For much of his long career, surf filmmaker Jack McCoy enjoyed what he calls the backstage perspective: underwater, just behind a translucent, coiling swell.
But capturing on film the hidden place where waves, reefs and surfers come together was also frustrating. Even with swim fins, McCoy was at the mercy of currents. He could never do more than point his camera at the surfers whose silhouettes rushed past.
Not anymore. In his newest film, “A Deeper Shade of Blue,” McCoy uses a Seabob underwater scooter to create a magical panorama of surfing.
“The moment I got on it, I thought this was the answer to my dreams,” he said. “This would allow me to get backstage.”
A friend let him ride one for the first time in 2008, while McCoy was doing research for “A Deeper Shade of Blue.”
The scooter weighs 150 pounds and travels about 10 mph with a mounted camera. McCoy practiced for a year before he took it into 6-foot waves off Tahiti.
“I can’t keep up with the surfer, but I can follow and get the feeling of actually moving,” he said.
The view is so stunning that Sir Paul McCartney used it for his music video “Blue Sway,” which you can find on YouTube.
The 64-year-old McCoy said “A Deeper Shade of Blue,” which will screen Wednesday on the Great Lawn of the Hilton Hawaiian Village, is the biggest and best film he has ever made. In a career that spans nearly 40 years and 25 films, that’s a bold statement.
“I have a strong feeling this movie will be around for a long time,” McCoy said. “It’s not a flash in the pan. It is a beautiful story. And for surfers, when they come from seeing it, most are touched, moved and inspired. And they are also proud to be surfers when they see that movie.”
But the real strength of the movie is not its visual statement, McCoy said. Instead, it’s the way it presents the history of surfing. Audiences won’t associate it with a history lesson, he said.
“This is not a surf movie,” McCoy said. “It’s a film about surfing. We’ve won awards as a documentary. It’s a story. The whole thing. From the first word to the end. It takes you on a journey.”
McCoy explores the evolution of surfing from its very beginnings to the modern age — from the ancient Hawaiians who first surfed to globe-trotting big-wave riders, from the Waikiki beachboys to the surf-crazed masses in California, from soul surfers who ride boards without fins to professionals who earn six-figure salaries.
McCoy grew up in Kailua and later in East Honolulu where he graduated from Kalani High School. He has lived most of his adult life in Australia. His father, local radio personality Jack McCoy, pushed the filmmaker into his first wave at Waikiki Beach when he was 8.
His first film, “Tubular Swells,” was released in 1975 and stuck to the formula of surf movies, following surfers to exotic locations. During the 1980s and ’90s, McCoy used music to tell the story. He also produced 13 films for the surf apparel company Billabong.
Surfing not only gave him a career, but defined his life, so McCoy felt he needed to do something in return.
“I felt a responsibility with this movie — which is the biggest and most ambitious project I have tackled — to thank Hawaii and surfing for what it has given me,” McCoy said.
He also wanted to educate. Too many surfers today are unfamiliar with the roots of surfing, he said.
“I wanted them to understand what surfing is rather than what it has become, a global industry focused on competitions,” he said. “They view it as a sport, and I view it as something more spiritual. You get to ride this incredible wave in its last gasp before it dies onshore.”
Tickets for the Hilton Hawaiian Village screening of “A Deeper Shade of Blue” are $15 at www.adeepershadeofblue.com and at the door. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
AND that’s a wrap …
