1. Kelly Slater In Black and White

“it’s the morning… of… the final.”

This should have been in my first top five. Still the most influential movie ever, in terms of the the effect it had on performance surfing. When released in 1990 it was as if a hole had been ripped open in the fabric of space time somewhere over Lower Trestles and crystallised an evolved human whose secret knowledge we’re only beginning to understand today. Power, progression, style. Movie star good looks. Nothing had been seen like Slater before. Nobody’s yet proved he isn’t an advanced being two thirds of the way through a near-infinite span of possible timelines, slowly tinkering away at each moment like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day ‘til he reaches perfection. And even if he is, he’ll never improve on this movie.

Craziest thing about it? A large chunk of the current WSL top 32 weren’t even born when this came out. Yet da GOAT’s still there doin’ his damn thing.

(Also the production was brilliant. Why aren’t more surf movies scored to cheesy ‘90s rock orchestra?)

2. Litmus

The antithesis. The Yang. The dark side. Litmus came at a time when the world needed balance. The surf industry was undergoing a massive transformation and corporatisation, and surf movies themselves were fast paced, low production quality and ultimately disposable (sound familiar?). Litmus was slow. Moody. Independent. Beautifully shot. Andrew Kidman and Jon Frank’s vision was of a coterie of surfers who had shunned the mainstream for something deeper. Litmus illuminated a different path. Plus the surfing was insane. Derek Hynd drawing new lines and defying logic on a Skip Frye fish. Joel Fitzgerald trailblazing in cold, dark, heavy Ireland slabs. Curren being Curren.

And the Mark Sutherland (yes, the creator of Gonad Man) animated short is still as heavy to watch today as it was in 1995.

Go and seek this one out yourself, but be careful. It’s a gateway drug of the highest order.

3. Sik Joy

A lot of people would choose Green Iguana or Bunyip Dreaming or even Sons of Fun above this when looking at Jack McCoy’s Billabong classics. But I’m talking about MY greatest movies of the ‘90s. If you want to spend five years building up an Instagram following reposting niche surf nostalgia and then get approached by a rehashed iconic surf label to write about the minutiae of the culture, you go do it yourself. I hear Piping Hot’s hiring.

Besides, none of these productions should be looked at in isolation. McCoy was the master auteur of the early ‘90s pantheon, and his direction across the set accentuated the already incredible talents of the likes of Occy, Munga, Margo, Sunny et al with just the right amount of spice. I just chose Sik Joy because I got it for my ninth birthday and it still shines a faint glow of warmth in my otherwise dead, barren heart.

5. Hawaii 9-0 series

For seven brilliant years (Hawaii Nine-0 to Hawaii Nine-7) Aussie filmmaker Tom Bonython catalogued the best of each Hawaiian season. High octane surfing. In and of its time like a Luke Perry turtleneck sweater.

5. Search II

There’s nothing worse than calling anything Tom Curren does seminal. But his Bawa sessions on the Tommy Peterson Fireball from this movie were god damn motherfuckin’ seminal. Fishing on a 5’7 in triple overhead Sunset-esque bowls was like taking on the Daytona 500 with a Razor Scooter. You’ll be jacked finding an original version now to watch but here’s a reflection on it from Tom himself and legendary film maker Sonny Miller (RIP).