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Hero image for Surf Sail

Surf Sail

Short Film (Full Length) – 1978

A 1978 documentary that follows the attempt by three young people to be the first windsurfers to cross Cook Strait. Directed and narrated by Sam Neill (soon to be famous as an actor) for the National Film Unit. The skeptical Cook Strait pilot John Cataldo asks them: "do you wanna have a crack?" "Yeah, bloody oath" one of the surfers replies. They face the Strait's infamous winds, tides, swells, sharks and exhaustion. Some stunning helicopter shots include a windsurfer clipping through whitecaps with a pod of dolphins in its wake.

Acknowledgements

ARCHIVES NEW ZEALAND REFERENCE – W3335/8
Source format – 16mm motion picture film

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