Patagonia Film’s 'The Yin & Yang of Gerry Lopez'—directed by award-winning filmmaker Stacy Peralta—follows one of the most influential surfers and surfboard shapers of all time as he brings surfing to new frontiers while pursuing stillness of body and mind.
Gerry Lopez has been wowing surfers and surf film audiences for over 50 years.
‘Mr Pipeline’ Mr. Pipeline, is one of surfing’s most enigmatic heroes a Zen Buddhist on land who built his early career on aggressive surfing at one of the world’s most dangerous surf spots. While Pipeline was eating up the world’s best surfers and spitting them out, Lopez was calming paddling into Pipe monsters and casually bottom turning before learning into spitting barrels the size of buses.
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No-one could touch Lopez at Pipe.
It has taken a while but the life of Lopez, surfer, shaper, actor, yoga master has been finally captured on film by award winning filmmaker Stacy Peralta. Peralta himself has reached the pinnacle of his sport (skateboarding), founded a business empire (Powell Peralta) and for the last two decades has carved out a half decent career as a filmmaker (Dogtown and the Z Boys).
Lopez has been a Patagonia Ambassador for year’s so it was only fitting that the company got behind the documentary which had been kicking around for a few years seeking finance.
THE YIN AND YANG OF GERRY LOPEZ is the result and it is a cracker. From start to finish the film delves deep into the life of Lopez… the good (surfing Pipe), the bad (his penchant for dropping in on all and sundry) and the ugly (watching his first surf shop burn down in dubious circumstances). The film features plenty of Pipe barrels and amazing footage of Lopez on surf trips to Mexico, Bali and G-Land plus fantastic interviews with family and friends.
The film features a couple of great local sequences with filmmaker Jack McCoy talking about Lopez coming to Torquay in the early seventies and surfing along the Great Ocean Road with good mate surfing icon Wayne Lynch.
THE YIN AND YANG OF GERRY LOPEZ had a special screening at Lorne Cinema recently with surfer and filmmaker in attendance.
This is a fantastic surf documentary film that digs deep into the life of one of the world’s greatest surfers. Check it out when you can!
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