By: Dick Hoole, Jack McCoy, David Lourie.
Starring: MR, Wayne Lynch, Rabbit, Gerry Lopez, Shaun Tomson, Thornton Fallander, Peter McCabe, Tom Carroll.
Music: The Doors, Split Enz, Men At Work, Australian Crawl, Little River Band.
Length: 71 mins
Straight outta 1981. One can’t help but draw the following conclusions: performance surfing and boards have got immeasurably better, while music… hasn’t. Re-released on DVD also featuring Kong’s Island as a bonus, Stormriders takes us around the early 80’s known surfing planet’s significant surfer/surf spot match-ups, many themselves representing something of a golden age. Thornton Fallander and Joe Engel at Nias, MR at home in Newcastle, Bugs on the Goldie, Simon Anderson at Narrabbean and huge Bells, Gerry Lopez at G-Land, Shaun Tomson at J-Bay and Wayne Lynch and Maurice Cole deep in Australia’s outback, all presented in a travel documentary style that has been more or less mimicked ever since. As well as capturing all the legends in their short shorted prime during a period of rapid change (featuring then contemporary surfing on single fins, twinnies and thrusters) Stormriders also gives us a glimpse into the evolution of pro surfing, as contest surfers and pro free surfers began to pursue their different paths in earnest. An absolute classic.