Bustin Down The Door

Bustin Down the door: There was a time when surfing was new and raw. The first generation of the short board surfers had arrived, they had style and a coolness that has never left them. 34 years later Peter Townend , Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew ,Shaun and Mark Thomson, Mark Richards and Ian Cairns tell the story of the birth of pro surfing and of a time, when surfing Hawaii was both heaven and hell.

They all had individual reasons for wanting to surf better than the next guy, but together they surfed, lived and breathed surfing.They all came to Hawaii with this feeling of wanting to conquer the heaviest waves in the world and if they could dominate Hawaii, they would be recognized as the best surfers in the world. Watching this movie at the Noosa cinemas with the likes of Tom Carroll,Lyane Beachly,Randy Rarrick,Brian Kealuana and just about every one of the who is who in the surfing world, was something I won’t forget in a hurry. The movie takes you on a journey of so many different emotions, and to see what these young guys were willing to do and go through to make professional surfing was it is today, is awe inspiring. Watching Mark Ricards charging 30 foot Wiamea to the hoots of everyone in the cinema was epic, there is something about watching a surf movie at a cinema full of surf nuts, you will know what I’m talking about if you’ve been and if you haven’t make it a must!. Nothing I have seen or read has portrayed the birth of pro surfing better than Bustin down the door. When I was a grommet I always listened to the stories my uncle and my father would tell me about surfing in the seventies, so watching this movie brought back all those great memories and validated some of the stories too. Shaun Thomson is a great person and surf legend, the way he has put this film together is perfect. Shaun is still today an inspiration and as Rabbit put it “only Shaun could’ve done this movie he still so respected by the Hawaiians”. After watching the movie at Noosa five cinemas, Shaun Thomson, Peter Townend ,Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew and Mark Richards all sat in front of the stage and spoke about what it was like surfing in that era. When Rabbit talks about asking the bank manager for a lone to go to Hawaii ,the bank manager asks him what he does for a living and Rabbit replies “ I’m a professional surfer” the bank manager laughed in his face, and said “there is no such thing”, how times have changed. It is hard to describe exactly what effect this movie had on me, after watching It I was just so humbled and completely stoked at the same time. I took my eight-year-old daughter with me and after the guys in the film had finished talking about the movie, and most of the people had left the cinema, we made our way up the aisle. As we passed Shaun Thomson, he turned around and said to my little girl “you are so cute”, then reached out a handshake to me and for some reason all that came out of my mouth was thank you so much. I could go on about this movie but the way to watch this movie would be to get some mates around, sit back, turn it up and let yourself be taken back to a time when it was REAL. .