Going Vertical

The epic search to unravel surfing's great mystery. Who started the shortboard revolution?

Was it, as legend has it, the Hawaiians with their giant waves and proud Polynesian tradition, or the Californians, who continue to be the commercial machine of modern surfing?

Or was it the brainchild of Australian surfing legend and surfboard designer Bob McTavish, collaborating with American ex-pat George Greenough?

The debate still rages across the Pacific - who really lit the fuse of this surfing revolution during the tumultuous 1967 "summer of love" that turned the sport, literally, upside down?

Over the last four decades, dozens of books, movies, and magazine articles have reinforced the prevailing view of surfing history - that Bob McTavish is the one-and-only ging of the shortboard revolution.

But is this claim true? Not according to a groundswell of opinion that’s erupted recently in the United States challenging that long-held belief.

"Going Vertical," for the first time, tells both sides of this compelling story.

Filmed in Australia, Hawaii, and California and featuring extraordinary archival footage of surf legends of the past four decades as well as the hottest surfers today, "Going Vertical" is not your usual surfing film.

Set to a pumping soundtrack including tracks by Pearl Jam, Powderfinger, Spoon, and Boards of Canada, plus iconic artists from the Summer of Love, including Manfred Man, Russell Morris, and Thunderclap Newman, "Going Vertical" is the story of an era of a revolution and the extraordinary characters who made it happen.