Bombora poster
Screen Australia chose the Bondi Icebergs for its gala launch of Bombora, a two-part TV series that aims to tell the definitive history of surfing in Australia.
As the last rays of the setting sun illuminated the offshore but tiny waves of south Bondi, Producer and Director Paul Clarke invited Bob McTavish, one of the series’ star interviewees to preface the showing with a few remarks.
Your correspondent whipped out his trusty phone cam and captured the inimitable Mr McTavish’s amusing musings on surf addiction (see below).
Then it was on with the first episode. We see some very cool early footage of Australian beach culture and early surfin’ (check out the water shots from Waikiki c. 1920), but this effort is much more than a worthy recitation of surf history. I think it really gives the viewer a persuasive picture of how surfing naturally took root in a place where beach culture was rapidly coming into being – namely the east coast of Australia.
The deft intercutting of interviews, the judicious blending of archival footage and not over the top re-enactment along with Jack Thompson’s dulcet narration, come together in what strikes me as a well edited and pacey history. Film of course is the most collaborative of all the arts, so it’s generally pretty pointless to single out any one person’s contribution. That said, I think the writers (Paul Clarke, Nick Carroll and Greg Appel) deserve a significant share of the credit for giving the production such a robust and coherent structure.
This is a fine piece of work and I’m looking forward to seeing it again on Thursday the 26th of March at 830 pm on ABC1.
http://www.realsurf.tv/flvVids/bomboraIntro.flv