“Everybody that surfs in southern California knows Curt…” says Dane
Reynolds, one of the world’s best surfers, who regularly surfed with
Curt as a kid. “Every generation of groms grows up with him… hanging out
with him. He’s famous.”
Curt with Dane Reynolds. Credit: Brendon Hearne/Vimeo
Curt has autism and this short but heart-warming documentary tells of
his love of surfing, the sport which he believes saved his life. It
includes interviews with surfers, parents of groms, his boss and his
parents, who were told after young Curt’s diagnosis that he’d need to be
institutionalised for life. Their amazing response: “I’ll be god damn…”
Credit: Brendon Hearne/Vimeo
Curt, who was 49 in the film and is now 50, started surfing as a
child but his condition means that he is, as one woman puts it in the
film, is like “a 14 year old in a man’s body”, which makes him a kind of
eternal grom. It also explains why he gets on so well with actual
groms, providing a lifeline for many parents who don’t have time to take
their kids surfing.
The film, directed and edited by Brendon Hearne, shows him larking
about like a grom with the groms, joke-wrestling, putting them in trash
cans, pranks and shenanigans at contests…as one mum puts it: “it’s good
for kids as it takes their minds off being stressed about winning.”
Some parents were a little bit funny about an older stranger hanging
around with their kids but once they got to know him most realised what
an asset he’d be in their kids lives, and they his. A great and
inspiring watch.
Credit: Brendon Hearne/Vimeo
