Customer Reviews

Surfwise: The Amazing True Odyssey of the Paskowitz Family

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Surfwise" is another fascinating feature-length documentary by filmmaker Doug Pray, who has made several amusing, enlightening films on pop-culture sub-groups such as the Seattle grunge scene ("Hype") and hip-hop DJ turntabulists ("Scratch").

In this new film he paints a one-third celebratory, two-thirds tragic portrait of the Paskowitz family, a once-legendary surfing clan whose patriarch, Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz dropped out of mainstream society in the late 1950s, to follow a near-absolute rejection of modern materialism. Paskowitz and his wife traveled anywhere on a whim for over a decade, surfing up and down the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of North America, surfing, having lots of sex and making lots of babies. In all, the Paskowitzes had nine children, eight boys and one girl, and raised them outside the confines of "straight" life. Instead of going to school, the children surfed, and were reared according to their father's bold, yet ill-defined personal ethic.

Although Doc's decision to drop out preceded the hippie movement by almost a decade, his family's journey intersected with the 1960s hippie-era rejection of cultural norms, and with the "Me Generation" self-absorption of the '70s. But while these larger cultural shifts were widespread, the choices of the Paskowitz family were much more far-reaching and severe than most of the counterculture types of the time. With no fixed income and a total abandonment of the American work ethic, the Paskowitzes were both legendary and tragic. As the children came of age, the strains of traveling together in a small camper intensified, and the family fragmented and fell apart.

Just how much they fell apart is revealed in the film's second half, which skillfully explores the dark side of Doc's impulsive and absolutist philosophical rejectionism. Each of the (now grown-up) children reflect on the internal pressures (and joys) of their extreme lifestyle, and how completely unprepared it left them to make their own entry into adult life. Although the Paskowitzes dominated surf competitions in the early 1970s -- and got considerable media attention and corporate sponsorship -- because they were so naive about money matters, none of them held onto the money or the opportunities they made, and their professional careers largely fizzled out. Many of the children rightfully express their anger towards their parents for leaving them stranded without education or options, and the film is a fascinating reflection on the potential hazards of extreme alternative lifestyles. Although Doc Paskowitz clearly shoulders much of the blame, he remains a roguish and compelling figure. Many of his critiques of modern society are pointed and incisive, and his candid assessments of consumerism, wage slavery and sexual repression are attractive due to his bluntness and accuracy. It is a complex portrait, and doesn't offer easy answers to the viewer, but rather many disturbing points to ponder. Definitely worth checking out. (DJ Joe Sixpack, Slipcue Film Reviews)

Anyone looking for a glorious ode to the surfing life should pause a moment before viewing this terrific documentary film about life in the Paskowitz family. Although surfing was the stated main focus of this highly unconventional family's life, it's not the center of the story that's revealed in the film. Kudos to the filmmakers, who peel back the layers of the story gradually until you gather the sense of the awfulness at the center. We see a life that on the face of it might appear appealing -- who hasn't at some time or other wished for a more 'authentic' life? What if we could slip the rules of the prevailing society? What if we weren't forced to be educated in institutional settings? This film and all the Paskowitz children, who thankfully are brave enough to speak of what they endured at the whims of two of the most narcissistic parents you'll ever meet, will give some answers to those questions. Abundant with archival footage that makes the past come alive, the film also gives us interviews with everyone in the family that will resonate with you for a long time after you view it. You may well be left with lots of questions after it's over, but one is very happy to see that the kids seem to have made good lives for themselves despite the bad models that were their parents. In any case, this is a film for anyone who loves good documentary filmmaking -- you don't have to know anything about surfing to appreciate this one.

SURFWISE is a fascinating documentary chronicling the unconventional lifestyle of "Doc" Poskowitz and his family. The latter includes spouse and some nine kids, who live a bohemian, itinerant, surf-centric lifestyle in a 24-foot camper van. No school for these kids! Nevertheless, they lived a somewhat regimented existence, one envied by kids who were more wealthy in material things.

All of the kids grew up with various "baggage" due to the unorthodox upbringing, and the father is a rather magnetic, charismatic character.

The cinematography here is great - you feel you are out in the ocean, in the surf, and can see how this aspect of nature would be seductive. SURFWISE raises questions about the tradeoffs involved in turning your back on the conventional path that society beckons you to follow - the good and bad features, the frayed nature of family ties, the family love that can (at least temporarily) transcend differences and childhood trauma.

Whether you endorse or abhor the lifestyle depicted in this documentary, SURFWISE is an excellent movie!

"Surfwise" chronicles the story of the "first family of surfing": Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, his wife Juliette, and the 9 children whom they raised in a 24-foot camper, traveling up and down the west coast of the United States and Mexico, following the waves and Dorian's whims for more than 2 decades. Dorian Paskowitz was a respected public health doctor and president of the American Medical Association in Hawaii, before he left it all behind in 1956 to live a peripatetic life of poverty that revolved around surfing. He isolated his family from the outside world, raised his children in his strict lifestyle regimen, and taught them to surf. Many became accomplished competitive surfers, and in 1974 the family opened the Paskowitz Surf Camp in Mission Beach, CA.

Dorian Paskowitz was 84 years old when "Surfwise" was made and still very much a passionate and controlling man, and still surfing. His children are all grown and living very different lifestyles from the one in which they were raised. Director Doug Pray tries to construct a picture of what it was like to be a Paskowitz, living the ideals of a single-minded patriarch in a crowded camper, and what its lasting effects were through archival home movies and interviews with Dorian and Juliette Paskowitz and all 9 of their children -7 boys and 1 girl- and Dorian's siblings. We also get an impression of the family's iconic stature and influence on surfing culture through interviews with "The Surfer's Journal" founder Steve Pezman and some big names in competitive surfing.

The Paskowitz children talk about the benefits and disappointments of their itinerant, impoverished lifestyle, isolated from most of American culture. They don't all have the same attitude toward it, in retrospect, some resenting that their isolation and lack of education left them unprepared for adult life. I would have thought children in such a bohemian environment would be very independent, but their father's controlling nature apparently dictated otherwise. "Surfwise" is an interesting account for fans of surfing culture, but this is, more than anything, the story of a family. It's an examination of the value of nonconformity and convention, selfishness and freedom, in the way families relate to one another and the ways in which upbringing may or may not influence the choices people make.

The DVD (Magnolia 2008): There are 4 featurettes and a feature commentary. In "Doc on Health" (5 min), Dorian Paskowitz explains his ideas on health, about which he has written a book. "A Walk on Water: Surfer's Healing" (3 ½ min) is about the surfing program for autistic children founded by Izzy Paskowitz and wife Danielle. "Dave Homcy: Surfing Cinematographer" (3 1/2 min) is footage of surfers set to music. "Outtakes and Breaks" (12 min) are interviews not in the film, including some funny ones. The feature commentary is by director Doug Pray, producer Matt Weaver, and Salvador Paskowitz. They discuss the genesis of the project, the archival footage, Dorian and his philosophy, the family dynamic, and more. Subtitles for the film are available in Spanish.

I picked up this DVD thinking that it was going to be a lighthearted look at a family that I knew 'of' from the time I was a youngster. I grew up surfing in San Diego, and used to see the ads for the Paskowitz Surf Camp in the back of just about every surf magazine I ever purchased. I always wanted to attend, but ended up buying a board and teaching myself instead.

What I found was the story of a very strange family. Sometimes their life looks so wonderful it makes me want to get a camper and take my kids away from the materialism and lunacy we experience in modern life. Other times are dark, contradictory and a bit disturbing.

What I took away from this amazing dissection of a unique family was to affirm my feeling that 'everything' in moderation is the way to live. I also will be more careful about avoiding attempts to control people in my life.

Highly recommended.

Dr. Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz is eighty-five when we meet him in this documentary about his remarkable family. After medical training at Stanford, a respectable career as a physician, two failed marriages, and then a sexcapade around the world, "Doc" married his third wife Juliette. They decided on a carefree life of radical non-conformity centered around surfing. For the next twenty-five years they raised their nine kids (eight boys, one girl) in three different 24' RV campers. Daily surfing and strict diets were compulsory, formal schooling of any kind was prohibited, and money was scarce. Their whimsical lives as vagabonds sounds fun, but "Doc's" uncompromising idealism and tyrannical ways amounted to physical and emotional abuse according to interviews with his adult kids. After ten years of bitter acrimony as the adult kids tried to make their way in the real world with absolutely no preparation for it, the family meets for an emotional reunion in the last part of the film. Even a badly broken family is better than no family, weeps Juliette at the reunion, but this film makes you wonder. Jonathan Paskowitz helped to produce the film.

Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz has been riding the waves for nigh unto three-quarters of a century now. In 1956, at the age of 45, he abandoned a career as a doctor to pursue a life dedicated almost exclusively to surfing and raising a family - and he hasn't looked back since. In fact, Doc and his family have achieved a notoriety of sorts (in surfing circles, at least) for their nonconformist, iconoclastic lifestyle, which involved all eleven of them living together in a cramped 24-foot camper trailer, avoiding any kind of formal schooling, and flitting from one beach to another in search of the perfect wave. Now, in his mid 80s, Doc, along with his wife, Juliette, and their nine kids - eight of whom are named after Biblical figures - discuss their lives and upbringings in the fascinating documentary "Surfwise" by director Doug Pray. Life literally has been a beach for these people.

The thing that strikes us most about Doc is that he is no self-conscious radical trying to make an ideological point with his life; rather, he's a fairly average guy who's honest enough to admit that he never much cared for school or the money-grubbing rat race of the corporate or business world and that he is simply much healthier and happier when in the water. And it is these values that he has chosen to instill in his children, along with a devotion to their Jewish heritage and a healthy attitude towards sex (apparently, he and his wife were less than shy about showing their affection for one another in front of the children, much to the kids` consternation at times).

But there has been a definite downside to this nonconformity as well, and the movie does not shy away from depicting it - whether it be in Doc's dictatorial, even violent, methods of maintaining his authority over the kids or in the children's understandable desire to break free of their upbringing to lead a lifestyle more in accord with social norms. And, of course, there's the resentment they've come to harbor in their later years towards a father who, by willfully choosing to separate them from the outside world, rendered them ill-equipped to function in that world once they became adults (one son laments that he could never attend medical school because he was too far behind all the other applicants in basic knowledge to successfully compete with them). The movie raises the thorny issue of just how much right a parent has to deny his children the privileges and benefits that come from being socialized into the society around them. Was Doc practicing a form of child abuse - or simple providing his kids with a rare and perhaps enviable opportunity to live life as one long summer camp? (The family does actually run a camp of sorts dedicated to teaching the fine art of surfing to crowds of eager youngsters). Even the kids themselves can't agree on the answer to that question, with some feeling the need to defend their dad and the way in which he raised them and others choosing to lash out at and lambaste him for the same reason. Yet, the children could hardly be classified as dysfunctional adults, with each of them pursuing respectable careers and raising apparently stable and healthy families. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the documentary is that it leaves it up to the viewer to formulate his own assessment of Doc. We're never pushed to take sides in the conflict.

Through Doc's story, "Surfwise" provides a fascinating look at what it means to be a family, what it means to be a parent, and why it's important to find a balance between the overindulgences of the modern world and the deprivations of a simple life, not completely ignoring one at the expense of the other. The movie ends on an upbeat note with a long overdue reunion where old wounds are healed and old grudges put aside - all in the name of Family. Which is, I suppose, as it should be.

Surfwise is a one-of-a-kind documentary. In 1956, Dorian Paskowitz, a Stanford-educated physician with a successful medical practice decided to "drop out" to become a vagabond and a full-time surfer. Through the years, he married and fathered nine children, but continued his search for the perfect wave. Surfwise tells the Paskowitz family's story.

The interesting thing about this documentary is that Dorian forces the rest of us to confront life's biggest question - why aren't we doing what we'd like to be doing? Dorian shows that we could break free from our humdrum routines if only we had the courage. I'm not a surfer, but Surfwise certainly made me think.

But Dorian also shows why most of us choose conventional lives. Dorian refused to give in to society, not one inch. He kept his children out of school and ruled the family as a dictator. Dorian exploded when his eldest child left home - at age 23. Apparently, Dorian thought that his children should spend their lives chasing his vision.

When the kids grew up, they had no skills to offer employers. One of the film's heartbreaking moments occurs when one of the Paskowitz sons reveals that he always wanted to be a physician like his dad; the lack of an education made his dream impossible. The kids have varied feelings about their father, but many are bitter that Dorian's narcissism limited their opportunities.

While I really enjoyed this film, one thing that I did not like was the clumsy attempt to fashion an ending. I don't want to spoil the movie, but the ending seems contrived.

How far would you go to chase your dream? If you are at all philosophical, you will enjoy Surfwise because it raises these sorts of questions. But be aware that the film offers the viewer few easy answers. We all have to find those for ourselves.

How charisma can work for people and against people. And how radical thinking can become a burden. It started of as a heavenly thought. But sometimes your speed in life outmatches other people, mostly the one you love most yourself. A beautiful movie.

I loved this movie. My boyfriend, who is not a surfer and could care less about the ocean, LOVED this movie. And to top it off, I didn't realize that this family created the Surfer's Healing Program for children with Autism! Google the name and support the program, it's incredible!