SurfWriter Girls: July 2016

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Fire and Water Movie Wows Audiences!

Film Salutes Surfing Firefighters

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

Now that summer's red flag fire warning season is here and people across the nation are watching out for fires it's important to give thanks to the firefighters who put their lives in danger to keep us safe.

In addition to being firefighters, they are members of our local communities, our friends and neighbors...and, as it turns out, many of them are surfers.

The multi-award-winning documentary film Fire and Water by writer-director Thomas Brookins, which won the Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking - Action Sports award at this year's Newport Beach Film Festival, shows how the brotherhood of firefighters is also a surfing brotherhood.

Featuring rare footage from over 50-years-ago, the film tells the story of New York firefighter and surfing pioneer Don Eichen, who followed his dream to surf the big waves of Oahu's North Shore then brought the sport of surfing back to New York in the 1960s where he became a firefighter.

Eichen surfed at Pipeline and Waimea alongside many of the surfing legends who built the sport. And, when he wasn't surfing, Eichen was capturing the surfing action on his Bolex camera.

In addition to showing New York's surfing culture and some of its top surf spots from Rockaway Beach to Montauk, the film includes footage of surfing legends Eddie Aikau, Greg Noll, Rob Machado, and more.

In making this critically-acclaimed film, Eichen and Brookins were able to save a piece of surfing history.

SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel think Fire and Water is as much a testament to Thomas Brookins' strong desire to get it made as to the lure and power of surfing. During production Brookins not only had to struggle to find funding and support to make his film, but waged a personal battle against stage-4 cancer.

To see this piece of history that pays homage to surfing and firefighting, check for screenings in your area. It will fire up your love of surfing!

SurfWriter Girls

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

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Saturday, July 16, 2016

SurfWriter Girls Celebrate 5th Year

Making a Global Splash!

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

Now that SurfWriter Girls is celebrating its fifth year, it's great to see the wave of support we're getting from around the world. From Australia to the UK and the Caribbean to Iceland people are enjoying and re-posting our stories, sharing the stoke and spreading the blog's environmental and beach lifestyle message.

Looking back, it all started with Tony Soriano and the Surfrider Foundation's Huntington/Seal Beach Chapter.

As new volunteers recruited by Tony, our very first story was "Tidal Wave of Trash - Surfrider Float Wins First Place in Huntington Beach 4th of July Parade." The story got picked up by all the surfing media. That launched the SurfWriter Girls blog, enabling us to put our journalism and creative skills to work to help protect the world's oceans, waves and beaches.

Since writing our first blog post on July 20, 2011, SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel have written 192 feature stories about the people, places, events and organizations that are making a difference in the quality of life on our planet.

And, last year we started a sister online publication, Surf'n Beach Scene Magazine, which provides another - even more visual - platform for our stories.

We're excited to be able to make a contribution to the environment and the beach community by telling their stories. Over the past year some of the stories we've shared with you include: