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"Super Slide" : New Video Captures Classic Surfing Renaissance With High-Tech Precision
"Super Slide" the first surf movie to offer direct-to-DVD interactive technology
SOLANA BEACH, Calif. - For filmmaker and surfer Ira Opper, "Super Slide" represents the perfect marriage between cutting-edge technology and a classic day at the beach.
The most ambitious project to date by award-winning Opper Sports Productions, "Super Slide" captures surfing’s fundamental shift toward classic surfing styles of the past, and represents the first original surfing film to be produced for Digital Video Disc (DVD) technology, in addition to the traditional home video format.
With DVD, "Super Slide" allows viewers interactive access to extended interviews with surfing legends, go behind the scenes for a look at the filmmaking process, and listen to a customized soundtrack with or without narration. The "camera-original quality" of DVD technology provides the sharpest, highest resolution quality available on television and computer monitors, bringing to the screen the exotic colors and moods of Hawaii, California and Australia like never before.
With all its technical advancements, "Super Slide" first and foremost is a one-hour documentary about surfers returning to the roots and the rediscovery of "fun" as it used to be, while pushing the classic styles of the past headlong into the future. Profiled are World Champion Joel Tudor, Jimmy Gamboa, Kevin Connelly, Mike Myers, Wingnut, and many more.
"The traditional, classic longboard surfing style that reached its apex in the 1960s is now being refined and has become vogue in the 90s," explains Opper, an Emmy and Ace award-winning producer/ director whose work appears weekly on Outdoor Life Network. "It’s happening at every point break, it’s happening in women’s surfing, and it’s happening among the young and old. Surfers are now riding longboards the way they were meant to be ridden--by using the whole board, walking back and forth to the nose, rather than making skateboard moves on a longboard, which tended to dominated longboarding for the past several years."
"Super Slide" travels to the world’s surfing meccas of California, Hawaii and Australia
to capture this renaissance of style first-hand. Juxtaposing very rare archival footage with today’s contemporary videography, "Super Slide" underscores modern surfing’s growing appreciation for its past glory days. Also featured are several remarkable interviews, including:
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Greg Noll’s thoughts on his first visit to Australia since 1956, when the future big wave legend competed in a lifeguard tournament and used his surfboard building skills to advance the sport Down Under;
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A conversation between Joel Tudor and master craftsman Donald Takayama, who inherited the legacy of old school surfing at Waikiki in the ‘50s and subsequently passed his knowledge on to the young world champion;
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The first on-screen visit with Conrad Canha, the reclusive surfing pioneer credited with creating the "Classic" surfing style widely considered as the precursor of "Hot Dog" surfing.
"This was a great experience to bridge 30 years of surfing for me personally," explains Opper. "I was able to use the resources of my collection of ‘50s and ‘60s surfing films, as well as shooting contemporary action footage while traveling around the world in search of great waves and legendary personalities. And I’m proud to offer the first original surf title to go direct to DVD, giving surfers the opportunity to see these landmark interviews in their entirety."
Producer Opper gathered an impressive team of respected surf media experts for the production of "Super Slide," including journalist and former Surfer Magazine editor Paul Holmes, videographer Justin Krumb, and respected longboarder Robert "Wingnut" Weaver providing narration. The soundtrack features music from Surfdog’s Alien Fashion Show & Lodestone, Colorblind, Sly & Robbie, Purple Bosco, Birth Through Knowledge, The Bent Sceptors, The Cat Mary, Solid Foundation, Brazil 2001, and Fantastic Planet.
"Super Slide" is scheduled for a summer release on VHS and DVD formats
Press Contact: Dustin Hood, phone: 858.481.7283 xt 12
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