Some old Samohi surfers star in a newly completed motion picture that has been in the making for over 40 years, and will have its premiere later this month in Santa Monica.
Filmmaker and veteran surfer Harrison Hine will fly in from Tequesta, Florida to screen his movie, Offshore 1965, at a fundraiser for the Samohi Surf Team on Friday, August 26, at 7:30 p.m. at Barnum Hall on the high school campus.
According to Hine, “It has been a lot of fun putting the movie together after 40-plus years. Some of the shots date back to 1959 when I talked my mom into driving me up to Malibu Surfrider beach one afternoon in September when there was a good swell running.
“Many Samohi surfing alumni have helped with this project. You can imagine that after 45 years some of my recollections are a little dim. With the help of these guys we have been able to identify about 95 percent of the surfers in the movie.
“With the exception of the opening song, the sound track is a reflection of what we called surf music in the early 1960s. No, there are no Beach Boys or Jan & Dean songs on the soundtrack.
“40 years ago we had the Hoshi Reef Surf Team, Topanga Bombers and the Malibu Surfing Association…The only direct competition was between the Hoshi and Topanga teams resulting in a disputed win by Hoshi. Hoshi was our acronym for the second jetty just north of the Santa Monica Canyon.”
Some of the many old Samohi surfers planning to attend the fundraiser range back to the late 1940s.The purpose of the fundraiser, in Hine’s words, “is to put the Samohi surf team on solid financial footing so they can become a regular inter-scholastic sport instead of just a surf club.”
