Joshua Pomer began shooting The Westsiders when he was just 16 years old. The year was 1980’s and Pomer had borrowed a video camera from Santa Cruz High. What began as an amateur passion project soon became much more. Armed with the bulky camcorder, Pomer recorded the Steamer Lane, the surf antics of his friends from Circles neighborhood, and high school life. Over the years, Pomers friends and crew members – who he now refers to as Darryl “Flea” Virostko, Shawn “Barney” Barron, and Jason “Ratboy” Collins became professional surfers. What happened during that time is more about the social struggles, life challenges, and the unbreakable bond of friendship than it is about the art of filmmaking and surfing itself. It is also what makes the core of Pomer’s documentary that was screened on Saturday, May 8th during Santa Cruz Film Festival. The documentary was shown at the Riverfront Twin Cinema at 6:30 PM.
“From a very tender age I was a movie buff,” says Pomer in classic California slowspeak at the age of 37 with a baby face, “I mean once I had the camera, my friends they became my cast. I was thinking about making this movie way back then. It’s like the 1800 people used to see their lives through the lens of a novel. These easily days we see our lives like movies.”
The film features the life of Flea, Barney, and Ratboy; perhaps the most recognized of many adolescents and young adults who sidled the waves of Steamer Lane and Cowell’s more than going home or attending classes. Death and Drugs cover the early stages of every protagonist’s life in the film, and most of it is spent watching them deal with their addiction and loss. For the trio the glorious moments of triumphant surf contest victory turned out all too sweet as did the oversized check, magazine cover shot and world tour sponsorships. There were also terrifying rock bottom moments like the surfers enduring the demons they battled.
For Barron, a 34-year-old artist and an emotionally turbulent heart of the group, a person who is very tall and has uneven brown curls, a very accurate but unfortunate portion of his life. It also provides a glimpse of how the Westside ‘used to’ look like.
‘The very first time I sat down to watch the movie, it was incredible and a bit fascinating to do. Its like rushing toward a window that continuously moves and peering into your life. such hard work,’ he explains. Barron’s eyes moisten while discussing Carl Reimer, the 19 year old Westside surfer who was shot and killed a few hours after he threw his first backside 360 at the Lane on April 23. ‘It’s incredibly saddening right? In a world I grew up in, people pushed their differences and if they were that willing, they just went to a place and beat each other, not this people shooting craziness.’
The film analysis does not paint a pretty picture of Barron’s Westside. Barron’s Westside was filled with drugs, violence, and aggressive competition. The new young surfers had to prove themselves in and out of the water to get accepted in the neighborhood. Vince Collier, the villain-sage, is one of the most ruthless character in the film. Collier, often referred to as ‘Godfather of the Westside’, is a monstrous figure whose personal accounts superweed the norm. Collier candidly states, in interviews and voice-overs, how he drugged ‘ran’ motorcycle gangs, lorded over surfer packs, and tortured men in the woods. Pomer expresses publicly terrified he and the other surfers were of Collier, but also acknowledges how tough love was exactly what they needed. Collier made the group abide by a strict code of loyalty while and instilled them with the ethos of working harder and surfing more than the rest of the competition at Steamer Lane.
Pomer asserts, “No one had any inkling what Vince did in our absence.” To which he went on to say, “When he opened up for the film, all of us were like ‘Whoa.’ I think he comes out as being pretty scary, but also having a good heart.”
Instead of undergoing an ordinary surf film that implies Santa Cruz surf culture showcasing its wide circumvent tubular shots, big airs, and the best part, its hot indie soundtrack, the audience get to watch Pomer’s example of triumph over tribulation. And for Santa Cruzans, they have been given an essential piece of the puzzle of the city’s unique makeup.
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