Joe Surf: A big break with ‘Biggest Board’

Went to the premiere of the documentary “The Biggest Board: Surf City USA’s Epic Ride” last Thursday at the Kimpton Shorebreak Hotel and enjoyed the 15-minute film so much that when it ended I was disappointed it wasn’t longer.

The film, which will now ride the international film festival circuit, was made by cinematographer Nick Bowser, a Costa Mesa native who grew up surfing in Newport and now lives in New York City.

Initially, Bowser figured he was going to be a contributor to the film, but it worked out to be his and his alone.

The film begins with the building of the board in Bristol, R.I., by mouldCAM, a company known more for its boat building. John Barnitt, president of mouldCAM, and Bob Steel, the project manager, made the trip from Rhode Island and attended the premiere.

The film then moves west and details the assembly and completion of the board — the shaping, glassing and finishing touches. And finally, the film moves to the big day on June 20 last year, when 66 lucky surfers rode the board for 12 seconds, helping set two Guinness world records — one for the biggest board (42 feet long, 1,300 pounds) and one for most surfers riding at once.

The idea came from President Kelly Miller and his team at Visit Huntington Beach.

“They came to me and asked, ‘Are you free tomorrow to go to Rhode Island and start filming?’” Bowser said. “And, uh, I was.”

The next day he drove up to Rhode Island, still unclear on what his role in the film would be.

“It kind of felt like, maybe they needed some footage captured on the East Coast, I’m here and obviously they’ve got a crew in California that’s going to be finishing up the film,” he said. “So I was excited about it, but I really didn’t know what it was going to turn into. They ended up having me do the entire film, which was incredible. It was a great experience.”

The film was a change of pace for Bowser, whose past clients include Save the Children, PwC, Target, NatGeo, TUMI, Siemens, AoL, DeVry, BP, Coach, IBM, U.S. Army and VEVO.

“I do a lot of commercial work, documentary-style,” Bowser said. “The clients I work with, it’s not … it’s commercials. I put myself into it, but in a different kind of way. I don’t get to sit with people for a really long time and get to know them. But through this process, I really got to know a lot of great people that were involved in building this board.

“It wasn’t my passion project, but it became my passion project. It’s been a real honor to make this film and be a part of this, this Guinness world record. It’s crazy.”

Bowser is hooked. He said he has another surf film in the works.

“All my work is very different in context, but in theory, they’re mostly about people and small moments in their lives that mean something,” he said.

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Grand theft auto averted

It seems like the keyless entry for newer model cars was made for surfers. Lock your keys in the car while you surf; just be sure you remember your key code to get into your car when you’re out of the water.

Some of us, though, are still old school. Hide the key in the wheel well, or inside the bumper or maybe in the rim of one of the tires. Problem is, it’s not exactly a secret hiding place if everybody does it.

Recently, a couple of young Santa Barbara women were surfing in Ventura at Surfers’ Point when one of them noticed somebody was inside her car going through her stuff. She had left her key inside the gas cap door.

“I had noticed there was a guy in my car, and I kind of had to do a double take because I couldn’t believe there was actually a burglar in my car,” Maliny Soukkhasem told KEYT-TV in Ventura.

Soukkhasem yelled to her friend, Jolie Bernal, and both women started paddling in as fast as they could.

“Thankfully, I caught a wave in, and so I got in pretty quickly,” Bernal said. “I pulled him by the collar and pulled him out and punched him and started yelling at him. And then I don’t really know what happened, but somehow we got him out of the car and on the ground.”

The police arrived in time to arrest the 59-year-old man for the attempted burglary.

“Oh my gosh, she’s my hero!” Soukkhasem said of Bernal.

JOE HAAKENSON is a Huntington Beach-based sports writer and editor. He may be reached at joe@juvecreative.com.