FROM
GIDGET TO
GILMORE...
GIRLS ON
FILM
Demi Taylor, director of the London
Surf Film Festival, takes us through the
history of female surf movies...I
t’s Sunday morning and I’m at home, watching a surf
movie, waiting for the tide to drop out. Clutching a coffee,
my eyes are glued to the screen as the surfer drops down
the face of a beautiful head-high wall, snapping off the
top, arms relaxed, before cutting back deep into the pocket and
speeding down the line. They are backlit, silhouetted, but the fluid
lines are seamless, the radical elegance unmistakable, enviable.
“Let’s see that wave again.” My boyfriend has wandered into the
room and is also instantly mesmerized, watching the person Kelly
Slater called, “God’s gift to surfing,” style it out on a twinnie. We
are of course watching Steph Gilmore. In 30 minutes of pure surf
stoke, she’ll work her way through 12 ‘fun boards’ shaped for her
by some of the world’s most interesting, alternative board makers,
riding them and reviewing them for the latest edition of the Electric
Acid Surfboard Test (Dir. Ashton Goggans). While the best board
may be up for debate, one thing is for sure: this is not a guy’s
movie, it’s not a girl’s movie, it’s a surf movie pure and simple, and
something has changed.