In 1983 Dick Hoole and I finished touring our feature film STORM RIDERS. After the 5 year project (two years to shoot it and three years on the road showing it), we decided we needed a break. It was about that time that VHS hit the market and kinda turned watching surfing films in the theatre to the living room. Fast forward to 2001...........
The Jack McCoy Surf Film Festival kicked off in 2001 with the premier of Jack's film "TO' Day of Days' supported by Jack Johnson's "The September Sessions" and Matty Gye's "Montaj". The tour was the first time Jack hit the ROAD since "Storm Riders". The tour of 19 showings was a "sold out" success with people loving the return of surfing films on the BIG SCREEN in theaters.
The following year, 2002, saw the tour expanded from 19 screenings to 36 right around Australia. The program was made up of the film "TO' Day of Days", witch came back by popular demand, "Kong's Island", and featured the premier of "3 Degrees" starring Mick Fanning, Dean Morrison, and Joel Parkinson. Once again all of the shows were a roaring success.
2003 saw the premier of the Billabong Jack McCoy Surf Film Festival which featured "Blue Horizon". Three years in the making, BH saw the festival go international with screenings in 10 countries, and 156 shows. Staring Andy Irons and Dave Rastovich, the tour was the largest surfing road show that played to over 56,000 people. The film want on to win several international film festival awards.
2004's program consisted of highlights from the bonus sequences from BH and highlights from Thomas Campbell's "Sprout". It was also the big screen premier of Taj Burrows 3rd stand alone film "Fair Bits" Again the Billabong Jack McCoy Surf Film Festival went internationally.
2005 was another international tour of the BJMSF Featuring the XXL Big Wave Awards and the new McCoy feature "Free as a Dog" starting Joel Parkinson. This tour also played in many areas that had previously not had seen a big screen surfing film and the packed houses went nuts. A couple of these new venues were in Munich, Germany, and in Zurich Switzerland. You can go to the freeasadog.com website and read all about the European tour.
For me, the opportunity to share quality surfing films in the true tradition of the surfing film experience where the person who makes the film, meets and greets the audience, introduce the show, give away door prizes at intermission, and then be there to answer questions and share experiences with those who came was a real joy and honor.
The effort to put on the tour, travel the world, the time away from my family, and not having the quality of program to show the fans that had come to expect from the Billabong Jack McCoy Surf Film Festival, I decided to take some time off to be with my family and start developing my next production that I hopefully will be starting in the next year. This production will take at least two years to complete. ....... We'll be back, bigger and better than ever before with what will hopefully be my best film ever.....that's what he is aiming for....
Thanks to Sinclair and Amelia and EVERYONE...world wide, who worked on making the Festival such a success, and a huge thank you to all who came and enjoyed the shows!
STAY STOKED and Aloha, Jack
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