Sara Kate and I have often talked about just taking off and hitting the road for a year before Ursula gets too old and has to go to school. We'd live small and light and see the world. There was a family in the New York Times that did it a few years back (for a year), and we ate it up. Then there was the Janssen's Live Lightly Tour last spring...
Behind all of this is a belief that travel of this sort provides a path to happiness and personal meaning away from the consumption and cares of the homebound, workaday world. It is also a challenge and a trust fall. Can I do it?
Surfwise is the true story of a family that not only did it, they did it for a long time in a 24 foot camper with 9 children and inspired and horrified many for doing so. This remarkable film by Doug Pray tells the tale rivetingly well:
There are many different ways to drop off the grid, but few dropped off with such style and urgency as Dorian Paskowitz, the paterfamilias of what is lovingly and at times enviably described as the first family of surfing. It was an intensity in part born of his passionately felt engagement with history as a Jew, which took him from Stanford Medical School in the 1940s to button-down respectability in the 1950s and, thereafter, on the road and into the blue yonder with a devoted wife, nine children, a succession of battered campers and the surfboards that were by turns the family’s cradles, playpens, lifelines and shields.
If you have ever been tempted to hit the road, challenge conventional wisdom, live with very little and search for health and happiness, this is for you.
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Regarding Surfwise, my husband and I are rock climbers, and in our circle, hitting the road for months, and even years is common place, even among those with kids. We did it in '04 and '05 for 13 straight months in a Tacoma pick up truck with two dogs. It was by far the best year of our lives. We quit our jobs, put everything we owned in storage or got rid of it, and did a big circle around North America. Everyone should do this on some level if ever the chance!
view dsigninslc's profile
One of the worst documentaries ever. I was born and raised in the So Cal surf culture. Ask anyone with any cred in the real surf community and you'll find Dorian Paskowitz is hardly someone to laud.
view Seaside's profile
We thought it was an OK movie, but it would have been better had the family not been given so much editorial control. The warm and fuzzy happy ending didn't quite ring true. Still, an interesting guy and family!
view m_j_s72's profile
could you post a link to the NY Times article you mention?
view goodygumdrops's profile
The father is really a nasty piece of work from what I understand.
view Erika in Seattle's profile