October 26, 2012 Friday

Chasing Mavericks

Kate and I ventured to the Northgate Cineplex of fifteen theaters for the opening of Chasing Mavericks, the true story of Jay Moriarity, staring Gerard Butler as Jay’s mentor Frosty, and Jonny Weston as Jay, directed and produced by Curtis Hanson.

I had not been to this theater complex in years. But think about it, fifteen theaters in a mall on a Friday night, yes it was a teenage gathering. The theater was packed with hundreds of squirming and loud youth of Marin, and in the middle of this teaming mass sat the mature surfers of Bolinas: Marty, Mary, Hank and Gail, Kathy the biology teacher and her husband Clark, Jaime the starving artist and his wife and Kate and I. The movement and the noise were getting to me. I was ready to jump up and scream for silence, but fortunately the gum chewing set settled down when the movie started.

All of us knew the story of Jay Moriarity before going into the theater. In case you don’t, here it is: Jay burst onto the surfing scene in 1993 when Surfer Magazine published a cover photo of him going tail first over the falls on a thirty-foot Mavericks wave, one of the worst wipeouts ever recorded. It was his first wave at Mavericks. However, he quickly recovered and charged back out there to connect on three great rides. Jay became one of the Mavericks regulars and was always in the line-up when the big swells came through. Unfortunately, he drowned at age 22 in a free-dive exercise in the South Pacific.

For surfers, especially Northern California surfers, Chasing Mavericks is a must see movie. This is not your phony Hollywood surf party movie where you see Frankie Avalon on a flat sea with someone spraying water on him that then cuts away to Greg Noll dropping down a thirty-foot face at Waimea. The surf scenes in this movie are spectacular – out in the water close-ups of the gigantic tunnels of the Mavericks monsters. Boats and jet skies are tossed around and the wipeouts are for real. Mavericks regulars, Peter Mel, Greg Long, Sean Taylor and Grant Washburn, provide epic rides. The force and power of these waves stuns the audience.

The Northern California scenery is also impressive -- with plenty of overhead shots of traveling down Highway 1 between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. I recognized several locations: Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, Steamers Lane, The Hook, Ross’ Cove, Montara, Pescadero and even Linda Mar (one shot).

The surf and scenery make this movie worthwhile, but so does the story. Jay has an obsession to surf Mavericks. He hounds an older Mavericks surfer, Frosty, to teach him. After weeks of Jay’s persistence, Frosty reluctantly agrees to teach Jay how to survive, not ride the waves, but to survive. A good deal of the movie is Jay and Frosty training. Frosty pushes Jay to paddle the 35 miles from Santa Cruz to Monterey. To do it, Jay has to study the currents and the tides. Frosty insists that Jay be able to hold his breath for four minutes. Jay passes out in school attempting to hit the four-minute mark. There was also general conditioning – running, push-ups, swimming and treading water while holding up a chair. Of course all of this pays off and Jay successfully conquers the monster Maverick waves.

But the main story of this movie is Jay himself. The force of his personality impacted everyone around him. He never said anything negative against anyone and attempted to help everyone. He was so fired up on life, so positive, so optimistic that his actions caused everyone around him to improve. He straightened out his mother. Jay’s father had left them and his mother was sinking into self-pity and alcohol. Every morning Jay got up early to make her coffee, to iron her waitress uniform and to get her up and off to work. Over time she revives, takes control of her life and is promoted to supervisor. Jay’s personality rubs off on Frosty. Through Jay’s constant positive presence, Frosty starts paying attention to his daughter and his wife. He comes to realize how important these two are to him – warning, this is a tear jerking part of the movie and I will say no more. Jay’s personality impacts his girl friend, who comes to realize his positive attitude is what she wants for the rest of her life, and they do get married. His aura also impacts his life-long friend who is sinking into the drug culture.

Jay’s brief life influenced so many people. He is a legend in Santa Cruz. The movie ends with a fade away shot of graffiti scrolled across a wall near The Hook – “Live Like Jay”

**** Four stars out of five on the Lorenzo movie scale. ****