Carving Nostalgia

This weekend I had the pleasure of watching Bella Vita, Jason Baffa's latest surf film.  I had been looking forward to this for quite some time. Having treated myself to a copy of the DVD from Mollusk while in San Francisco, it received its debut in our house on Saturday evening. I had anticipated that it would be a great film, based upon Single Fin Yellow and my all time favorite, One California Day.  I wasn't disappointed, not at all. The film is made beautifully. For a start it is shot entirely in 35mm, giving it a really lovely look and feel, capturing the colours of the Mediterranean and the Tuscany countryside in their full vibrance. The narrative is absolutely lovely, providing an insightful look at so much, surfing related as well as Italian customs and culture. Put simply, the film has got soul. As for the surfing, well that is everything you would want it to be, plenty of great footage of CDM, styling in the Italian wave...

While on the subject of California, I thought I would say a few words about one of the finest surf films there ever was, One California Day . This film sums up the California surfing experience for me perfectly. In fact when ever I am in need of some Cali sunshine, it goes on and never fails to lift my mood by taking me to the Golden State, by way of the DVD player. Having got the goose bumps when I saw the trailer for the first time, I got to see the full film early in 2008, when K had managed to get me a copy for Christmas, (I am fairly confident in saying that I had the first copy in the UK, coming straight from Jason Baffa).  This was a defining moment in my surfing life.  For here was a film that wasn't backed by one of the corporate surf companies, it didn't feature the main-stream pros of the time, no competitions, no groms and none of the ego driven BS that is so often found in surf movies.  No, it was pure California, fe...