If you are looking for a sign of surfing’s impact on worldwide culture at the wax of the 21st Century, the Alma Surf Festival in Brazil is a good place to start.

The Brazilian event invites the foremost artists from the capitals of surf culture around the globe, combining top musicians, surfboard makers, painters, photographers and film-makers under the roof of a contemporary museum space. The effect is an ‘all things surf’ event that is sweeping in its breadth of artistic scope. The proof of its power? Nearly 30,000 tickets costing between $90 and a $120 were sold in three cities whose population exceeds California and New York combined. With stops in Sao Paulo (23 million) Rio (14 million) and surf capital Florianopolis (nearly a million) the press and television coverage alone made it the biggest event you never heard of in the surfing world.

The Film Festival by itself was an impressive presentation: eight of the most varied and dynamic surf films of the last year, including Bra Boys, Lost Waves, Trilogy, Thread, 1st & Hope, Down the Barrel, Absolute Mexico, and Chasing the Lotus. Together these varied documentaries run the gamut from ASP contest drama to pure soul surfer travel, from urban skate culture to ancient African surf and social traditions. Perhaps the most buzzed about surf film of 2007 was the frighteningly stark Bra Boys. Now being made into a big screen Hollywood epic starring Russell Crowe it hits the audience like a wave-worn West Side Story.

The unique displays of art-infused surfboards, along with the tasteful selection of photographic images and paintings came from as far away as France, Spain, Australia, Brazil, Portugal, Tasmania, the USA and Indonesia. The totality gave credence to the claim that the act of surfing and the capturing of its many facets both are worthy and wondrous art forms.

But it was the Billabong-sponsored music component that filled the cavernous museum spaces to the brim. The line-up included AOL, former skate star Matt Costa, G-Love and Donovan Frankenreiter whose roots-based repertoire and rock solid board-riding credentials give them a much deeper connection to the event and the audience than the instruments they play.

Not that their playing wasn’t effective: AOL comes on like a crazed Civil War quintet transported to the 22nd Century, and Matt Costa’s deep musicology created the illusion of Irish Sea shanties mashed into the amps of Kings of Leon. Sensuous, soulful, all shook up G-Love’s contagious charisma brought down the house on night two with a capacity crowd of nearly 10,000 raving fans, combining hip-hop lyrics with blues chords first formulated a century ago yet making it all seem both immediate and magnificent. And Donovan’s guitar work coupled with irresistibly catchy hooks had crowd members who didn’t speak a word of English singing along on the 2nd chorus.

Fortunately for the writers and publishers and other artists who were invited to judge the films, even better performances came in the raging all night jam sessions so characteristic of Brazil’s vibrant musical and social life. In one Ciapirinha-fueled 25 minute rendition of Sympathy for the Devil, many of the musicians were claiming it to be their best jam to date.

By the end of the three city tour, the entire artistic community of invitees had become a surf-artist tribe fused with energy, introspection and goodwill.

All this bodes well for the future of the surf culture. Acknowledging the huge population of surfers in South America as one of the legitimate centers of the surfing world, is a statement about the growing significance of wave riding and its influence. Pulling off a festival of this size and scope is a great step towards bringing the rest surfing world closer to the realization that its culture is now truly global.

--Jim Kempton

*** The Alma Surf Festival films will be given awards over the next week for
Best Director, Best Sound Track, Best Film/Cinema, Best Documentary, and Best Short film. Stay tuned for the results.

Sympathy For The Devil
Hotel Jam Session With G.Love, Donovan Frankenreiter, Matt Costa and AOL: