The writer, editor, and director of this amusing and enlightening documentary on surfing is Dana Brown, the son of Bruce Brown, whose Endless Summer is a classic surfer movie. He takes us on a quest to find out what compels wave-riders today to treat this sport and recreation with such passion and joy. In other words, what is "the stoke" that keeps them doing what they do? Brown covers an amazing array of men, women, and children in his search for answers.
There is a surfing zealot who hasn't missed a day in the water for over 27 years. Another young man still rides his board after having a crippling accident. Brown checks out surfers who get their thrills riding the waves in the wake of supertankers in the Gulf of Mexico and the Malloy Brothers who do their thing in Ireland and have managed to bring Protestant and Catholic kids together as they learn to surf. In Tahiti, some of the best women surfers in the world take their chances against a wave with teeth while in Hawaii, young and old alike try to ride through the Pipeline on Oahu without a wipeout. Some ardent surfers even gather in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, to ride the waves of Lake Michigan. But the craziest of all are a heavy-water crew that head out 100 miles from the coast of California to ride 60-foot-plus waves.
Cinematographer John-Paul Beeghy delivers some stunning surfing footage in Step Into Liquid. This documentary hurrahs the playful dimension of this sport around the world.
The DVD extras, predictably, are all about surfing: surf lessons, the making of a surfboard, surfing etiquette, surf terms, creating your own custom surfboard, plus a complete version of the video game "Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer." There is also a 3D flythrough of the movie's locations.
