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Highwater

Coverage by Nobuhiro Hosoki

Story : "High Water" is an action-packed adventure centered around surfing's Triple Crown competitions,the professional surfing tour's final three competitions held each year on the North Shore of Oahu. Starting on Halloween and ending around Christmas, it attracts the sport's best surfers to the legendary North Shore, known for its huge waves and unparalleled surf.

 

Interview with Dana Brown

Nobu: Why did go back to surfing again?
 
DB: It’s a good question. When I did “Step Into Liquid” I didn’t think I’d make another surfing movie. The opportunity “Dust to Glory” came up, I did that, but it dawned on me doing “Dust to Glory” that it’s just this three day race and there are so many stories I thought you could actually tell a story about surfing that was one place and it would have enough stories to tell for a movie. So it kind of opened my eyes to the opportunity to do that, and then I started thinking about the North Shore and the Triple Crown, and surfing’s changing so much I thought it would be important to do that now to capture it because I think it’s going to change. North Shore’s been the focus of the surfing world that time of year for all these years but yet surfing’s getting very global. Everything changes; that only thing for certain is that everything changes. I thought well let’s go try to capture this now before it’s just a story that passed. So that’s why I did it.
 
Nobu: Can you talk about how much your father Bruce Brown shaped your life and the direction you would go?
 
DB: It’s something when you’re younger you don’t think about. It’s just like well that seems like fun, I’ll do that. And obviously looking at it now it influenced me greatly but in ways I’m still figuring out. I really thought his films were great, I thought what a neat thing to do that you could make something that people enjoy and I enjoy doing it. So he’s a really, really special guy and the older I get the more I appreciate him. His influence I’ll probably never…it’s like trying to explain why your hand is important to you. It’s just there.
 
Nobu: Have waves changed? Climate change and global warming, compared to the ‘70s has the atmosphere changed?
 
DB: Yeah I think so. It’s a little harder for me to judge maybe because the spots, especially in California, they change anyways because people build things and there’s always construction. But you look at footage of say Waimea Bay, old footage, that wave looks different than it does now when it’s big. So I think for sure climate change has changed many breaks.
 
Nobu: Mark Healey, he expressed how the Hawaiian people and the surfers are a close community.
 
DB: Yeah, the surfing community, especially at certain levels, there is that bond that everybody will take care of you because you have this common interest or shared interest. I think the Hawaiian culture period they have that anyway, that a village raises a child not just the family. So they kind of pitch it and take care of you and when you’re there and you’re accepted by them you feel like family. We’re shooting on the North Shore, I was walking to the market one day or something just down the street and car after car, honk, Dana! I thought more people honk and wave at me here and I don’t live there than have in places I’ve lived in for 12 years. There everybody shares something so you’re all part of the same tribe and it’s nice. You kind of forget that that is important to people, that it’s nice to see people that are happy to see you.
 
Nobu: Have you ever thought about leading a lifestyle like Dorian Paskowitz?
 
DB: For me personally I don’t think I would just because I love what I do. But not necessarily trying to make a bunch of money doing it – I mean if you make a bunch of money doing it, great – but because I love doing it. What Dorian did and stuff, I mean god bless him. I think people should follow their passion more than just being a slave to expectations or what they think people think that they should have. I think that’s a real mistake. But having known Dorian and I grew up by where he was I don’t know if I’d necessarily want to live like the Paskowitz’s did. I enjoyed our existence. Not that I don’t like sleeping in a bus, but the thought of having that many kids…
 
Nobu: I was kind of surprised to see that Sunny Garcia and Kelly Slater are actually close friends because they’re rivals.
 
DB: Kelly’s honestly like…there’s something about that guy that even if you didn’t know who he was there’s almost like a princely quality to him. I think Keith Malloy mentions in the movie, he literally remembers like everybody’s name and he’s inundated with people. There’s something about him that’s very sweet and genuine. And Sunny’s very sweet but he’s Sunny. He’s a very straightforward guy and there’s a little bit of weariness of strangers with him. And I was surprised too; I didn’t really know they were that close of friends wither until I asked him the question. And that was one of the things that I liked about doing the film; as well known in the surfing world as Sunny and Kelly are, yet there’s a piece of information that maybe a lot of people don’t realize.
 
Nobu: Has the introduction of more female surfers totally changed the North Shore?
 
DB: I remember being there when I was 20, so in the early ‘80s, and if there was a girl on the beach everybody would know about it. There were no women unless it was somebody’s girlfriend or wife. So I asked that question and they all said it’s a good thing. So even though they may be in the water and competing for waves there’s something that the women bring. It reduces the testosterone a little bit so maybe everybody becomes a little less aggressive. So I think it’s a great thing. And it’s phenomenal how good they are now. I mean they really are.
 
Nobu:Could you talk about Bethany Hamilton(Girl who lost one hand by shark attacked) and how good she is?
 
DB: She is unbelievable isn’t she? We were standing there the first day and I’d known obviously her story and everything and somebody introduced us and she’s getting ready to go out in her heat and I’m thinking, without trying to be funny, I go how does she even paddle out in a straight line? And as you’re watching she drops her one foot to keep the board going straight as she paddles. I mean my god. I still don’t quite know how she jumps up on the board so easily with one arm.
 
Nobu: Also that after what happened she’d go back in the water.
 
DB: Somebody said she was in the water like six weeks after it happened. I mean a really shockingly close time from almost dying to being right back in the water. Her whole family is strongly faith driven, they’re real Christians, but they’re really sweet people. She’s an amazing young lady for sure. Beyond the story there’s some strength to her. And all the people coming up to her and there she is, which a lot of people might be embarrassed about, she’s just standing there and it’s just great. That is what you should do.
 
Nobu: When you were growing up, particularly in elementary school, to have an appreciation of nature at such a young age, I think it’s essential. Did you feel that way growing up?
 
DB: Absolutely. I think it was so much a part of it that you don’t know that there’s a non-appreciation for nature. And then you realize that a lot of people don’t appreciate it and then there’s that thought that you have to reconnect just to feel right, just to feel a balance. Because you can get so out of balance and your problems can look so overwhelming and all this kind of minutiae of life and you forget the bigger picture. If you just go for a float in the ocean all of a sudden you balance. You can spend a million dollars going to a shrink but that might now do what it can just going for a swim at sunset in the ocean. But yeah, it’s super important. I don’t know if I ever really thought it all out when I was a kid because it was just part of the experience, but definitely as I’ve gotten older you realize the importance of it all. The driver out here as I was coming here, I was coming from the airport and we were driving by Central Park, and it was a guy from the Caribbean and he goes “Central Park. How smart were they to put this big park in the city?” And I thought he’s so right, because without that park it would be a totally different city; the tension would be far too high. People can kind of get away and go for a nice walk in the park.
 
Nobu: I was totally surprised about John John Florence. How could anyone possibly be able to raise their kids like that in the water?
 
DB: When he was nine I guess we were shooting “Step Into Liquid” and Larry Hanes said hey Dana, you might be interested in this kid John John Florence. He’s like nine years old and he surfs pipeline; he’s really good. And I went, what do you mean he surfs pipeline? And I went and met John John and Alex and it wasn’t a very good day and he went out and he was phenomenal little surfer then and he just always has been. He’s just a stone cold freak, that kid. He’s just gifted.
 
Nobu: I was surprised to see the mother was okay with it.
 
DB: She just loves the ocean too. I don’t know if she still does but she did make him wear that helmet that he hated.
 
Nobu: I was fascinated by the safeguard, how they’re taking care of the people. They are in constant alert and lots of people actually take care of you.
 
DB: It was amazing when Malik drowned and they realized. To be honest, when it was happening nobody knew it was Malik because the board had washed up. Somehow the word got out and so many people came in right away and started looking. What you see in the movie was maybe within minutes of the disappearance. I was shocked because as it was unfolding it was like what’s going on? Before we could figure out what was going on it was going on. We were filming it but it was like what’s everybody doing? And then it dawned on us they were looking.
 
Nobu: Has the commercial appeal of surfing changed it a lot?
 
DB: At its essence a lot of it’s exactly the same, like we talk about nature and the fascination of what goes on in the brotherhood of it, but certainly there’s a lot more money in it now, a lot more people surf. When I was 20 I went to Fiji and you could sleep on the beach in Toberua. Now it’s going to cost you a bunch of money to stay there. So it changes but I think at its heart it’s still the same; I hope that never changes.

Nobu: Are you working on another film right now?
 
DB: We’re working on maybe three or four, trying to see which one we’re going to do.
 
Nobu: Another documentary?
 
DB: Yeah it would be a documentary. There might be an IMAX film and then there are a couple of ideas for a documentary. It just depends on which one falls into place because of funding and everything else. So we have about three or four right now that maybe we’ll do them and hopefully within the next month or so we’ll get to start on one because I’m getting tired of going to all the meetings, but we’ll see.

End.