It's nearly two weeks since I had the joy of cervical discectomy and fusion. For the first week after the op I felt as if I'd been in a meat grinder, or a car crash, or, perhaps, a hospital theatre room having spinal surgery, but then things started to settle down. Now I find myself in a curious limbo. The pain is bad at night but manageable during the day so long as I don't do anything. However, sitting around doing nothing creates the illusion that all is OK. So after a few hours of vegetating what I've tended to do is venture forth on walks and even, yesterday, a drive into Penzance. The result, after these sallies, is intense pain which makes me need to lie down all over again.
However, if you're going to be taken out by an op for a couple of weeks this is the best time of year for it. Kindly relatives have sent various DVDs as Christmas presents, so as well as all the Yuletide nonsense on TV I've made my way through Carlito's Way, Cape Fear (the original) and Mad Max (I noted, with interest, that Mel Gibson's character was a surfer - well, there's a single fin shortboard on the roof of his estate car at one stage). Tonight I'm going to wile away a couple of hours with one of my favourite films, Get Carter, a top gift from my brother Chris, and, of course, there's also been heaps of football to watch.
But one of the best films I've seen lately is Bustin' Down the Door. Harry and I really enjoyed this, a DVD which came our way about the same time I went under the knife. It recounts a well-known story - of how six young Australian and South African surfers blitzed the North Shore scene in the early 1970s - but it does so with real panache. One of the key players, along with Mark Richards and Shaun Tomson, was Wayne 'Rabbit' Bartholomew, whose appearance in the film is both touching and thought-provoking. The hubris evinced by Rabbit, in appearing to condemn Oahu's local surfers as 'stagnating', seems to have been unintentional; certainly, what he and the other Aussie surfers (Ian Cairns, Peter Townend) who so outraged Hawaiian pride did wasn't animated by malice. These were young hotshots eager to make a mark, to invent the pro surfing lifestyle, and they didn't take prisoners en route. Nor, though, did the likes of Eddie Rothman, of Black Shorts fame, whose appearance in the film casts him as an almost benign, almost avuncular figure but one who still seems fit to bursting with the capability for - how should this be put? - 'enforcement'.
As the film narrates, it would take a man of Eddie Aikau's humane and wise character to defuse the outbreak of major hostility between the upstart incomers and Hawaiians engendered mainly by Rabbit's notorious 'Bustin' Down the Door' article. As anyone in surfing knows, Rabbit, Townend, Richards and Tomson went on to be surfing's first professional champions and now, of course, the ASP Tour is something we take for granted. However, while they may have ruffled feathers back in the 70s, if it hadn't been for the sheer brazen courage - allied with exceptional surfing talent - of Rabbit et al it's possible that we wouldn't have so well developed a pro surfing scene as we do now.
Bustin' Down the Door tells the story of what went down and how it was resolved, though not without a lingering sense of sadness given the impact events of over 30 years ago seem to have left on Rabbit's pysche. He comes across as that little bit more fragile, more sensitive, than his peers, and I defy anyone not to feel moved watching him replay what were formative moments in his life. Into the bargain, and ensuring that there's still more than enough stoke for any surfer, the surfing footage is just as impressive today as it was in the Free Ride days. Check it out if you can and click here to get hold of the DVD.
Right, after getting amped thinking about some of the surf scenes in the film, I feel the need to go and do something. Yes, I know, I'll fall apart again afterwards. So maybe instead I will try and resolve a question which has just popped into my mind. It's this: Bustin' Down the Door continues a trend whereby big name Hollywood actors narrate surf and skate films. Edward Norton tells the story here; for Dogtown and the Z Boys it was Sean Penn, while Russell Crowe was at the helm of the Bra Boys. But are these guys surfers and/or skaters? Does anyone know?
Comments