Craig Griffin Uncharted Waters Interview

Craig Griffin Uncharted Waters Interview

Cast: Wayne Lynch, Gerry Lopez "Mr Pipeline", Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew, Peter 'PT" Townend
Director: Craig Griffin
Genre: Documentary
Rated: M
Running Time: 85 minutes

Synopsis: The Hendrix of Australian surf...

"The journey, I'm pleased to report, is an absolute joy… By the end of Uncharted Waters, you've borne witness to the most important parts of the shortboard revolution". (Surfer Magazine)

Wayne Lynch burst onto the Australian surfing scene in the 1960s and rode a wave like no one else. He opened up fresh possibilities with a radically new vertical style. He was a champion, a draft dodger, a hippie, an outsider, a revolutionary, a messiah, an environmentalist, a victim, a wild man, a pauper and an enigma. He tested himself against the big waves and produced something beautiful and exhilarating and elegant in the process.

If you've ever surfed, or if you appreciate the sheer grace of a board rider racing down the face of a big wave, this biography of one of Australia's legends will make your heart beat that little bit faster and have you longing for the freedom, beauty and simplicity of a wave and a board.

Uncharted Waters
Release Date: October 26th, 2013

Interview with Craig Griffin

Question: Can you talk us through why you wanted to do this film, Uncharted Waters?

Craig Griffin: In some ways it all started a long time ago when I was 14 or 15 years of age; I grew up in Preston, Melbourne which was a long way from the sea and I was surrounded by skin-heads as it was the 1970's, it wasn't a happy time for me.

I was up the coast, with my family and I saw people out surfing and they looked like they were having a really great time and pretty soon after that I bought my first surfboard and became obsessed with surfing and the surfing subculture, I started reading Tracks magazine and one of the people whose name popped up in that was Wayne Lynch!

Wayne Lynch was from Victoria and very few famous surfers, of that time, were Victorian. As I became more and more interested in surfing, I became more interested in Wayne Lynch.

About four years ago I met Wayne Lynch at the opening of a Patagonia store in Torquay and found out that not only did he have a great story, that he was very funny, witty and intelligent. When he gave a presentation, on his life, at Patagonia that day, I was very taken with it and I knew it was the perfect story for a film.


Question: How difficult was it to get Wayne Lynch on board for Uncharted Waters?

Craig Griffin: It wasn't easy because Wayne Lynch is famously reclusive and in the surf world he is well known for shunning the limelight and in fact at the height of his fame, he went bush. Although his known for not loving the limelight I sort of talked to him and said that yes although it was a film about him that I also wanted to make a film about the surfing subculture and the culture of Australia at the turbulent time of the late 60's and early 70's. I wanted to say something bigger than a typical surf film or a film about Wayne Lynch just riding waves which he is absolutely fantastic at. There is quite a bit more to Wayne Lynch than surfing.

Wayne Lynch slowly came around to the project although he was never fully comfortable with it but I kept at it!


Question: How long did it take for the film to come to life, from your initial idea?

Craig Griffin: I first met Wayne Lynch about four or five years ago, now. I was tinkering around with the idea but essentially the last two years, up until the middle of the year, I was working pretty intensively on the film. The first six months of this year was very much taken up with the film, in particular the production and editing of the film which was a massive job.


Question: What do you hope audiences take away from Uncharted Waters?
Craig Griffin: Obviously surfers who have an idea about Wayne Lynch will get a real insight into Wayne and the complexity and multi-dimensional character that he is. The non-surfer will get an insight into why some of us are so obsessed and involved with surfing and the ocean and perhaps an idea of the actual beauty of the sport. As well as an understanding of the environment that Wayne Lynch grew up in, in that part of Victoria which is unique.

Both surfers and non-surfers will be able to get something, from the film.


Question: What did you learn about yourself, whilst filming Uncharted Waters?

Craig Griffin: We had some screenings in America, in particular one in New York and so we showed the film and as we'd seen the film, a lot, we left the cinema before it started and we came back in for the last ten minutes of the film and I could see that the audience had totally bought into the film and it gave me the shivers as I had the recognition of my own work and my own life passing through the films. The fact that we got to show the film in a cinema, in New York, was really exciting and it made me think maybe I had achieved something, in my life (laughs).


Question: What was the most difficult part of filming Uncharted Waters?

Craig Griffin: I'd say the editing because there were parts of the film that Wayne Lynch wasn't that comfortable with and to try to get things I wanted and for him to get things he wanted meant we butted heads, at that point, as we are both very strong characters. It wasn't easy because I had become friends with Wayne Lynch over the process and really liked him but then it comes to a point, when you're telling a story about someone, and you maybe have to say things that aren't necessarily that pleasant about them or that easy to say and any person (writer, journalist) would know the experience of having to diverge with your past from somebody who you really like and respect and have to say things that aren't comfortable to say.


Question: What's next, for you?

Craig Griffin: Uncharted Waters is showing throughout Australia currently and there is a lot to do with promoting the film. I plan on taking a break at Christmas and will start on my next process at the beginning of next year which I would like to be a narrative feature film, that's what I'd really like to do next because I've done quite a few documentaries and I'd like to go to the fiction side of things perhaps with a surfing or ocean theme. I am still thinking about it.


Uncharted Waters
Release Date: October 26th, 2013 Website: www.unchartedwaters.com.au

Interview by Brooke Hunter