Thursday, June 12, 2003
Yet another good Santa Barbara surf evening last night at the Lobero Theatre. First was the Donovan Frankenreiter band, a 4 piece band featuring Donovan on guitar, Dean on drums, David on percussion, and someone on bass. If you go to the high bandwidth version of Donavon's site, you can stream 3 of the band's songs. You can also buy their CD online here. A few of their songs were jewels, while a few still needed some work, but it's a beautiful thing to see 4 folks passionate about their performance in front of a small Santa Barbara crowd.
The movie, Drive Thru Japan, was an absolute riot. Although some of the Nihon-centric humor might be a bit out there for the average surfer, I believe it stands on it's own as a classically put together flick mixing surfing in one of Earth's most culturally interesting places. Featuring Donavon, Machado, Barney and Benji, the highlights were an overhead day on an outer island, and a session that featured Donavon surfing a blow up surfboard into backwash. Having Barney around for the trip only accelerated the hijinks, and Machado and Benji were no strangers to comedy. These guys are some amazing surfers, turning some "mushy-mushy" conditions that most would flounder in, into smackable, floating sections, and the occasional aerial. Drive Thru Japan featured a pretty kicking soundtrack with Paul Oakenfold, St. Germain, and "Sushi Bar", as well as a Karaoke inspired song about Barney and Machado spooning. Not a jaw dropping film featuring sick surfing, but a film that will bust your gut while displaying some good old fashioned surfing for the fun of it.
link to this
Santa Barbara Surfing. Created by Tim Maddux. Continued by Pope.
