Sunrise & Shine: A couple of "Tin" anniversaries
Some big news over here.
Yesterday, My wife and I celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary. (woot woot, cue the church bells and victory parade)
I had been trying figure out something special to mark the occasion for a while, but life is busy, and in the end, there wasn't a ton of pomp and circumstance to cap off the decade of dedication.
We settled for a late-night pizza after the kids went to sleep (delivery, not DiGiornio) and binge-watched All the Light You Cannot See on Netflix
And honestly, for a lower-to-middle-aged couple with kids, that's about as wild as a spontaneous weekend trip to Ibiza.
We're wild like that.
For real though, I'm pretty proud of what we've built together in ten years, grateful for every second we get to spend in it, and stoked for what the next ten might have in store.
The guys over at the Florida Surf Film Festival should be proud of what they've built over the past decade too.
Kevin Miller (accountant if you didn't know) and John Brooks started the festival back in 2013 and just held their final 2023 gathering last weekend, capping of their own ten-year celebration of sharing surf films with the Florida surf community.
For ten years, they've been bringing the best surf films and filmmakers to Florida—and we're all better off for it.
These days, they're putting on three or four festivals a year and selling out 100- and 200-seat venues every night.
Community ✅
It's always funny to look back though.
When I look back on my wedding photos, I hardly remember the kid I was, and when Kevin and John look back to their first showing, I bet they get a chuckle.
It's amazing how much can change in just ten years.
In 2013:
Obama was just starting his second term
the iPhone 5 was on everyone's black Friday list
people still had DVD players
Blockbuster still had 300 stores but its parent company had just announced they were shutting them all down
Microsoft was just ousting hotmail for outlook as their free email service
and Mick Fanning had just won his third and final world title.
Also in 2013, I was marrying the woman of my dreams and Kevin Miller and John Brooks were saying "I do" to the idea of bringing the Florida surf community together for a film festival.
Not a bad year.
Now, we're both defying the odds, celebrating our "Tin" anniversaries.
So, in honor of our statistics-shattering accomplishments, I wanted to do a special issue of Sunrise and Shine, highlighting change through the lens of the Florida Surf Film Festival show lineup.
Here's a list of just one film from every year of the festival that you should go watch. Oh, how times change.
(note: not all of these are freemium movies. You might have to pay to rent or buy one, but we used to do that all the time at Blockbuster, remember?)
2013: Missing Taylor Steele and world champ Mick Fanning go looking for waves with other world elites.
2014: The Cradle of Storms This one from Chris Burkard might have put cold-water surfing on the mainstream map.
2015: Fish A doco about the board that makes everyone surf a little better.
2016: South to Sian Might be my favorite surf film ever. Harrison Roach and Zye Norris go on an Indo road trip with an old landie, a bunch of two strokes, and a bushel of boards from Deus.
2017: Pedro's Bay This was a tough year, a ton of good ones in the lineup, like Proximity, Under an Arctic Sky, Fish People, and the Church of the Open Sky, but Pedro's Bay is another favorite of mine. This fiction tale from the Vissla crew about a fantasy island with endless surfing bounty just never gets old.
2018: The Seawolf Cold-water surfing is getting hot, and director Ben Gulliver is all over it.
2019: Zone Frequency A different wavelength with Jack Coleman.
2020-2021: Girl's Can't Surf Steph Gilmore, Lisa Anderson, and Layne Beachley think otherwise. Available on prime I think.
2022: Facing Monsters You just have to hear slab-hunter Kerby Brown's story. There's way more than surf in this one. Also on Prime I think.
2023: Stoker Machine Such a fun short from Derieus Legg following clues to find stoke on a-decades old beater board. Best part is if you email Derieus at the link, and tell him what gets you stoked, he send you a copy of the film. What a dude.
"If anyone has any objections, speak now or forever hold your peace."
What's your favorite surf film of the past decade? Let me know.
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