I think people, even those who aren’t big travellers, wish they could just pick up and leave it all behind — the mediocre job, the boring classes and the never-ending bills….just disappear into the horizon to find something bigger than everyday life. Some people refuse to accept the mundane and, like Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, they step out of the norm and into something else altogether.
Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, a successful doctor and serious surfer, decided one day in 1956, after suffering from anxiety and insomnia, that enough was enough, packed up a 24 foot camper van with his wife and nine children and set off on the open road in search of the “perfect wave”. For the next 20 years he and his family traveled far and wide, ending up in destinations like Pensacola, Florida and the beaches of Venezuela. And now, the 85-year-old surf patriarch and apparent sex guru, has a documentary about his life and family to be released in theatres this May. Aptly, named Surfwise, since he believes “there is a wisdom in the waves”, the documentary brings together the “first family of surfing” to try to catch a glimpse of how they managed to live the dream and how one man’s choice affected his whole family. You can check out the trailer here.
Or even better, you can learn to surf from an actual Paskowitz. The family has been running a surf camp for the past 33 years and their motto is “we don’t just teach people to surf—we create surfers.” After watching the trailer, I checked out their site and was excited to see they are a running a surf camp in Cabo San Lucas from May 4th to 10th…but the camp costs $2900 US (yikes!) so unfortunately I won’t be attending. Looks like living in a van and learning to surf has worked out pretty well for these nomadic surfers.
Watch the trailer for the documentary after the jump: