A Film By Kooks, About Kooks, That Surprisingly Captures Surfing’s Essence

Surf movies: seen one, you’ve seen them all. Right?

Wrong. Enter Tom Sachs.  

According to his Wikipedia page (normal flex but ok), Sachs is “an American contemporary artist who lives and works in New York City.”

Known as a sculpturist, Sachs has also been an on-again off-again surfer for the past couple decades, racking up over 1,000 total hours in the brine but never achieving a sense of “adequacy” in his skills. Tom also doesn’t enjoy surfing very much, which seems contrary to the point for an admitted dabbler, but perhaps that’s why Sachs decided to make the film, How to Learn How to Surf. 

HTLHTS is a movie about exactly what its title states, standing in stark contrast to View From A Blue Moon, which offers fantastic surfing and zero shots of the earth from 384,400 kilometers. 

Shot primarily on GoPros and featuring Rizal Tanjung and ‘Punker’ Pat Towersey, HTLHTS is funny, self-aware, and surprisingly clued-in to surfing etiquette and culture. 

You can watch it here.