Dorian Paskowitz, known as Doc, has led a full and unusual life as documentary maker Doug Pray catches up with him in his eighties. Even at this age, he is still a dedicated surfer, and an advocate of the healthy lifestyle, but this drive to fulfil his beliefs had resulted in a family who were subject to his every whim when they were growing up, and those whims mainly centred around travelling North America to find the right waves in a camper van. With his wife Juliette, he had nine children, and they were all eleven of them packed into that vehicle, not having anything to do with school, and never settling down for long...
Surfing documentaries are ten a penny, but here was something different, a film about a controversial figure in the sport, and not simply a selection of the best footage from the ocean antics he and his family got up to. There's no doubting that Doc is an eccentric on the basis of what we see here, but the question that nags at almost every frame is whether he was correct in his determination to follow his dream, or whether what he did was actually very damaging to his offspring. This means Surfwise can be uncomfortable viewing at times, as each of the eight brothers and one sister relate their war stories and you wonder if any of them have turned out well at all.
If this sounds like one of those true life, "my terrible childhood" efforts, then don't be discouraged, for there is humour and inspiration here as well. Pray goes into a lot of detail about Doc's background, telling us, or letting his interview subjects tell us, about how the now elderly health nut used to be a doctor and how he had two failed marriages behind him before he made up his mind in the fifties to travel the world looking for the perfect wave. And the perfect sexual experience as well, as from the moment one of his girlfriends taught him the joys of performing oral sex on women, he became an explorer in the realms of the sensual as well.
As long as there was surfing to be had, then that was all right by Doc, and Pray is fortunate that there was so much archive footage, from home movies and family snaps to television news reports, to flesh out the story. The Paskowitz kids, mostly now in their forties when this was filmed, veer from being grateful for having such a unique upbringing to deep resentment for missing out on so much, stuff like education, steady relationships, even TV. Tales of eating grains for breakfast every day for years or having to put up with the sounds of their parents "making love" for the same amount of time are not what would make the most dedicated surfer envious, but then you start to see that Doc instilled their lives with a sense of family, with the importance of their Jewish heritage, or with a sprit of adventure. Finally, if the film strains a little too hard for an uplifting note to end on, you do get the sense that whatever your early years may have been like, you can do the best with what you have been given, and for the Paskowitzes, you remain optimistic. Music by John Dragonetti.
