Transcript of BoardHeads 52min version
BoardHeaded Media Inc.
01.00.00 PICTURE UP – LOGO
01.00.04 PICTURE UP
SOT MAN : I enjoy surfing. I enjoy skateboarding, I enjoy snowboarding. I guess you could call me a board head.
SOT MAN : Well, I guess if being involved in surfing all your life and riding waves and screwing up, drinking and chasing broads makes you a board head, then I might slide into that category.
SOT MAN: Well, it’s not really in my vocabulary, that board head thing.
SOT WOMAN : I love surfing, and I’m a board head.
SOT MAN: Yeah, for sure, I’m a board head.
01.01.32 SOT MAN: Well, I guess I’m a board head.
SOT MAN: Maybe I’m a board head.
SOT MAN: My board and my head. Always together.
SOT MAN: I’m a full-on board head.
01.01.52 VO: WHEN THE FIRST POLYNESIANS GRABBED PLANKS OF WOOD AND PADDLED INTO WAVES, THEY DIDN'T REALIZE THEIR INNOVATION WOULD EVOLVE INTO A GLOBAL TRIBE OF BOARD HEADS. SURFING IS WHERE BOARD RIDING CAME FROM. IT’S THE FIRST THING PEOPLE STOOD UP ON AND MADE TURNS. AFTER THAT, SKATEBOARDING IMITATED IT. SNOWBOARDING IMITATED IT. WINDSURFING COMBINED SURFING AND SAILING, AND NOW THERE’S WAKE BOARDING AND KITE SURFING. BOARD RIDING MAY HAVE STARTED WITH SURFING, BUT THE TRIBE HAS GROWN TO INCLUDE RIDERS AROUND THE WORLD, USING ALL KINDS OF BOARDS TO SHRED EVERY POSSIBLE SURFACE.
01.02.40 BOARD RIDING PROVIDES ENDLESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUN. IT ALSO DRAMATICALLY CHANGES LIVES, EMPOWERS MINDS, BUILDS HEALTHY BODIES, AND FREES THE SPIRIT. STREET KIDS IN GHETTOS, FROM AFRICA TO AMERICA, FEEL EMPOWERED AS THEIR BOARDS TAKE THEM TO NEW PLACES. PARALYZED RIDERS AND AMPUTEES INSPIRE OTHERS THROUGH THEIR RELENTLESS DEDICATION AND DETERMINATION TO GET OUT AND LIVE.
01.03.08 COMMUNITIES GROW STRONGER THROUGH ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS ACTIVITIES. A WIND SURFER EXPERIENCES A NEW LIFE OF FREEDOM AFTER LIBERATING HIMSELF FROM COMMUNIST CUBA ON HIS BOARD. AFTER A TASTE OF SURFING, AUTISTIC KIDS AND EX-GANG MEMBERS SEE HOPE WHERE THERE ONCE WAS DARKNESS, GAINING NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LIFE. WHETHER YOU REALIZE IT OR NOT, THERE’S A GROWING TRIBE OF BOARD HEADS, MAKING OUR WORLD A COOLER PLACE.
01.03.57 STEVE SMITH: There’s nothing compared to surfing, as every wave and every day’s different.
GREG NOLL: The pure joy of sliding a big wall of water.
MARCUS MARCOS: It’s a fantastic feeling and a fantastic ride when you’re on a wave because it’s that total freedom.
THEKISO SOBE: On the bottom turn, the way you hit that (?) it feels like ah, you’re taking over the world, like the world is yours.
“POOP”: It’s so incredible that you feel it inside. It’s so much things that you are wa-hoo.
01.04.28 RON YANOVER: The reason surfing is so addictive is because we’re basically water. We live on a planet of water, we’re made of water, and when we’re born, we got months in the water in our mom’s belly.
KELLY SLATER: Really special time in surfing is when you’re intensely focused, and there’s really nothing else in the world that exists. I don’t think the average person gets experience that in life.
01.04.58 SHAUN TOMSON: I have this experience of, of time being expanded.
SPEAKER: Just feeling like you’re in a different universe. You’re actually riding in a different world.
STEVE FRIEDMAN: The best thing that I now that you can do on the face of the Earth.
TOM MOREY: I think (?) summed it up really clearly. Life’s a waste of time. Surfing’s a great way to waste it.
01.05.32 NICOLAS: It’s like this, the community grows, of course. From the time you share the stroke to the first, the pleasure is double. The emotion of the activity and the pleasure to share the stoke with other people. And when you share the stoke with one people, only once, for all your life you never forget it.
01.05.54 VO: SHARING THE JOYS OF RIDING, AS THIS GROUP OF SURFERS, HEALING MORE THAN JUST FAMILIES AND KIDS DEALING WITH AUTISM. IT ALSO ENRICHES THE LIVES OF THE DEDICATED SURFERS WHO DONATE THEIR TIME.
01.06.08 IZZY PASKOWITZ: Surfers Healing is all about, you know, taking autistic kids surfing.
SOT KID : Let’s go surfing.
SOT MAN: Let’s go surfing.
SPEAKER : My wife and I started Surfer City to have this resource with autistic children. There’s so many things that our kids can’t do, so the idea of the premise is doing things that our kids can’t do.
SOT MAN: Look at me, Jake. (Lie down on your stomach?).
01.06.31 SPEAKER: Having all these volunteers come together and take out the children, it’s therapeutic, it’s an awesome, fun day for, you know, our kids to go out and do something more.
PAT NOTARO: It’s wave movement therapy. The waves seems to mellow them out. They have a tendency to have sensory overload.
DANIEL : People tell me I couldn’t dive but I did it. I’m ok.
ALEX : The wave just blocked my eyes out.
01.06.57 SOT WOMAN : It’s fun, ok? We try it one time.
SPEAKER: Some are a bit more hesitant at first, a little bit more nervous, and have a tendency to panic a bit more.
LEE WANOS: I was trying to get him calmed down, he was kicking and screaming the whole time. I finally left him. They got him calmed down, and he actually road a wave in.
SPEAKER: After awhile, in the water being with us, the surfers in the water and makes them feel good, and at the same time, it makes the families and parents feel good because they’re actually seeing their child do something and accomplish something.
01.07.41 KEITH LOVGREN: It’s the greatest time in the world right here, and I just feel so charged up every time I come down to a camp.
SPEAKER: The kids, their faces, are just amazing after catching the first wave. You see a feeling of calmness come over their souls.
01.08.00 SUNNY GARCIA: For me, it’s just coming down to the beach and having a good time, you know, and watching the kids laugh. It’s all worth it.
STEVEN HAMMIT: Just wonderful. These guys are fabulous, really excellent boarders. They grab these kids up and they stand them right up. They enjoy every minute of it, and these kids need all the excitement they can get.
SOT MAN: Awesome.
ROSENDO LOMBARDO: After he goes surfing, when he comes out, he, he’s smiling. I mean, he’s, he’s happy.
SOT BOY : I want to do that again (LAUGHS)
01.08.30 SPEAKER: I mean, it’s not a cure. We’ll always have our kid and have to deal with it. But to do something that’s so fun (?) with most of the parents just don’t expect, you know, their, their children to be able to do it.
SOT MAN: Good job.
SOT MAN: Hey, Matt, thanks a lot, man, really appreciate it.
01.08.48 MARY WANOS : I was really touched that they just kept trying and they didn't give up on him, which with these children, so many people give up on them too soon, and this guy just didn't. They stood out there with him, and they turned him and, to where they got him to do the surfing, which was an amazing thing to see.
01.09.04 And he came out of there, you could tell that he was happy.
SOT MAN: (?) you got the biggest wave all day.
SOT BOY : Thanks for helping me.
SOT MAN: My pleasure. Thank you for surfing (?)
(SIMULTANEOUS DIALOG)
SOT BOY : I’ll see you next time.
SOT MAN: Ok.
SOT BOY : Thanks (Next time, I’m gonna do it?) all by myself.
01.09.27 SOT WOMAN : Got to get all the smokers to quit leaving their butts on the beach.
SOT WOMAN : Let’s go get that trap.
01.09.41 VO: THE BOARD HEAD COMMUNITY NOT ONLY INVOLVES RIDERS, INNOVATERS AND ENTREPRENEURS, BUT ALSO ANYONE WISHING FOR A CLEANER, BRIGHTER FUTURE. ORGANIZATIONS LIKE THE SURFRIDER FOUNDATION, WITH CHAPTERS AROUND THE WORLD, STRENGTHEN COMMUNITIES THROUGH BEACH CLEAN-UPS AND PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS.
01.10.00 SOT MAN : Hey, good afternoon, Surfriders.
VO: WHETHER YOU RIDE A BOARD OR NOT, EVERYONE CAN GET ACTIVE.
01.10.06 KEN PALLEY : Our coast, oceans, fisheries, our coastal wetlands, are all in very bad shape, and major national policy changes were and are urgently needed. The ocean is truly our life’s blood. Working together, we can turn the tide on ocean pollution. Thank you for being here.
01.10.30 Shaun Thompson, I mean, for me to be introducing Shaun Thompson is kind of you know, like for me to be introducing the Pope or something like that. He is definitely a hero of many of us, really, one of the greatest surfers of all time. He’s a dedicated environmentalist. Sean Thompson.
(CROWD REACTION)
01.10.46 SHAUN TOMSON : Thanks, Ken. Thanks, everyone for coming. I love Surf Rider, I love what, what they do for the ocean. I was sitting at my little desk this morning at home, and I was paying bills because no one else was gonna pay my bills.
01.11.01 And the ocean (has seen us a debt?). And we’ve got to pay back, all of us. Because like our bills, no one else is gonna pay back. What do we got to do? We’re gonna pay back guys. Thank you.
(CROWD REACTION)
SOT MAN : This is the third annual Surf Rider Foundation of Santa Barbara chapter, Paddle for Clean Water.
JAY MILEY: We’re paddling out so that people are aware that people use this water and it’s not something like a trash can. We shouldn’t be polluting it.
01.11.33 SOT MAN : Come on, let’s go and paddle out for clean water, man. Let’s go. Come on.
KEN PALLEY : We’re gonna turn the tide on ocean pollution with the help of this community, with our elected officials, and with the enthusiasm of all of our activists. Thank you very much, thanks for coming, do what you can to save the ocean.
01.12.09 SOT MAN : What a day. It’s good to see everybody out early and getting their, all this done. We’ve got the rest of the day to go play. And go surf. Do something good for the environment.
SOT WOMAN : Got to give back.
SOT MAN :. Yeah.
01.12.27 VO: EVERYONE CAN SHARE THE STOKE, EVEN MAN’S BEST FRIEND. LIKE THESE SURF DOGS WHO DO AN ANNUAL FUNDRAISER FOR AN ANIMAL SHELTER.
JOHN VAN ZANTE : This is our third annual surf dog surf-a-thon, benefitting Helen Woodward Animal Center. When they came to me with the idea a few years ago, I said you got to be kidding. We’re gonna, we’re gonna do an event with dogs and people surfing on the beach. Nobody’s gonna come to this.
01.12.57 Surf Dog is an opportunity for surfers and their dogs to really share the stoke. And not just between the dog and the owner, but also with other dogs and owners. We’re here to enjoy surfing, we’re here to enjoy the sand, the beach, and this love and caring and commitment that we have with the dogs. Sharing the stoke. That’s what it’s about.
01.13.27 We’ve got dogs up to 20 pounds, 20 to 40, 40 to 60, 60-plus. And they all get out there, they hit the surf and they try and catch some tasty waves on the way in. Some of them surf frontwards, some of them surf backwards. Whatever it is that works for them.
SOT ANNOUNCER: AND THE TOP SURF DOG FOR THE THIRD ANNUAL SURF DOG SURF EVENT BENEFITTING HELEN WOODWARD ANIMAL CENTER – BUDDY. (CROWD REACTION)
01.14.15 VO: IN THE IDYLLIC BOARD TOWNS OF SOUTH AFRICA, THE TOWNSHIPS STILL SUFFER THE POVERTY AND INEQUALITY LEFT IN THE WAKE OF APARTHEID. THIS REALITY IS EVIDENT IN THE THOUSANDS OF KIDS WHO HAVE TAKEN TO THE STREETS.
01.14.31 FRANCIS KILLACKEY : During your apartheid years, prior to 1994, education was something that was pretty much denied to 80% of your population.
CHERON KRASK : These kids have got nothing else to do. Nothing. And, you know, if you drop by some of the houses, it’s just a shed. There’s no yard. There’s no fence. There’s nothing. So really, they hang out in the streets.
01.14.52 THEKISO : When you’re on the street, anything can happen. You become drug dealer, you do whatever your friends tell you to do. I stayed in the street about 4 years. I used to rob people.
BENJAMIN DECASTRO : One day, I didn't know where to go. So I just saw Gary’s surf school.
GARY: At the school, we’ve created something where we have equipment to give everybody an opportunity.
BENJAMIN : Gary said one day I must come surf. So he taught me how to surf, gave me a board and a wet suit. So I started coming every day.
CARIN : Can you imagine not having anything in life, and then becoming a surfer, you know? It’s like (?) (LAUGHS)
01.15.33 GARY : Surfing is so powerful we actually use it as a tool for some of the kids we have problems with. You know, one or two of them were bunking school, not going to school. So we just didn't allow them to surf for a week. And it was the last time they bunked.
SOT GARY : So what is the rule? Get in bed early Friday night. Set an alarm clock. That’s all part of the discipline in getting up. You stay away from the chicks and stay at home or stay in (?)
MAN : He’s really building bridges between kids who have never really had a whole lot, and have been kicked down by the state and the system.
01.16.05 BOY: Blacks think that surfing is only for whites. But it’s, it’s not actually for whites, for anyone that who wants to go out there and surf.
01.16.08 KWEZI QUIKA: Black people most of the time always living like inside a land, inland, that you’ll never love, see them loving the sea. They’ve never been taught by their parents, look it, I’ll teach you how to swim. Because the parents probably don’t swim themselves.
01.16.28 Gary’s actually doing a lot for us like trying to get people to notice us, that he’s actually got some kid that is really outstanding.
GARY: And we’ve managed to produce our first national champion last year, Kwezi Quika. He used to be in the townships.
KEWZI: I’ve been surfing for five years. Last year I won my first title as a champ.
GARY: One of the sponsors has just picked up two or three of the kids, and every now and then they get a box of clothing, new clothes and new shoes, and all the other kids are really so excited about this that they also want a part of that.
SOT KEWZI : Puma, board heads.
01.17.18 GARY: I don’t think people realize that the power that surfer has. It is a very strong emotional touch, it makes you get in touch with yourself, in touch with the ocean.
01.17.32 KWEZI: Swimming in the water with all your friends, and a good wave come through, and you’re on the inside. And they’re roaming for you (whoo?). Go and then that, that just a general rush going through your body.
GARY: Being out there, there’s this feeling of, feeling of good vibe, positive energy, and that energy kind of rubs off, you know, you breed positive energy with other energy, it’ll become positive.
01.17.56 KWEZI: Well, what I want to do is just be at the beach, all day, even if I’m not surfing. I just want to be by the beach, at least. Surfing is much better than robbing people and going to jail. Surfing is the way to be, it’s the way of life. There’s nothing that can stop us.
01.18.24 VO: INNOVATIVE SURFERS WHO WANTED TO TAKE THEIR RIDE INTO THE LAND DEVELOPED SKATEBOARDING.
FREDRICK: Skateboarding, that’s six.
SEBASTIAN: It’s really cool, you know, skateboarding is cool.
JORDAN: It’s like an extension of walking, except you’re not walking and you don’t need to use any muscles. You just sit there and just cruse.
ROGER HICKEY: I’d break out in hives if I can’t ride. So I am so addicted and I’ve been addicted my entire life.
01.18.50 VO: SINCE THEIR BOARDS ARE THE MOST AFFORDABLE, SKATEBOARDERS CAN BE FOUND ANYWHERE THERE’S PAVEMENT, A HALF-PIPE OR IN SKATEPARKS ALL AROUND THE WORLD.
(CROWD REACTION)
01.19.15 SPEAKER: I can’t say that like skateboarding gives me a release or it gives me something to do. It’s just what I do.
ROGER: There’s never an end to it. There’s five million milestones to reach. The milestones will always outlive you because there’s always a new trick that you got to try, and it’s the greatest thing in the world.
01.19.47 ROGER: When people say I’ve never crashed, I say well, then, you’ve never gone fast. Because unless you stretch an envelope, you never learn anything. I tell people you don’t learn anything at Disneyland. You just play there. No balls, no blue chips.
01.20.14 It sounds wacky, but when I’m going 55 miles an hour on a skateboard, I’ve never been so calm in my life. Every problem, everything goes away.
DJ: Well, when I was growing up in Atlanta, the skate scene, there was no skate park, there was no, you know, big to-do about it. Everybody rode their boards here and there.
01.20.34 NICHOLAS: Skateboard in New Orleans, most of the time a good skate spots are like in a park, public park, and everything. Security guards kick you out.
SOT MAN :. No skateboarding.
SOT MAN : Skateboarding is a crime in Paris.
SOT MAN : It’s forbidden, basically.
SOT MAN: : Cops often come. We don’t want trouble, you know?
01.20.56 SOT MAN : (?) it’s kind of shitty. Because the roads are real bad, all these stones and then you got really look at the board doesn’t land in the water. And so it is kind of shitty.
DJ : Go have you some fun, kick flip 'til your back hurt, you know?
01.21.23 FABIENNE : I love all the board sports. I snowboard, I wake board, I surf. And I love the feeling being on the board. And like that freedom.
THIERRY: Skiing was really the first board sport for me.
STEVE WEISS: I’m not sure if, if we can really consider skis as a, as board sports.
JOSH: Just because skiing has two boards, that makes it not a boarding sport.
DUNE: Yo, bull. It’s all boards.
JOSH: There are two boards, but it’s just not the same position. You’re going straight down the hill and you know, you’re getting into your turns and bumps and doing some jumps and stuff, but you’re not doing the sideways sliding surf or skateboard or snowboard attitude.
01.22.00 NATHANIEL: Water skiing or regular skiing, I can’t keep my feet together (LAUGHS). I can’t. So a single board sport is the best.
01.22.09 VO: ALTHOUGH SKIS ARE TWO BOARDS, FOR MOST BOARD HEADS, THEY’RE NOT THE IDEAL WAY TO SHRED THE SNOW. BOARD HEADS WOULD USUALLY RATHER RIDE A SNOWBOARD.
NICOLAS: I love snowboarding. It’s so much fun. It give me that total feeling of being free and creative.
01.22.25 MARC: I feel really good when I go off big jumps.
ALNE-FLORA: You have to make love to mountain when you ride.
MATTHIAS: It’s a feeling, it’s just being alive.
SOT MAN: All the snowboarders, they’re hooligans. Totally irresponsible, no respect for the skiers (LAUGHS).
FREDRICK : You are free when you are in the air, like flying and yeah, it’s a good feeling. (?)
01.23.03 GIACOMO: It’s one of the best sensation in the whole world, for sure.
MAN: It’s not only speed, only the jumps, only the powder. It’s a mix of this thing that I like of snowboarding.
01.23.38 VO: YOUNG CHILDREN IN OUR INNER CITY GHETTOS NOT ONLY HAVE TO OVERCOME PHYSICAL BARRIERS, BUT MENTAL ONES THAT KEEP THEM FROM SEEING OPPORTUNITIES.
SOT BOY : You got any money?
01.23.50 VO: ONCE GIVEN A CHANCE TO RIDE, THEY FEEL EMPOWERED TO TRANSFORM THEIR OWN LIVES.
JILL : The Chill Foundation was started by Jake Burton and his wife, back in Burlington, Vermont.
01.24.00 DAVE : Chill is in 16 different cities across 4 countries and got rolling, really, about 1995 was the first official season. We’re in our 10th season here in Los Angeles.
JILL : My name is Jill, welcome to the Chill program. You guys are gonna go snowboarding at Mountain High. You guys excited?
(CROWD REACTION)
DAVE: We take kids that really have never had the opportunity to see the mountains.
JILL : They’ve never been out of their neighborhoods. A lot of them have never even seen snow before.
DAVE: We really teach them actually life skills, but we use the vehicle of board sports.
01.24.30 JILL : We use weekly themes: patience, persistence, integrity, courage, respect and responsibility and pride.
DAVE: Turning these kids on to a sport that they’ve never even known about- it’s a great feeling. By the second or third week, we really see this positive energy coming from them and it’s fantastic. We see the transition on the bus.
01.24.49 HEIDI : I love snowboarding, 'cos I’m really good at it.
CASSIE: I always wanted to snowboard since I ever heard of it.
ELROY: It’s just nice just to get out, you know, and to go Mountain High and snowboard and release a lot of stress.
01.25.02 JILL : Having a kid work on their toe-side turn and not get it week after week, but finally once it clicks and seeing the expression on their face. It’s priceless. It’s something that keeps me coming back to do my job.
DAVE: We get those little small victories. We get the smile on one kid’s face, one kid at a time. And seeing those small successes is the greatest feeling in the world. And it kind of tears me up sometimes.
(UNINTELLIGIBLE CONVERSATION)
01.25.51 DAVE: It is an amazing confidence-builder for them, and they feel like they can just conquer anything. When they look at this hill the first week, they’re like we can’t do that. And then by the third or fourth week, they’re coming down like from the highest point of the mountain, and it’s beyond words. I mean, they really take that confidence back down the hill and feel like, hey, I can do this. I can do positive things in my life.
DIJON: There’s actually an unexplainable feeling because it makes you feel like you’re freer than what you already are.
CASSIE : Chill has made my dream come true because I always wanted to snowboard. It really taught me that I could do a lot of things.
HERNIE : I want to thank Chill for giving me this opportunity to go snowboarding.
CHIDOZIE : Chill gave me the first taste of snow. I love Chill. Chill rocks.
01.26.36 DAVE: What Chill does is it, it expands snowboarding beyond just the core group of people that might already snowboard. If you multiply it out by the 16 cities that we operate Chill in, and you do the math, I mean, it’s a couple thousand kids a year that we’re turning on and becoming new board heads.
DANIEL : Chill was the best thing I ever did, man.
ABIGAIL : Chill was a great experience. I got to meet all new people and I even got to go to a trip to Vermont. And I got to snowboard with Jake Burton and his wife.
SAMUEL : After Chill, I think I can learn anything, because I can learn how to snowboard.
01.27.05 ARCHIE : I graduated today at Chill. Thanks to Jill and the instructor, Damon, it was great today.
REGGIE : I graduated, too. And Chill is very, very, very, very cool.
BOY : I graduated today, and now I’m a snowboarder.
CHIDOZIE : I’m a snowboarder now. Now I’m good.
KELLY : Chill rocks.
(CROWD REACTION)
SOT KID: This is out.
01.27.26 JOHN HUBER: You’re out there doing something that, that commercial people make pictures of. You know, when you’re trying to sell something they get a picture of a wind surfer. Well, why do they do that? Because people, people look at that saying wow. That’s something I’d love to do. Here this guy’s up in the air. He’s getting a little air, and he must be in heaven at that moment. Then, and you are.
BOY : One of the things that I really like about wind surfing is that there’s so many different tricks to learn, and so many different disciplines.
BOY : You have that whole light wind aspect of cruising along, having a family sport, having a social kind of thing.
01.28.01 BOY : You can do like freestyle, like –
BOY : You have long distance. You can get on that windsurfer and sail for miles.
NATHANIEL: You have no boat, no motor, just you, yourself, and one with the wind skimming across the water.
MARTI: I love windsurfing. It’s still my favorite passion. It’s absolutely awesome.
01.28.28 PETER DEKAY: Now tricks have developed where we’re starting to spin the board around in the air and slide backwards and almost like, I’ll hang a board and, and skateboarding or snowboarding. It’s about being smooth.
SOT MAN: It’s a high to be out on the water, powered by the wind.
SOT WOMAN : I cannot describe. It’s something fantastic.
OLIVER: I learned windsurfing in Iceland. I’d be looking outside and looking at the hole in the ice. Just waiting for it to be big enough to go windsurfing (LAUGHS).
01.29.31 WARREN: They tell you when you get into windsurfing, you know, it’s great because for a thousand bucks you can have all the equipment, and the wind is free.
MIKE: Right (LAUGHS)
WARREN: For the rest of your life. But they forget to tell you about the motor home and the, and the boat and the rescue vehicles and everything else, you know? Everything always gets more expensive. But the wind is still free (LAUGHS) you know, so (LAUGHS).
BRUNO: It’s impossible for me to live without windsurfing.
BRUCE : Oh, good fun.
JASON: Super nice.
01.30.00 ALEX MORALES: Living in Cuba is like you completely stop in 1950s. Where I grew up it’s really small town. And this does look a lot like that. For Cubans, the only way to see the future is getting out of the country, however you can. So I was planning to come here for a long time. I choose to use something that I knew how to use it, pretty good, which was a wind surf board. I could have gone on a raft, and maybe I should die in the middle of the ocean like another 7000 Cubans have already die in there.
01.30.35 But I came on a wind surf board, and I made it, so it’s, I’m pretty happy about that.
01.30.42 VO: SEEING A HOPLESS FUTURE IN CUBA MOTIVATED ALEX TO GET ON HIS BOARD AND WINDSURF ACROSS 120 MILES OF PERILESS OPEN OCEAN TO A NEW LIFE OF FREEDOM IN America.
01.30.54 ALEX: Me and two more guys, everybody has a one gallon of water, flashlight, compass. And it was really either coming here or die.
SOT MAN : You ran from Cuba all the way over here on a friggin’ (~over~)
ALEX: Yeah, on a wind surfboard.
SOT MAN : On a wind surfboard (LAUGHS). You a bad bitch, bro. You got me beat right there, 'cos I ain’t gonna do no ballsy shit like that. (LAUGHS) That’s some ballsy shit.
01.31.16 ALEX: Now living in the US is way better than the life that I used to have. It’s an amazing life that you can do it here in America. Opportunity here is incredible. Now I’m a general contractor. It was very constructive way of living. Now I create something out of nothing. I think that’s a very positive energy in life. I have a beautiful girlfriend, too. Life is good, sure it is. I think Miami is a beautiful place to live, for sure. We have two or three different spot that we can go sailing every afternoon.
01.31.49 I’m very happy. As a kid I started doing a skateboards, and then I started doing surfboard, and then I start windsurfing, which it was incredible because it’s like a kind of a combination of everything.
01.32.04 When you windsurf, you feel completely connected with your own true self. It’s nothing else around you. It’s only you and, and your spirit. I owe everything to windsurf. It changed my life, give me a new country, give me new ideas about life. It’s not only made me feel free, it just did give me my freedom.
SOT MAN :. What do you think (?) best board (?)
SOT WOMAN : You know it (LAUGHS)
SOT MAN :. Justify itself, in my opinion (?). In my opinion, I think wake board is very (?)
SOT MAN :. Why is that?
01.32.46 SOT MAN :. Oh, just because it’s so fun. It’s great to get out in the sun. Be active, you know? And it pulls the chicks.
SOT WOMAN : It’s about the people (LAUGHS).
01.32.56 VO: WHILE MOST BOARD RIDING DISCIPLINES ARE CONSIDERED INDIVIDUAL SPORTS, WAKE BOARDING BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER ON LAKES, RIVERS AND OCEANS ALL OVER THE WORLD.
YVETTE : It is my absolute favorite thing in the world. I love wake boarding. I couldn’t live without it. Trying to stall out my tricks as much as I can, try and tweak them and make them that little bit different and unique from the next person who’s riding.
01.33.26 GLENN : It’s the love of just getting out on your board, glossy water and just carving, I reckon. You’re like at one with your board. Just you and your board, other people in the boat. It’s just so much fun. I love it.
01.33.47 VO: WAKE BOARD HEAS HAVE CREATED NUMEROUS VARIATIONS OF THE SPORT. LIKE WAKE SKATING, WHERE LIKE SKATEBOARDS, THERE’S NO BINDING ON THE BOARD. WAKE SURFING, DURING WHICH RIDERS RELEASE THE TOW ROPE AND SURF THE WAKE. AND FOIL WAKE BOARDING, WHERE RIDERS LITERALLY FLOAT ABOVE THE WATER ON ULTRA- HIGH TECH, HYDROFOIL FINS.
01.34.19 TOP HAT: In surfing, you’re, you’re always traveling horizontally across the surface of the water, carving around, and that was super fun. Then windsurfing came along. And all the sudden, you could go a little bit vertical, and you’d get up and you’d carve and you’d get an air and come back in. And then when they invented this crazy kite surfing thing, now it’s three dimensional – you can go up, sideways, this way, that way, over there, everything.
SOT MAN: You can fly. And you fly it’s what we dream when we are very young or when you sleep at night, you know? It’s a, it’s a dream, so it’s a dream achievement.
01.35.04 RONAN: I think it’s the best sport in the world is the kite surf.
CORALIE : So high in the sky, you, you believe you are a bird.
KEVIN: One of the nicest sports I think in the world.
01.35.14 VO: MIX ASPECTS OF WINDSURFING AND WAKE BOARDING WITH KITE FLYING, AND WHAT YOU GET IS THE MOST SPECTACULAR NEW SPORT TO COME AROUND IN YEARS – KITE BOARDING HAS REALLY TAKEN OFF.
MARTI: The best thing with kiting is the air time and the view.
01.35.29 NEIL: Top-level riders are getting 50 feet high, and they’re pushing it and flying their kites in 360s underneath them, and they’ll all getting catapulted towards the water for their landing.
CORALIE: We can jump very, very high and stay a long time in the sky.
LAURENT: Just feels like you are puppet and you pull yourself the strings. You’re not jumping, you are flying.
01.36.13 CORALIE : I think we just saw the biggest jump we have ever seen.
ELIZABETH : It’s just such an awesome feeling. It’s oh. The power of the wind and the wave, it’s oh, it’s wonderful (LAUGHS).
01.36.29 MATT: Up and down in the water, going up and down (LAUGHS) in the air. I mean, it’s, you have 3-D. It’s really good.
SOT BOY : Cool. Super duper.
01.37.12 MAN: Kite boarders, the board heads that we are, we are just pushing this sport harder and harder and harder.
RENIER : I wake up every morning, look out the window, see there’s any wind. If there’s any wind, I go kiting. If there’s no wind, I just stay in bed. (LAUGHS)
01.37.38 VO: ON HALLOWEEN MORNING, 2003, THIRTEEN-YEAR OLD BETHANY HAMILTON WAS OUT IN THE WARM WATER OF KAUAI, DOING WHAT SHE LOVED MOST: ENJOYING THE WAVES AT ONE OF HER FAVORITE SPOTS - TUNNELS BEACH. THE ASPIRING PRO SURFER WAS RESTING BETWEEN SETS, AROUND 7:30 AM, WHEN THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENED.
01.38.03 A FIFTEEN-FOOT TIGER SHARK RIPPED HER ARM OFF BELOW THE SHOULDER. SHE LOST SIXTY PERCENT OF HER BLOOD. AND WHAT WAS LEFT OF HER ARM WAS BEYOND REPAIR. HER DREAMS SEEMED SHATTERED. BUT THE TRAUMA OF THE SHARK ATTACK WASN’T ENOUGH TO KEEP HER OUT OF THE WATER. JUST THREE WEEKS LATER, SHE WAS BACK ON HER BOARD.
01.38.34 NOW, HAVING TAUGHT HERSELF TO SURF WITH ONE ARM, BETHANY’S NOT ONLY STILL SHREDDING, SHE’S COMPETING AGAINST SOME OF THE WORLD’S BEST FEMALE SURFERS, AND IN HER FIRST MAJOR EVENT, SHE CAME IN THIRD.
01.38.47 BETHANY : A lot of people thought that since the shark attack I wouldn’t continue surfing, but I have. So it shows that I’m still a board head (LAUGHS).
01.39.08 VO: REAL BOARD HEADS STOP AT NOTHING. A SHARK ATTACK, ACCIDENT, TERMINAL DISEASE, BIRTH DEFECT DOESN’T GET IN THE WAY OF A BOARD HEAD FROM HEADING OUT AND RIDING THEIR BOARD.
01.39.34 CHRISTOPHE: I was born with only one arm and one hand. And I don’t want make no sport. I want make extreme sport. I want to participate extreme sport with only one hand. Everybody say it’s difficult for me to have with two hand, and you, you want make your sport with only one hand? Crazy man.
01.39.58 But it’s challenge for me. And I got people to make all the sport all you want, all is possible.
01.40.58 VO: BOARD HEADS ARE AN INVENTIVE AND DETERMINED TRIBE; PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS DON'T STOP TRUE BOARD HEADS FROM GETTING ON BOARDS AND FEELING FREE.
GUY: I broke my back riding my dirt bike.
GUY: Nineteen years old, car wreck. Passenger.
GUY: I got hurt snowboarding, actually. I got broke off back in 2000. So actually I have rods holding together my vertebras now.
GUY: Same here.
SOT GUY: Yeah.
01.42.18 SOT MAN: Broke my back riding my dirt bike. I used to wake board during summertime and snowboard during the wintertime. And after I got hurt, then I was sitting around at night, drawing, trying to figure out a way to get back on a board again.
01.43.02 EVAN: The first time you get hurt, you come back up to the mountain, and chances are you probably not gonna ride that first time. But you see all your bros grabbing their boards, coming out to ride, and you’re like incidentally like ok, I don’t care what it takes. Get me on that board, I’m gonna learn.
SOT MAN: Not too many guys ride the snowboarding. You (?) and that’s awesome, and you check it out.
MIKE: Everybody knows someone who, who still wants to ride.
FREDDIE: You’re riding with friends and family, that’s the best feeling, man.
SOT MAN: : Yeah.
FREDDIE: Spiritually, I just feel like, you know, I’m open and just want to live life to the fullest. What a frickin’ nice day.
DIFFERENT SOT MAN: It’s so sunny, so nice.
FREDDIE Everybody should be out snowboarding and skiing at night, you know, get out there and go for it.
01.43.42 SOT MAN: Like a couch potato? (LAUGHS)
FREDDIE: Yeah (LAUGHS)
SOT MAN: Yeah, we call it kind of, you know, the kids’ sled or (?)
DIFFERENT SOT MAN: I call mine the sittin’ jet.
01.43.57 DIFFERENT SOT MAN: I call mine the trip sled. Fun. (LAUGHS)
SOT MAN: I’m a board head, always have been, and I always will be (LAUGHS)
01.44.15 MARK: I’m a total board head. See, when I was 4 years old, I jumped on my brother’s (VerFlex?) skateboard and stole it for the day and skated around the apartment complex that we lived in. I was just out having fun. I was free, I was like a bird that just spread its wings for its first time.
01.44.38 Did I forget to mention I got no legs? I was born with a birth defect. I came out with two crooked legs, looked kind of like frog legs, because when my mom was pregnant with me, the doctor gave her an anti-nausea pill which was actually messing up a lot of babies. My mom didn't sue because she didn’t want to make me feel like I wasn’t good enough.
01.45.01 God made me how I am for a reason, and I’m just glad I can skate. And do my life the way I want to do it. Went to a normal school – people like to ask that for some reason. They think I should have been in a cage or something. Actually, when I was a kid growing up at the trailer park, Dallas, I had to take trucks and wheels off my skateboard and use crayons to wax up the bottom of it and scoot along the ice. Then when I was a teenager, my friends would pull me with a rope on the back of their cars.
01.45.29 Played in bands since I was 13, I was a cute little punk rocker. Started playing junior high football in Texas, and then graduated to go play high school football as a defensive end. I moved out to LA about 4 ½ years ago. And right now I’m just focusing on my hip-hop. I’ve got a debut album called Priceless coming out. Trying to make it in this whole entertainment business.
01.45.56 HALF PRICE RAP VO: This song right here goes out to all the skating punks in the world. With your black jeans and dirty hands, fucked-up shoes. California to New York, Texas, from Florida to Washington, Oregon, Burnside.
01.46.17 MARK: If I didn't have a skateboard in my life, I’d be pretty miserable. Skateboards are my legs, skateboard’s my life.
01.46.44 I don't feel like I'm disabled at all. To me, everyone’s just a little taller and I’ve got one more obstacle to overcome. I’m not handicapped. You know, I’m used to do with no legs. That’s kind of how I want the world to see me. You know, people see me and a lot of people’s first reaction is you’re kidding me. Like oh, the poor guy, he doesn’t have legs.
01.47.29 But little do they know my story. You can’t let the little things in life kill you and bring you down, because that’s when you get mentally handicapped. Four wheels clacking in the cement is like the best music in the world to me. 'Cos it sounds like freedom. Click-clack, click-clack, click-clack. If I can inspire people with disabilities to get up and do something with themselves, that’s what I’m here for.
01.48.17 VO: THE GOLBAL TRIBE OF BOARD RIDERS UNITES ALL LEVELS OF SOCIETY. ANYWHERE YOU GO, BOARD HEADS ARE GAINING SELF-CONFIDENCE, CONNECTING WITH OTHERS, AND CONTRIBUTING TO THE AMAZING WORLD WE LIVE IN.
01.48.30 THERE’S NO END TO THE INSPIRATION AND PASSION FOR LIFE YOU CAN GET BY SHARING THE STOKE OF BOARD RIDING.
01.49.31 NO MATTER WHERE YOU COME FROM, OR HOW YOU START, WE’RE ALL JUST BOARD HEADS AT HEART.
SOT MAN: If you’re on a board, you’re never bored.
01.50.08 SOT MAN: A board head is somebody that likes to have a board underneath their feet in most of the sports that they do.
SOT MAN: Well, we’re probably the exact opposite of gear heads.
SOT MAN: Being a globe-trotting surfer chasing waves around the world makes me a board head, I’m a board head.
SOT WOMAN : Board head in Italia is (speaks Italian). (LAUGHS)
01.50.27 SOT MAN: (?) a board head is (?)
SOT MAN: Just for just a couple of board heads.
SOT MAN: We are board head.
SOT WOMAN : Yes. (LAUGHS)
SOT MAN: A typical board head.
01.50.34 SOT MAN: I’m a board head for sure.
SOT MAN: I am not zee board heads, but I am one of zee board heads.
SOT MAN: Yeah, I think maybe I’m a board head.
SOT MAN: Yeah, I’m officially a board head.
SOT MAN: I was born a board head. I think I’ve always been a board head.
SOT MAN: I’m a board head.
SOT MAN: I am a board head.
SOT MAN: I’m serious board head, an old board head.
SOT MAN: Just a board in my head.
SOT MAN: I would say I’m definitely a board head.
01.50.51 SOT GIRL: I’m a board head.
SOT MAN: I’m a board head, too.
SOT MAN: I’m a total board head.
SOT MAN: Proud to be a board head.
SOT WOMAN : I’m a board head.
SOT MAN: I’m a board head (LAUGHS) I belong (?)
SOT MAN: Definitely a board head, there’s no question about that.
SOT WOMAN : My husband’s 75. I’m gonna be 69. We’re board heads. And we’ll be board heads after we die.
01.51.57 END OF TAPE