Straight to the Peak

‘SPOONS: A SANTA BARBARA STORY’ PEELS BACK THE CURTAIN ON ONE OF SURFING’S HOTBEDS FOR DESIGN, INNOVATION, AND PERFORMANCE. RENNY YATER’S SPOON, AND GEORGE GREENOUGH’S VELO, WERE DESIGNED WITH A COMMON GOAL OF SURFING THEIR BELOVED RINCON HARDER AND FASTER THAN ANYONE ELSE.

Director Wyatt Daily set off on a personal research project and came back with an expansive documentary featuring revealing interviews from the giants of the sport. The film delivers in spades, with never-before-seen archival footage providing a unique perspective on Santa Barbara’s contribution to surfing culture, and how the Southern Californian town’s influence stretched to Australia, Hawaii and beyond.

Daily had to launch a Kickstarter campaign to help pay for the licensing of the archival footage he dug up. Then he visited Australia in 2017 to complete a surfing puzzle that stretched across continents. Daily recently returned to Australia to premiere the film up and down the east coast and caught up with Tracks after the Byron Bay premiere.

When did you first get the idea for the film?

I studied film at school at USC Santa Barbara, and a friend of mine had this archive, and it was this box of old