'Surfing': An All-Girls Surf Film Featuring Stephanie Gilmore and Friends

Despite the progress of women’s surfing in the last decade, there are very few full-length all-women surf flicks. Enter “Surfing,” a new film by videographer Dan Scott with additional footage and direction by Ava Warbick. Staring Stephanie Gilmore, Tyler Wright, Nikki Van Dijk, Macy Callaghan, and Dimity Stoyle, the film is full of great surfing but not the stacked action clips of most films. The entire movie feels like a laid-back session with friends on a good day at your local break. It feels sunny and drama-free. Maybe because it wasn’t about racing around the world hunting the gnarliest barrels, it was almost entirely shot on the Gold Coast of Australia during lockdown. Lightly edited, the film features long full-wave rides, often with a tight shot, showing the flow and fun of “surfing.” Super-8 footage, by Ava Warwick, is intermingled, adding to the dreamy, casual vibes. With virtually no dialogue and little backstory, the movie really is just surfing….Tyler Wright’s graceful cutbacks do all the speaking.