Surf Documentary: Heavy Water
Charlie at the movies
“I always wanted to challenge death. I loved to get just as close to death as I possibly could and then dodge it. That was my thrill in life.” What an opening sentence for a documentary about surfing and Charlie thinks that director Michael Oblowitz couldn’t have chosen a better one for the movie Heavy Water that was shown as part of the UK screening tour at the Genesis Cinema in London in July 2019.
Heavy Water, a biopic about big wave surfer Nathan Fletcher, transports in a unique way all the physical and emotional heights involved in the sport. It opens with the aforementioned quote by Woody Brown, shows the biggest waves that have ever been surfed, the most popular spots and surf competitions, the most emotional moments in professional surfing, and ends with a stunt that will keep the name of Nathan Fletcher in the history books of surfing: The Acid Drop.
Surfing Pioneers
It was certainly done on purpose to show one of the pioneers in big wave surfing in the opening scene of the movie. Woody Brown was one of the first to surf the big waves at the Hawaiian North Shore, constantly trying to get the bigger ones that make you realize the power of water that could cost your life. In Brown’s case, this luckily never happened, and he had a long and fulfilled life. He passed away in 2008 at the age of 96 but will remain a legend for being a surfing pioneer.
“The Fletcher Family: A Lifetime in Surf”
This is where Nathan Fletcher enters the scene: he comes from a family of surfing pioneers, but it is exactly this heritage that makes him a mystical figure. His grandfather Flippy Hoffmann is a well-known surfing pioneer, followed by Herbie Fletcher, Nathan’s father, who was a semi-finalist in the 1966 World Surfing Championships and introduced the jet ski to big wave surfing – something Nathan never liked. He prefers to paddle out the traditional way. The surf journalist Jamie Brisick once made a reference to rock-and-roll legends to highlight their impact on a whole industry by speaking of Herbie Fletcher as the Iggy Pop and Mick Jagger of surfing.
Then there’s Christian Fletcher, Nathan’s older brother, who bears the title of the pioneer of aerial surfing. He was heavily influenced by the Californian skate scene which also had an impact on Nathan. By introducing moves known from skateboarding to wave surfing, he re-defined the sport. The movie Heavy Water documents this influence by making skating legends like Jay Adams and Christian Hosoi talk. Both had a big influence on Nathan Fletcher and the way he moves in the water.
The whole story of the Fletcher family can soon be read in the publication “The Fletcher Family: A Lifetime in Surf” by Nathan’s mother Dibi Fletcher which will be available in September 2019.
The Acid Drop
Amongst these many pioneers who have left their marks in the surf sport by doing things their own way before they became the norm, what could make Nathan step out of the shade?
Heavy Water documents that he always loved to jump and shows some impressive jumps done on motocross bikes and skateboards. Nathan took this to the next level with the idea of jumping out of a helicopter armed with a surfboard to land on a 25-foot wave. The whole movie builds up to this impressive moment by showing him constantly surfing bigger waves or longer boards. What made him a central figure in surfing was his iconic ride in Tahiti in 2011 where he surfed the biggest wave that was ever surfed. He hadn’t realized it until his friend and big-wave surfer Bruce Irons told him what they had just experienced. Nathan was merely happy that he had survived.
The director Michael Oblowitz combines pictures of monster waves with an incredible story of a lifetime with all the ups and downs professional surfers experience leading to the historic Acid Drop (screenshot below taken from movie trailer).
The director
Oblowitz himself was at the screening in London answering questions from the audience before the movie started. He feels a strong connection to the audience that night as, even though he grew up in South Africa, his grandmother was from Hackney and he still remembers the London of the 70s. “This today is very conservative”, to describe it in his own words. He seems to be a very laid-back person who doesn’t care much about fitting into a social norm. He became (in)famous for the movie Sea of Darkness which documents the story of a group of surfers smuggling drugs in Indonesia in the 70s. Some consider this highly controversial movie the best surf movie ever made, whereas some players in the surf industry would rather not see it appearing on any screen.
Luckily, that is different for his latest release Heavy Water. The London audience during the UK screening tour was certainly stunned by the story and even more by the size of the waves.
Deadly Waves
It was exactly the size and power of these waves the movie took as an opener – waves that have the power to kill. Throughout the movie, the danger coming from these waves is constantly present keeping the tension up. Oblowitz combines this with some very emotional moments in Nathan’s life: starting from saving the life of his friend Andy Irons after a night of heavy drinking and watching him later become world champion, the tragic death of Sion Milosky at Mavericks, the emotional rollercoaster involved in knowing he survived waves that others didn’t and the friendship with the Irons brothers. (Bruce Irons appears more often in the movie than Nathan’s brother Christian – it seems, Charlie didn’t count.)
Whilst the movie is certainly impressive when it comes to the images shown on screen combined with a biopic, Charlie must say that the two other movies she watched and that were also presented by WavelengthMag at the Genesis Cinema left a bigger impression on the emotional side:
- Momentum Generation told the story of how a bunch of surf-loving teenagers became famous and how turning their hobby into a competitive profession put a heavy load on their friendship. It’s starring famous surfers like Kelly Slater and Rob Machado.
- Andy Irons – Kissed by God is the biopic of former three-time world champion Andy Irons who was shaped by bipolar disorder and addiction. Although his tragic death of a heart attack in a hotel room played a role in Heavy Water, it wasn’t by far as emotionally capturing as it was in the Irons biopic.
Charlie was impressed by what she had seen on screen and she knows that the size of the waves she is able to surf made her look like a chicken compared to the ones in Heavy Water but when it comes to the emotional side, she felt similar to a friend of hers who said after the show: “I was prepared to cry tonight, but I didn’t.”
Charlie is trying to get a hand on the movies Sea of Darkness and The Fletcher Family: A Lifetime in Surf. If she does, she will of course share her thoughts here.
If you missed the London screening, there are a few more dates during the UK screening tour:
- 17th July 2019: Newcastle – Tyneside Cinema
- 18th July 2019: Edinburgh – The Dominion Cinema
- 19th July 2019: Brighton – The Sea Lane
