“The essence of the film shows the progression of big wave slab surfing, and how it changed what was possible on a wave like that,” Talon Clemow told SURFER. “Because it’s the most perfect wave, but then it’s just got this imperfect step in it. That’s what makes it so challenging and so compelling.”
The Australian filmmaker, who helms One Palm Media and is best known for his acclaimed surf documentary Thundercloud, was talking about his new film Stern Fever. The documentary tells the story of Shipstern Bluff, Tasmania’s notorious slab wave, and the surfers who pioneered the iconic big wave location from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s and how in the early 2000s it was thrust into the surfing spotlight. The narration is done by Simon Baker, star of The Mentalist, L A Confidential, and Breath.
After a couple of sold-out shows in Talon’s adopted home of Tasmania, the film had its first overseas premiere recently at the Lido Theatre as part of the Newport Beach Film Festival. “It’s an exquisite homage to the majestic Tasmanian coast and the spirit of big-wave surfing, and it deeply resonated with our audiences,” said the film Festival’s Director of Special Programs, Lindsay Feibleman. “The world deserves this film; the men and women who ride this wave deserve this film.” It won the Festival’s Best Action Sports Feature Award and is now set for a run of screenings in California theatres in late November.
Featuring archival footage from initial pioneers like Dave Guiney and Andy Campbell, and photography alongside contemporary interviews and stunning high-resolution cinematic surfing footage, it is a documentary that brings together stories from the voices of those who were there in the beginning and from those who remain committed to the wave.
“A key aspect of this film is that it shows how much of a daunting prospect it was back in those early days,” said Clemow. “We’ve all seen it today in videos, photos and magazines, but the bravado or the courage to take it on and work it out in the early days, with no one around for hundreds of miles, was inspirational.”
NZ expat Guiney, a compelling, charismatic but somewhat slippery character in the film, may have been the first to surf it, but it was Andy Campbell who put the pedal to the metal and was the first to charge the step in the late ‘90s. He is the film’s articulate and measured centrepoint, initially charging the wave solo, and then conflicted as he wrestles with the decision to open the wave up to the wider world, initially through inviting Dave Rastavich, Brendan “Margo” Margieson and filmmaker Justin Gane.
In the early 2000s, its cover is blown as an iconic session with Kieren Perrow and Mark Mathews featured in Tracks goes viral, as much as that was possible pre-internet. As the surf world finds out about the new wave, it soon attracts the best surfers in the world, who spar with an increasing pool of talented and absurdly committed locals. Inevitably, conflict arises as surfers, photographers and the surf media all scrapped over surfing’s newest reputation enhancer and profile booster.
Clemow had first toyed with the idea of a Shipsterns film way back in 2010, when he had first started filming the wave in his role as the Billabong’s Audio Visual Manager. It was his footage of iconic sessions with Laurie Towner, Andy Irons and Kelly Slater (which all feature in the film), to name just a few, that were beamed worldwide and added to the wave’s unique place in surf lore.
The initial idea didn’t pan out, but after committing to the idea of a film based around the local surfers, he moved to Tasmania in 2015 and has been based there since. After spending almost 10 years on that project, it, however, didn’t get off the ground.
Courtesy Stern Fever
”It’s been a long, long journey, with a couple of false starts and then ultimately, I pivoted in the last couple of years,” he said. “I decided to focus on the bigger picture: the people, events and progression that transformed the wave from a remote Tasmanian secret into an international benchmark and proving ground for slab surfing’s elite.”
The locals angle, that Clemow, along with all visiting surfers, universally agree surf the wave better than anyone, is covered, but isn’t a focus. You sense that story still needs to be told, and hopefully will be one day. Stern Fever’s success, however, is that it expertly mixes the personal insights and how that led to the wave’s public persona. It is a remarkable story of how one of the world’s most unique and heavy waves, located in one of the most remote and beautiful places on Earth, has kept the surfing world transfixed for 25 years.
The film is effectively a biopic and a tribute to the Shipstern step. It is that single slice of bathymetry that makes this wave so unique, and attracts a rare set of deranged humans who want to tackle it. It was a story that needed to be told. In Clemow, there is no one better placed or equipped to tell it.
For screening locations, dates, and details, click here.
Related: Commitment Counts When Hunting the World’s Heaviest Waves