Coming This Weekend: “Stoked & Broke” – Surfline.com Surf News

Posted On: September 22, 2020

In our next installment of Surf Cinema Sundays powered by TheSurfNetwork, we’re going to show ‘Stoked And Broke’, included in your Surfline Premium membership, this weekend. We’ll continue showing iconic surf movies every other Sunday. (Next up: ‘A Sea for Yourself’, October 11.) If you’re not already Premium, sign up for a Surfline free trial here, and you can also stream/rent the film by going to TheSurfNetwork’s site.

[FAQ: How to watch Surf Cinema Sunday films]

Wealth is not an accurate measure of success. Anyone who says otherwise has never been broke. Or stoked.

Take Cyrus Sutton, for example. The Californian was already an accomplished professional surfer and award-winning filmmaker before writing, directing and co-starring in his 2010, award-hoovering movie, Stoked & Broke, which follows Sutton and Ryan Burch on a 30-mile, eight-day surf trip from Encinitas to Ocean Beach. On zero dollars. In the middle of a recession.

“Oh, I was completely broke,” Sutton asserts. “And so was Ryan, who didn’t really have a contract with Volcom at the time. I’d won an Emmy when I was 23, four years earlier. But I was so obsessed with surfing and making surf films that it drained my bank account, so I was pretty much living in my van, for free, in the yard of this old house in Encinitas. I didn’t think I would ever get paid to surf. I’d done well in some professional contests when I was 19 and 20, and then I started making films. I went out to LA to do some commercial work, then we started Korduroy.tv.”

“We started making these DIY videos to show people that they could have a fun experience in an expensive place that was becoming increasingly more expensive, doing a sport that very few people could afford anymore,” he adds. “With San Diego being such a gorgeous place, then people finding out about it and wanting to move there, 2009 was also around the time when Airbnb started taking off, and rent prices pushed out a lot of people who’d been surfing there since the ‘60s and ‘70s, and they were finding themselves in a troublesome spot. And I wanted to show that.”

Surf Cinema Sundays, Stoked & Broke, Cyrus Sutton, Ryan Burch,

Cyrus Sutton. Photo: Kevin Roche

However, Stoked & Broke wasn’t intended to be a middle-finger to American consumerism and materialism — or even a double-shaka to surfing’s minimalist backbone. In fact, it wasn’t supposed to be a film at all.

“I didn’t set out to make a film,” Sutton admits, “more a series of short, how-to videos, one of which was gonna be, How to take a free surf trip in your own backyard. But after talking to [surf historian] Richard Kenvin, we then interviewed this kneeboarder I had surfed with around Windansea who lived in his van. I sort of idolized these guys, because they lived really simple lives and were able to surf all the time. But once I heard their stories… They were really raw, and I thought, “There’s so much more to this. This has to be a film.”

Cyrus Sutton. Photo: Kevin Roche

Indeed, the conversations with Steve, the kneeboarder living in his van, and Richard serve as a dark pivot point and Stoked & Broke meanders into the allegorical — a cautionary tale weighing the price of freedom against the promise of security. But that diversion doesn’t undermine the otherwise upbeat tempo throughout. Or the humor. Four minutes in, the surfers lampoon themselves — Sutton’s contribution to the Internet’s hypnosis of working-class shredders, and Ryan’s self-serving sponsorship motives — a clever kind of disclaimer that allows them to level with their audience before hitting the road.

“At the time, it seemed like surfing was all about boat trips and people trying to be all bling, and I just thought it would be cool to show our situations exactly how they were,” Sutton says. “Personally, I was just trying to survive and surf. And Ryan was just this guy that lived a few blocks down from me who shaped his own boards. It was refreshing to know such a talented and intelligent and un-jaded surfer, so I just wanted to show his life.”

Ryan Burch. Photo: Kevin Roche

Naturally, embracing alternative surf craft is an underlying theme of Stoked & Broke, as Sutton and Burch gracefully rip on asymmetricals, handplanes, alaias and other finless shapes… even un-glassed foam blanks. Sutton insists that was more a sign of the times — a celebration of San Diego’s ride-anything aesthetic — rather than any deliberate condemnation of commercialism in surf culture.

“That was really inspired by Ryan,” says Sutton, “because he was always having so much fun surfing these weird waves that he’d made a board to fit perfectly in. It’s like, there’s thousands of miles of coastline, and we all congregate around these very specific little areas that are only good for riding a specific kind of board. Well, what if you got creative and started riding other things? Maybe closeouts would be really fun! Ryan was always doing that. Nowadays it’s a different landscape where everything’s been marketed so much, but back then I was still innocent to all of it. I’d never really been a successful pro surfer. I had my time and that time came and went. But every time I hung out with Ryan, I’d get this whole new level of stoke. He even inspired me to shape my own boards. We were both just riding that high of creating our own adventure.”

Ryan Burch. Photo: Kevin Roche

Without divulging too many spoilers, that adventure is only as colorful as the characters they meet. Like a typical young, unemployed surfer living with his folks while going to college, reminiscent of that final scene in Back to School when Thornton Melon addresses the graduating class: “Don’t go! It’s rough out there! Move back in with your parents! Let them worry about it!” Or their gracious hosts in La Jolla and PB — spontaneous connections morphing into scripted scenes meant to exemplify the importance of maintaining symbiotic relationships. Their journey is powered not only by their own muscles, nutrients and willpower, but the advice and wisdom and kindness of the people of San Diego, some of them homeless.

“I had no business plan,” Sutton admits. “I was just super passionate and loved the energy of this town, Encinitas, where all these amazing musicians and artists and surfers who were influential in creating the sport as we know it today would stop by. I was in love with the day-to-day feeling of being creative and surfing, and I was trying to apply my skills to that. I didn’t quite know what would come of it. And my parents were freaking out, because they’re all professors and by-the-book people. I just did what I wanted to do and it ended up working out.”

Cyrus Sutton. Photo: Kevin Roche

A retired surf bum here, an animated dog chef there — those interactions are obviously authentic. But it’s hard to believe Sutton and Burch didn’t have a window or two rolled up in their faces when panhandling for money or food. Any hassles or confrontations that weren’t in the film, however, are counterbalanced by countless takes of the surfers hauling gear on foot, surviving off dog treats, sleeping on the ground. They don’t try to hide their exhaustion, hunger or discomfort, either. That would’ve taken too much time to edit.

“I cut it in three weeks,” Sutton explains. “We picked the trip, shot a couple of pickup shots that we didn’t get along the way, like the better days at Blacks, and then it was a really quick turnaround. It was an organic thing that came together. A lot of things just went right for us.”

Ryan Burch and Cyrus Sutton. Photo: Kevin Roche

The ‘tips’ they offer, however, fluctuate somewhere between useful (like making coffee in the wild) and quirky (like wearing a Bluetooth to ward off the cops) — helping Sutton achieve a delicate balance between the preaching and the parody.

“I just grew up with that, you know, making light of everything,” Sutton finishes. “But beyond that, I was always thinking, ‘How can we share little tips to make people’s experiences better, so there’s more stoke in the world and less competition for resources?’”

Premium Perks: One Free Surf Movie Rental From TheSurfNetwork. Eligible Premium members redeem here.