January 13, 2004 -- “Step into Liquid” is a documentary exploring the international surfing culture. Made by and for surfers it does an excellent job of explaining the whole surfing lifestyle so even landlocked people who have never seen the ocean can understand it.

The film features excellent footage by a team of cinematographers led by John-Paul Beeghly (“Hard Rain”). Some of the images are breathtaking, particularly the underwater shots looking up through the water to the surfers on the surface. There are no special effects. There are no stunt men, just real surfers doing some incredible things. Some of the surfing is very risky business, but the overall connecting theme of having fun being the most important thing is not lost. The movie covers the globe from deep ocean surfing miles out at sea to surfers who surf the wake of oil tankers.

There is a heartening look at some surfers using their sport to defuse some hatred in Ireland. They run a surfing camp where protestants and Catholic kids surf together in peace. One surfer in Hawaii hasn't missed a single day of surfing in years. He's going for some kind of record. Although some of these surfers look as burned out as you would expect, others look sharp and are more articulate than you might expect. The one thing that links them all is their passion for surfing. Above all, however, they never take surfing so seriously that it gets in the way of having fun. Writer-director Dana Brown (“The Endless Summer 2”) gives the subject a very thoughtful presentation. Remember, surfers don't like to be called dude. It rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2004 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at .