SURFING buffs are in for a treat this summer with the Australian Surf Movie Festival set to return.
Event director Tim Bonython has organised 30 screenings across Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland and NSW throughout December and January.
It will hit Newcastle Panthers on January 13.
The festival will include the Australian premiere of a new surfing documentary, Horrorscopes - The Cape of Storms , produced by Justin McMillan and Chris Nelius .
The film gives audiences a perspective into the life of a big- wave surfer and follows a complex expedition to surf the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa.
Led by Australian Ross Clarke-Jones, the Quiksilver tow team comprises the world's best big-wave surfers, Tom Carroll, Gary `Kong' Elkerton, Dave Kalama, Jason Ribbink, Peter Mel and Anthony Tashnick. The adventurous team travelled to Africa in June to see what the dramatic Cape of Storms had to offer.
The festival will also feature a look at the history of Australian surfing, That's Surfing. It traces Australia's passion for the sport and chronicles our country's rise from boardriding backwater to a world surfing superpower, using rare archival footage.
Other films include Bonython's latest creation May Dayz: Blackwater 2 The Story Continues, a documentary about two days when the world's heaviest wave opened its jaws.
May Dayz also includes footage from Teahupo'o in September when the waves were nine metres.
Also screening will be snippets of Josh Williams's new film Burn, which profiles the lives and talents of elite surfers such as Dane Reynolds, Fred Patacchia, Bruce Irons, Kelly Slater and Clay Marzo. This year's festival also features live music at most screenings, including an acoustic set from Tokenview at the Newcastle screening. Bonython has been working in the surfing film trade since 1978 when his first trip to Hawaii took him to the North Shore of Oahu with a super- eight camera.
From there he shot various contests and vision of surfers, showing the footage in pubs and clubs with a super-eight Leg 4 projector and amplifier, narrating as they screened.
He had his first big hit in 1981, when he went down to Bells Beach for the first time and shot the Bells Beach Rip Curl contest when Simon Anderson introduced the three-finned thruster and won.
As there were no surf videos Leg 5 at that time, Bonython screened his films in bars and surf clubs.
Bonython has been shooting for a skate, snowboard and surfing TV show called Boarding Pass for the past two years.
Advance tickets cost $15 or $20 on the night.
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