen, the Hawaiian-born son of former world number two Shane Beschen, is no boy. He’s a real man, a man who lives his life in reality, not waiting for kingdom come.

And flashy as all hell.

This five-minute edit which is called YRUYNN (Why are you whining), wraps Noah’s not inconsiderable talent in a phantasmagoric, and vaguely demonic, fantasy that calls to mind Hugh Hefner’s Gold Room where stereophonic music, drinks and erotic opportunities abound.

Come for the Big Spin at Waco, stay for a glimpse of girl-girl caress.

Trailer for two-time world champ’s new film, Tokyo Rising, explores rivalry between the boy and the master.

To cut a long story short, Kelly Slater, who is almost forty-nine, and John John Florence, just turned twenty-eight, have the sort of rivalry that has, so far, dipped under the radar.

But as John John Florence’s new movie Tokyo Rising, a road-to-the-Olympics documentary reveals, there’s a level of level of antipatico between the two.

Simpatico is someone for whom you would jump into the river, in winter, to save from drowning; antipatico is someone you would calmly observe drowning in the river, someone you would refuse to help, even it is a very hot day in summer and you are dreaming of a nice swim.

Kelly wants, very much, to compete in the Tokyo Games; John John challenges Kelly to a duel and is quicker on the draw.

Compelling.

Tokyo Rising, out Thursday, on Amazon Prime Video.