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Surf Sail
Short Film (Full Length) – 1978
This 17 minute documentary follows an attempt by Chris Wylie, Grant Beck and Susie Gibb to be the first windsurfers to cross Cook Strait. It is directed and narrated by Sam Neill, who had recently starred in breakthrough movie Sleeping Dogs. Skeptical Cook Strait pilot John (Giovanni) Cataldo asks them "do you wanna have a crack?" "Yeah, bloody oath" replies one of the trio. The surfers face the strait's infamous winds, tides, swells, sharks and exhaustion. Some stunning helicopter shots include a windsurfer clipping through whitecaps with a pod of dolphins in its wake.
John Cataldo's greatest fear on Cook Strait is sharks. If the weather gets too cold, or the wind too strong, he can take them out of the water. He can control these things, but he can't control the sharks.– Narrator Sam Neil introduces John Cataldo
Key Cast & Crew
See all 12 credits
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