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Surfwise
Franki Starr
This documentary was astounding. It was about this man Dorian Paskowitz and after two failed marriages but a successful medial practice started to realize that money was the root of all evil. It showed how he was a great surfer and when he would feel like he could just die from life, he would go into the ocean and come out rejuvenated, the water was very important to him. So he decided to drop everything, materialistic and medical practice. When he meets his third wife Juliette they started there journey in a studibaker and move through used 24 ft campers as their family grows to 9, through out the 60s and 70s.
As each of the members of the family members are being interviewed you learn of the great experiences their kids had traveling the US and Mexico, but without schooling. Dorian said that there is a difference between education and knowledge. You could graduate like he did from Stanford but still not have any knowledge. His kids always won surf competitions and there baths were the ocean. I couldn’t help but want to be part of this family, but that’s were David said it had to be all or nothing, this lifestyle wasn’t part time.
These kids really held some resentment for their father now being in the real world. They weren’t prepared. They said he had a temper but there was something that I will take with me from Dorian when he says that our culture is so oppressive that sex is taboo that leads to sexual frustration when can cause wars. He also says that it’s not a great person on how well you control your kids its how well you can control yourself. He really wanted to be with his family, that meant more to him then anything else he said without family and health you are nothing.
What inspired me was how I can relate to Dorian, I too am a lifeguard, and there is something about the water that cleanses your soul. I wanted to be like him and take off, and live at the beach, live healthily and quite smoking cigarettes. There is something that I have really thought about when I have kids. How I can raise them in the best environment, with loving and nurturing parents? In a way that Dorian did but not so extreme, kids have to have an education. There were parts were Dorians children looked back fondly and said they didn’t have to grow up by 16 like most kids.
What was frustrating was to hear how much his kids are struggling still to cope with the real world. They held resentment because Dorian never taught them the evils of the world and how they can get screwed by other people. Not having any schooling has really affected them as adults today. I don’t understand they did read books but couldn’t they have been home schooled. It was heartbreaking to see one of kids say he wanted to be a doctor every since he was little and couldn’t because it would take 10 years to get to a normal level to start to take classes to be a doctor. But now he is stuck cooking at a restaurant. It was hard to hear one of them say that you have to have money, it is evil but we need it to survive it has control over everything.
It was sad to hear that they haven’t talked in 7 years because of tensions between the brothers and Dorian. They had hated him that much and also the oldest brother David because he was like the captain always against his brothers and sister. That was something he really regretted. My self having 2 brothers and 1 sister we were all pretty close but it did seem if we were going to get called out to our parents, it would be from my oldest brother. I can also relate with the kids because my father was pretty strict and overbearing.
The concept of the film was a documentary style. With the montages of live interviews and old videos and pictures you get a see inside the Paskowitz. It showed the rise and fall of a pretty famous surf family that is still recovering. It is revealing up to the present about this close bohemian family and lifestyle. New York Times said it had a narrative arc from happy to sad to happy. The ending did give it hope but I think that this was a good place for us to leave this family you become so attached to. It was more about the dynamics and relationships of Dorian’s family then it was about surfing. Surfing is what leads him to go off the grid and in the end surfing can bring this family back together.
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