COURTESY OF DUSTIN HUMPHREY
Barbados, "Day of Days," Kelly Slater is a scene from surf photographer Dustin Humphrey's book "Sipping Jetstreams."
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Worldwide Wave
Surfing is only part of the adventure in a new film and book
By Brandon Lee
Special to the Star-Bulletin
From the first glimpse of "Green Eyed Girl," an Egyptian child who bears more than a little resemblance to Steve McCurry's classic Afghan subject on the cover of National Geographic more than 20 years ago, it is evident that "Sipping Jetstreams" is not your dude Uncle Bud's surf project.
'Sipping Jetstreams'
Big-screen premieres:
Monday: 6 to 10 p.m. Waimea Valley Audubon Center
Wednesday: 6 to 11 p.m., O Lounge
Admission: $10 donation to benefit the Oahu chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and Defend Oahu Coalition. Artwork from the book, and the book itself, will sold.
Also: The DVD is available in surf shops; the DVD and book are sold online at sippingjetstreams.com.
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There is the tattoo-covered Triad member in Hong Kong, a stickball scene on a Cuban street and a surreal twilight shot of the teeming Marrakech market in Morocco, among many other images, to drive this point home.
"Sipping Jetstreams" is both a film and a coffee-table book of the same places and people. It's really a first-time joint offering from surf filmmaker Taylor Steele and surf photographer Dustin Humphrey, but the movie understandably wears Steele's name and creative imprint, the book Humphrey's, and they can be purchased separately.
Though both are considered leaders internationally in their crafts, "Sipping Jetstreams" is a radical departure from the norm for both. While capturing surfing action with big-name pros like Kelly Slater was part of it, those images feel more like an afterthought than the focus.
"Me and Taylor went to Morocco together -- that was our first trip for this," said Humphrey, explaining the project's genesis. "We kind of wanted to go off on a different path, and we realized that we both wanted to do the same things. It kind of happened real organically from there, and Morocco kind of set the standard for all the trips to come after.
"Of course we still wanted to surf, but look beyond the waves as well -- (to) the culture, the local people. Without being preachy, we just wanted people to open their eyes to everything else that's out there when you do go on these amazing surf trips. We wanted the destinations to be the stars, rather than the surfers."
COURTESY OF DUSTIN HUMPHREY
Egypt, "Green-Eyed Girl."
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Conceded Steele: "We weren't really worried if we got waves or not. We went at the right time of year, but we picked these places for the culture, and surf was sort of a minor excuse to go there."
Humphrey, 31, grew up in various U.S. cities as the son of a traveling salesman, but currently makes his home in Bali and is the senior photographer for TransWorld Surf magazine. The 35-year-old Steele has made more than 20 films and also lives part time in Bali, when not in San Diego -- his original home -- or his other home in Australia.
"Sipping Jetstreams" turned out to be a three-year journey. They spent two years traveling to Hong Kong, Italy, Egypt, Japan, Cuba, Barbados and Morocco, as well as shooting at home in Indonesia. Then came a year of production.
Steele and Humphrey essentially put out both the 40-minute film and the 300-page book themselves, through their own Sipping Jetstreams Media label, and recently started a promotional tour that includes two events in Hawaii next week.
As edifying it has all been, there remains the predictable question that they've been asked more than once in various forms: How are you going to convince adrenaline junkies, who typically want to see one gut-wrenching barrel ride after the next, to give this a chance?
"I was in my own comfort zone too much, and I wanted to push myself out of that," was part of Steele's response. "Part of the reason I was able to make this movie at this point is that the surfing market is opening its eyes more; five or 10 years ago it would have been a lot tougher. And I've been surprised because a lot of the people who've been stoked on it have been from the younger demographic -- they want to get out there and travel too."
Many times the subjects they wanted to shoot were plenty wary of them and their crew, and they were denied much more often than not. On other occasions the hassles came from authorities who didn't try to understand what their loads of heavy gear and their surf/travel expedition were all about.
"The people in Morocco," for example, Steele said, "it's sort of against their culture to have photos taken of them. It was really challenging, and we had to beg and plead."
But there were good surprises too. As with the Triad member.
"I looked for (a guy like) him the whole time we were in Hong Kong," Humphrey said. "Sometimes you have pictures already in your head that you want to get, and the Triad guy was one of those. I searched around, asked lots of people and, finally, on our last day, just a few hours before our flight, we found a guy, and he was willing to do it."
COURTESY OF DUSTIN HUMPHREY
Morocco, "Henna Hands."
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COURTESY OF DUSTIN HUMPHREY
Hong Kong, "Triad."
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COURTESY OF DUSTIN HUMPHREY
"Ama-ryo at Work," taken in Japan.
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COURTESY OF DUSTIN HUMPHREY
Photographer Dustin Humphrey, left, and filmmaker Taylor Steele collaborated on the coffee-table book/movie project that took them around the world.
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