ONE TOUCH
Posted in Freestyling,Photos
Wes Berg had an ambition to one-day contest the 32-mile Molokai2Oahu paddleboard event but only had his first ever paddle on the unique open water racing craft about four months before the 2011 race. But while Wes at least ad a long history as a short-course paddleboard champion, Dean Brady had never paddled anything longer than his big-wave surfboards until four months before the race. Zeb Walsh, on the other hand, was somewhere in between the two. He was both a paddler and surfer but he had never contested anything longer than a 10km paddle. When Wes suggested they all set their sights on racing the Molokai2Oahu, to say they were unprepared was an understatement. As Wes, Dean and Zeb picked up their boards for the first training session, the cameras started rolling. Just four months and a handful of training sessions later, the film documenting their journey had been shot. But while One Touch had a short gestation, it is tremendously rich in content. It is a film that covers a little-publicised sport but gives a great insight into the commitment of its participants and the challenges they confront just to make it to the starting line of the race that has become known as the world championship of paddleboarding.
But One Touch is much more than a film about paddling. Indeed, the actual sport of paddling is perhaps overshadowed by some amazing surf sequences. And therein is one of the key themes of One Touch – the sports of surfing and paddleboarding have a shared history and the rediscovery of paddling as a sport is, in part, a celebration of the heritage of surfing and the global reemergence of the waterman. One Touch was edited in late 2011 and held back from distribution in the hope of gaining a theatrical release. The strategy paid off, with One Touch achieving a national cinema booking in Australia in the lead up to the 2012 edition of the Molokai2Oahu event – an event in which Wes and Zeb, Parko and possibly Dean, are all planning to compete.
ONE TOUCH, our surf film/doco starring Wes Berg, Dean Brady and Zeb Walsh and featuring Joel Parkinson, Bede Durbidge, Jack Freestone, Dusty Payne and heaps more surfers has been selected to go to cinema as part of a RedBull Sundays and Mondays initiative called SESSIONS.
SESSIONS is the 12 best extreme sports films of 2012 playing over a 6-month period in 30 cinemas across Australia. It is backed by Greater Union Event Cinemas and Hoyts cinemas prompting families to get back to cinema to see sports films. It is currently being promoted through all avenues including “movie lovers” their database of over 2 million and in all showing cinemas.
ONE TOUCH features in cinema next weekend July 1 & 2 and 8 & 9 nationally. Sundays @ 4pm and Mondays @ 7pm.
For a 2 for 1 $6 ticket click here.