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“…because through surfing, when your heart is open and receptive to an intimacy with the sea, a wealth of gifts can be discovered”
Nathan Oldfield

It’s taken me a while to get around to this. Why? Maybe because it resonates so deeply within me that I do not want to quantify it. You see this film is different than some of its contemporaries, which it will undoubtedly be measured against. This film, Seaworthy, lacks pretension and irony.  In fact, if anything it’s nothing but a celebration of the joy of riding swells upon the ocean. And the fact that it lacks commercial attachments is not some sort of contrived hook to flaunt or appear counter-cultural. The film was made by a primary school teacher – a man who is a husband and father and who has grieved and loved and shared it with those who would listen and purely for the love of it.

Sound a bit dramatic? Perhaps. Perhaps I am nostalgic or sometimes easily moved. But in a world where the things we own are often more important than our experiences and our relationships to each other or to our habitat, an expression like Seaworthy reminds me that my life is really how I live it.  A persons life is defined by how they’ve spent their time. The people in Seaworthy are surfers who seek to explore their own potential through exposing themselves to the elements and using whatever craft they please, free from convention and peer pressure.

So I will abstain from describing scenes or the surfing within because they are secondary. If you watch Seaworthy and enjoy it then Nathan has achieved an amazing feat. If you are left without a desire to be someone else but rather a need to go out in your own backyard and paddle and splash around then Seaworthy has become a mirror, a reflection of a life pursuit of surfing, and simplicity and sensory perception and wonder. Thanks Nathan for the effort and for this cultural artifact which will serve as a reminder of what the essence of surfing can be.

For more on Nathan Oldfield please visit his site at www.freefilms.com.au

You can also read an interview we did with Nathan Oldfield last year.

Ask for Seaworthy at your favorite local shop or you can download it from TheSurfNetwork.com