Driftwood (Peter Trow, 2012): USA

Reviewed by Casey Cummings at the Metro 4 Theater, Santa Barbara.

Driftwood takes you around the world to different locations and shows surfing mainly but also cultural differences among countries they visit in the movie.

Peter Trow, a Santa Barbara native, does an excellent job directing this beautiful masterpiece which takes you to different locations around the world to show surfing. Along the way they don’t just experience surfing, but differences in culture and how people live in different parts of the world. There first stop along the way is Sri Lanka. An island right of the coast of India where the weather is warm and in search to find good surfing spots. When they arrive they are informed that there’s a huge celebration going on to worship buddha which happens every 6 years or so. They are greeted buy the kind people of Sri Lanka and learn many new things about there religion and culture. The next stop along the way is a much colder place then Sri Lanka and almost half way around the world, Iceland. In hopes to surf a famous spot, there blocked off by an erupting volcano and are forced to travel in the opposite direction. Along the way they come to find a great spot, which is shown above. For a few days they are able to surf the new landscape and travel around Iceland as well. After they depart Iceland, they arrive in Colombia. Right off the bat there able to find incredible surfing locations and meet people along the way. They meet a boy who was given a surfboard by a tourist and is one of the only surfers in the country. He is able to show them good spots and how is people live in Colombia. After this long journey by plane, The crew decides to drive all the way up to Canada where they find places along the way.

Overall a wonderful documentary that is based around surfing but consists of much more then just that. Its gives you an idea about what these different countries are like, how the people of these countries live, and also the landscape as well. I recommend seeing this film if you enjoying surfing but also if you like experiencing different parts of the world.