LIQUID SALT INTERVIEW

Pierce Michael Kavanagh

by Glenn Sakamoto · 0 comments

Pierce Michael Kavanagh is a tal­ented San Diego surfer/filmmaker. His recent film Man­u­fac­tur­ing Stoke raises ques­tions about the toxic chem­i­cals used in the surf­board indus­try and asks us all: How can we make a dif­fer­ence for the envi­ron­ment? Pierce speaks to us about his inspi­ra­tion for the film and his cur­rent obses­sion for bodysurfing.
What was your life like grow­ing up?
Amaz­ing on one hand and absolutely scar­ring on the other. I grew up in La Jolla, just up the beach from Win­dansea. Our house was really close to the beach so we got really good waves but my Mom could also come down and call us in for any­thing. She would come down to the bot­tom of the street and just belt it out… “Pierce, Den­nis… come in for sup­per…” Let the heck­ling begin. Sup­per? My folks were from the Bronx so they didn’t know any bet­ter. It was really fun though. La Jolla was a small beach town with a bunch of big fam­i­lies. Every­body kind of looked out for each other, both in and out of the water. The surf scene is well estab­lished, so one learns quickly how to behave.
Who did you look up to and admire when you were younger?
La Jolla has bred some of the most amaz­ing surfers (and a freak­ishly large amount of broth­ers who surf together). So here is a shout out to all the broth­ers who have shared, bat­tled, and grown up surf­ing together. My brother Den­nis (he rips, I do not), the Lit­tle­mores, Feighans, Fitchs, Huff­mans, Aguir­res, Ken­vins, Elliotts, Bak­ers, Gumi­nas, McCul­loughs, Kings, Far­sons… the list goes on. Oh, and Henry Hunte surfs so good he doesn’t need a brother – cheers, Henry.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
Life chang­ing. It may be one of the clear­est mem­o­ries of my life. Matt Feighan took my brother and I to Lit­tle Point on one of his rad old Skip Frye sin­gle fins with the inten­tion of get­ting us off our boo­gie boards once and for all. I was 11 and my brother Den­nis was 9. We shared 2-foot peel­ers all after­noon. I was amazed at look­ing down and watch­ing the eel­grass sway as I passed over the reef with each and every wave.The water was crys­tal clear and you could see all the way to the bot­tom while you were surf­ing. Noth­ing has been the same for me since.
Where did you inter­est in film­mak­ing come from?
I think it was going over the falls at Big Rock in the wipe­out sec­tion of Chris Bystrom’s “Son of the Last Surf Movie.” This com­bined with the fact that film is such a beau­ti­ful and evoca­tive art form. My fas­ci­na­tion started at a young age with pho­tog­ra­phy and the abil­ity to cap­ture a soli­tary moment in time. It evolved nat­u­rally through my love for surf­ing and skat­ing and all of the mags and movies from the 80s. We used to wear out VHS tapes at Bird’s surf shop when the surf was flat. Pretty sure I melted “Beyond Blaz­ing Boards” and “Mad Wax” a cou­ple times. Now that I think about it, film­mak­ing has come full cir­cle for me. I used to shoot VHS from the beach when I was around 13 and after a film degree and sev­eral decades later, I still shoot at the beach. Go figure.
What inspired you to cre­ate “Man­u­fac­tur­ing Stoke”?
Last fall, my wife Petra & I went to the Green Expo at Sea­side Reef in Cardiff to watch our friend Gary play music. While wait­ing for his set we walked around to all of the booths and saw a lot of cre­ative and amaz­ing ideas. The excite­ment and inspi­ra­tion that came from the ven­dors was really refresh­ing. The fes­ti­val had a “new guard” indus­try vibe to it and con­sisted of Indi­vid­u­als that were striv­ing for a more sus­tain­able surf indus­try from a grass­roots level. One booth that blew me away was *enjoy handplanes.

My new friends Ed and Kipp, are recy­cling hand­planes from dam­aged surf­boards and wet­suits oth­er­wise head­ing for the land­fill. Bingo. I went home and started research­ing the indus­try and was shocked about how toxic it still was since Clark Foam closed down. I wanted to do four short films high­light­ing indi­vid­u­als chang­ing per­cep­tions about wax, board con­struc­tion, wet­suits and cloth­ing. As soon as we started film­ing we real­ized we had some­thing way big­ger than we orig­i­nally thought and shifted gears toward a fea­ture length doc­u­men­tary. And after seven months of hard work, mis­fit pic­tures is proud to present… Man­u­fac­tur­ing Stoke.
What has been the reac­tion to the film?
For the most part, reac­tions have been over­whelm­ingly pos­i­tive. I am extremely proud of the film but I am blown away when some­body watches the film and then comes up with tears in their eyes hug­ging and thank­ing me. I was not ready for that. It is both trippy and so pow­er­ful. We all have friends in the indus­try so it is extremely impor­tant that they are safe.
After every screen­ing, I always hear the same ques­tions, though. Where was so-and-so? How come some “green” com­pa­nies are not in the film? Does Jasper have any­thing more to say about surfing’s over­seas industry?
When you get down to it, Man­u­fac­tur­ing Stoke is the film surf indus­try lead­ers do NOT want you to see. So yes, some peo­ple are going to be pissed, but they can be pissed from their man­sion on the hill. mis­fit pic­tures gave all the major com­pa­nies in the indus­try a chance to be involved and most wanted noth­ing to do with us. Would you rock the boat if you knew your Guc­cis could get wet?
Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out? And why?
I have trav­eled far and wide and recently went to Oahu and fell in love with the place. We were invited to the Hon­olulu Surf Film Fes­ti­val and my wife and I jumped at the oppor­tu­nity to go. We spent 10 days on Oahu and had an incred­i­ble visit. We scored back-to-back south swells in addi­tion to show­ing our film in par­adise. The beauty, surf, womp, soft sand, great weather, road­side grinds… what more could one ask for? If I could get tan, I would def­i­nitely move there. Mahalo to Gina Caruso and the Kelleys.
Who/what inspires you?
My beau­ti­ful wife, Petra.
What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
This is a gnarly inter­view! I believe we never stop edu­cat­ing our­selves. When I was younger, a part of me wanted me to burn it all down to the ground because I didn’t believe all the bull­shit I was fed. Now that I have mel­lowed with age, I believe small con­trolled fires are the way to go. Man­u­fac­tur­ing Stoke is a small con­trolled fire. So my approach to things has changed a bit, as I have got­ten older. With that in mind, I am curi­ous to see what my thoughts will be 20 years from now. If this makes absolutely no sense, I apologize.
What are you most proud of?
The col­lab­o­ra­tion involved with the mak­ing of this film. We had no bud­get, no mar­ket­ing depart­ment, and no indus­try clout. In fact, nobody even knows who we are. Every­body who got behind this project con­tributed to this film sim­ply because they believed in the project. This film owes every­thing to the crew, artist and musicians,.
What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing started for me in front of my folks’ house and has led me around the world. What started as boy­hood intrigue devel­oped into a life­long obses­sion. Sur­pris­ingly, this project got me reac­quainted with the often-overlooked nuances of just being in the water. Because there is a lot of water footage in the film (I wanted to put the viewer right in the line-up) I spent a long time exam­in­ing the clips dur­ing the edit­ing process. The ocean is so beau­ti­ful and this film cel­e­brates that. There is no way surf­ing can­not pro­foundly impact your life. Surf­ing has def­i­nitely made me a bet­ter per­son. In fact, I am tak­ing a break to go womp­ing… I will be back.
What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Right now. I am the hap­pi­est I have ever been. I am thank­ful for everything.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
Lucas Dirkse and Ryan Burch. Both of the­ses guys rip any­thing and every­thing. From long­boards to body­surf­ing – they have it cov­ered. I am stoked for them and all the kids com­ing up right now. They have access to more board designs than ever before. There is no right or wrong in surf­ing, just what­ever works.
Carl Ekstrom looks at board design like nobody else. He is not just con­tin­u­ing the shap­ing tra­di­tion; he is on a com­pletely dif­fer­ent plane. It is good to see that Sacred Craft is hon­or­ing Carl with their “Trib­ute to the Mas­ters Shape-Off” this Octo­ber. It is well deserved. There are many oth­ers like Danny Hess, Grain Surf­boards, Eco Board­works and Matt Bio­los who are uti­liz­ing alter­na­tive mate­ri­als in their board con­struc­tion. Minds are open­ing in surf­ing every day.
What is your favorite board? Your favorite surfspot?
My favorite surf­board is a mid-1970s 6’9” Terry Fitzger­ald Hot But­tered sin­gle fin. It is prob­a­bly about 3” thick a foot from the nose and surfs like noth­ing I have ever rid­den. Right now it is down at Scor­pion Bay and I miss it. If any­one is going down, let me know… I need it brought back.
But my favorite board right now is an *enjoy hand­plane. I have been rid­ing them for months now and have never got­ten so bar­reled body­surf­ing. Besides com­ing out of bar­rels you can actu­ally cut­back with these things. No lie. I dig the resur­gence of body­surf­ing. Body­surf­ing is the new black. I can’t wait to see Malloy’s “Come Hell or High Water.”
As far as favorite surfspot?
Low­ers… tell everyone.
What’s your favorite meal?
Bacon. A close sec­ond would be more bacon.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
I don’t really lis­ten to my iPod that much. Between the Sony Walk­man, punk rock shows and the shore­pound, I prob­a­bly have about 60% of my hear­ing left. Lately, I have been lis­ten­ing to the Mon­tal­ban Quin­tet. Sup­port local music.
What causes/ projects/ orga­ni­za­tions do you sup­port?
I sup­port the under­ground. If I had more money, I would sup­port a lot more things.
What are you most grate­ful for?
Friends, fam­ily and per­fect shorebreak.
What’s next for PMK?
Oh, man… we have been really busy. We have been tour­ing around the west with the Man­u­fac­tur­ing Stoke Anti-stadium Sum­mer Tour and Expres­sion Ses­sions and have a few more Cal­i­for­nia shows before we go back east for a stretch. We will have shows in Encini­tas, Ven­tura, Santa Cruz and San Fran­cisco later this month. Our East Coast leg starts at Grain Surf­boards Surf Re-Evolution on Sep­tem­ber 10th and we have about 8–9 more shows lined up. Stops include Boston, Prov­i­dence, NYC, Brook­lyn and Atlanta. Aside from that, we have been in film fes­ti­vals in France, Ger­many, Aus­tralia and Japan.
I am very grate­ful for the expo­sure and great recep­tion that Man­u­fac­tur­ing Stoke has been receiv­ing. This film was a labor of love and it is good to see that peo­ple are stoked on it. To fol­low along on the progress, check out www.manufacturingstoke.com
Future projects include help­ing my wife with a short film she is work­ing on. I also have 2 more doc­u­men­taries that I am work­ing on as well as pro­duc­ing a cou­ple of other projects. My pas­sion will always lie with doc­u­men­tary film­mak­ing, but I look for­ward to any­thing that comes my way. Who knows? Maybe Man­u­fac­tur­ing Stoke II!
Learn more about Pierce Michael Kavanagh and his film here. Top pho­to­graph by Kevin Roche. All other pho­tos cour­tesy Pierce Michael Kavanagh.

“Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

Cheers
PMK

Check out the Greener Blue Interview

PMK, the Manufacturing Stoke Interview

Pierce Michael Kavanagh is the San Diego based filmmaker behind the ground breaking picture, Manufacturing Stoke, which recently hit the somewhat big and somewhat small screen(s).   Pierce’s film dares to go where others haven’t; aligning the act of wave riding (stoke) with the acts of the surf industry (purveyors of stoke) showing the intrinsic disconnect where there should be intrinsic and overt connectedness.
TGB’s been playing email tag with the multi-tasking director, attempting to go behind the scenes of the man behind the lens and his passion project.  This e-interview is the outcome, hope you enjoy it.


Where’d you grow up?  How long have you been a surfer/water enthusiast?
La Jolla and all of my life.  My folks moved from a pretty gnarly Bronx neighborhood and eventually settled down within a block of the reefs.  I was literally raised by the beach.  I grew up in a big family (seven kids) so there was no way to watch all of us.  My folks made sure we all had swimming lessons and then let us loose.  The beach was our front yard and the older kids were our babysitters.  It was feral and I loved it.
What got you in to making films?  Was there a seminal moment or from movie lover, to camera enthusiast/story teller, to…
I have always loved to draw and read so everything stems from those two lifelong passions.  Mix in music and there it is.  I started as a teenager with a video camera and ended with a film degree from UCSB.  With filmmaking I can create pictures I cannot draw, tell stories that will not bore you and weave in music I cannot play.  It is a genius medium for me.
Should have figured a man with your talent was a Gaucho.  Day 1 of what was to become Manufacturing Stoke, get us in to your head a bit, what were you setting out to do and did you have a working title?
I went to a green surf expo at Seaside reef last fall with my wife Petra and noticed a shift in surfing involving organic products and recycled materials while steering away from petrochemical components.  I did my initial research and told Petra I think I had a film about sustainability in the surf industry.  I recruited my old film schoolmates Geoffrey and Max and set off to do a documentary miniseries called Sustainability: surfing looks inward. Originally, we were going to do four 15 minutes episodes based on surf wax, board construction, wetsuit materials and finally, the clothing industry.
When did you know you were on to something and/or when did any initial film direction shift?
I noticed a huge shift after our first couple of interviews.  Since we started with wax we interviewed John Baker Dahl of Wax Research, Matt Mattoon from Matunas Wax and Lucas Dirkse who made his own wax.  These guys have great stories.  I knew after these three interviews that we had a feature length documentary so we went ahead and scheduled all of the interviews and changed our direction drastically.  Over thirty interviews later we have rare and amazing insight into the inner workings of the surf industry.  The good, the bad and the ugly.
What were some of the hardships you encountered in your production journey?
The majority of films in the surf industry are brand driven and financed by deep marketing pockets.  Since this is an independent documentary analyzing the surf industry, we had to finance it ourselves.  How do you take money from a company without being influenced?  So, that being said, this film would not have been possible without the “collaborative” mentality.  We had amazing production support from family, filmmakers, musicians, and artists alike.  I was amazed and honored by all the people who truly got behind this film in any way they could.
Without divulging your thesis or giving away the “best parts,” is there a particular situation or common theme that was a shock to you?
The truth is shocking.  I wanted to provide a platform for surfers to discuss their thoughts on the industry.  I did not want to influence this film at all.  I commend the brave individuals who agreed to be filmed and to be honest.  Some companies know they have a checkered past but are still striving to do better.  Some companies knew that doing an interview could possibly be damaging.  While other companies flat out refused to talk to me.  Think about who is in the film, and then think about who is not in the film.  Everybody had a chance.
Is the film going to making the rounds on the circuit/where can folks check it out?
MANUFACTURING STOKE has a very busy summer schedule.  We have been officially selected for international film festivals in Hawaii, France, and Germany.  And misfit pictures also presents the MANUFACTURING STOKE anti-STADIUM SUMMER TOUR and EXPRESSION SESSIONS.  Check www.manufacturingstoke.com for more film and tour information.  Any excuse to get in the water is a good enough excuse for me.
Whose been your inspiration and assisted you along the way….shout-outs?
My beautiful wife Petra, who produced the film as well.  My two fellow producers, Geoffrey Smart who wrote the story and Maximilian Schmige our director of photography.   Sara Iyer for doing an amazing job editing.  Jeff Phaklides for sound, Craig Mieritz for color and Emanueal Garcia for graphics.  Eric Ramirez contributed immensely to the water photography.  Damain X Fulton created the jaw dropping artwork for the film poster.  Chris Prescott stepped up huge with the music and composing some amazing jams (while touring).  Which reminds me of all of the bands that contributed.  Support your local bands. This is what I mean by collaboration.  So many people put their time and effort into the making of this film.  Ed Lewis for our website and everything else.  Basically everyone in the film as well.  Envirosurfer, Arcona and Grain Surfboards helped make post-production easier.  I made a lot of great friends because of this film.  Shout outs go to Tiare Thompson, Niko Traubman and Lucas Dirkse.  You guys are the future…demand a better one.

MANUFACTURING STOKE IN FRANCE

http://www.surf-film.com/film.php?id=96
PMK

Looks like MANUFACTURING STOKE will have a busy summer...PMK

http://hhonolulu-events.de/surf-festival-neu/

MANUFACTURING STOKE at the 4th Annual Honolulu Surf Film Fetsival

http://www.honoluluacademy.org/events/films/11727-manufacturing_stoke_el_mar_mi_alma
Aloha,
PMK

coming soon...MANUFACTURING STOKE anti-STADIUM SUMMER TOUR AND EXPRESSION SESSIONS PMK