Last week we had the experience and honor of showing BETWEEN THE LINES to the films narrator, John Milius and his long-time friend Leonard Brady. We asked him to share a few thoughts with us afterwards.

JOHN MILIUS on BETWEEN THE LINES

SCOTT BASS: Okay, you’ve just viewed the documentary film BETWEEN THE LINES for the first time, what are your thoughts?

JOHN MILIUS: I loved it. The two surfers are such great characters. What’s really remarkable is that the two sort of become more and more alike. At the very core of all true surfers, the core of our nature is that we really do not like authority. The film really captures that and it brought the war back and it really portrays surfing as it should be portrayed. You know, as an escape and as a culture. It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen on the

Vietnam era. BETWEEN THE LINES is the real deal. This is the soil from which APOCALYPSE NOW grew out of; it’s a simple as that. The surfers go out and they do it, you know… they live the whole Charlie’s Point reality… the Colonel Kilgore experience (Laughs). It’s just wonderful.

SCOTT BASS: There have been a few Vietnam War movies that carry in them a character or theme that’s based around surfing? BIG WEDNESDAY, APOCALYPSE NOW, even PLATOON… Why do you think directors and screen writers have included surfers in their portrayal of the Vietnam War?

JOHN MILIUS: Well the Vietnam War was a

California war. It was a clash of cultures between the

United States and this far off Asian land. But even more than that, it was a clash between

California culture and Asian culture. There was

California music, and Hells Angels flames on Huey Gunships. It was a

California war. I guess the surfer is a cliché for the Vietnam War in the same way that the kid from

Brooklyn stuck in the B-29 tail gunner position was the World War II cliché.

SCOTT BASS: Is it true that surfing and surfers represent the ultimate freedom so the concepts are great tools for contrast?

JOHN MILIUS: Yeah I think that is part of it, but it is also the idea that the general public thinks, ‘oh my God, when I go in the Army, I’m never going to do anything even remotely as cool as surfing.’ Surfing is completely useless. There is no redeeming value, unless of course you are a surfer. In the army you can play football or baseball or box, but surfing is completely useless. But when you think about it, it’s quite logical. I mean the concept of surfing in

Vietnam makes perfect sense. There is an ocean in

Vietnam. There is the

South China Sea. There are waves in

Vietnam.

SCOTT BASS: Why is the famous surfing scene that you wrote into APOCALPYSE NOW important to the movie? What did you want us to learn?

JOHN MILIUS: Well first of all, Colonel Kilgore subjugated himself to his hero Lance (surfer). Surfing is what Kilgore loved so to have Lance in his presence; it was like having Michael Jordan or Kelly Slater in your presence. Lance was a surfing hero and like in any other sport a sports hero has a tremendous amount of weight and a tremendous amount of respect. Especially as an individual sports hero like you have in surfing. You know, Kilgore is like, ‘cool, I get to watch Lance surf.” I love the idea of this mighty Colonel getting to be a kid again. You know he says to Lance, “I really admire your cutback and your nose riding.” Of course it is still Kilgore’s world. He takes Charlie’s Point so the two of them can go surfing.

SCOTT BASS: That particular part of the scene, where did you get that concept?

JOHN MILIUS: The whole idea of blasting the VC off of the point so they could go surfing is an idea I got from Ariel Sharon.

Sharon wanted to go skin diving near the

Suez Canal. He had heard that there was a particular type of fish that lived there and

Sharon wanted to go diving and see these fish.

Sharon was like, ‘I’m going to go down there and GET THEIR FISH!’ (much laughter). Of course

Sharon was going to be traveling by tank (laughing). You don’t get much better than Ariel Sharon. If Ariel Sharon could have been a surfer he would have been. I’m surprised he wasn’t because there is good surf in

Israel.

SCOTT BASS: How do you think BETWEEN THE LINES portrays surfers in context to the average guy who had to face the draft?

JOHN MILIUS: I don’t the average guy has the balls of either Pat (Farley) or Brant (Page). I mean these guys are surfers and surfers ARE unique. Look at (Mark) Martinson. He says, “I’m not going down to that draft board. I’m a f…..g surfer man (pause). I’m a surfer. I don’t hardly even wear shoes (laughter).” We are a special breed. And Farley is like that too. He says, “I don’t mind killing g..ks.” We’re surfers. We are individuals. You know Pat is the right wing side of it and Brant, you know, is sort of the left wing side of it, but you know that’s part of being a surfer. But they are in many ways the same because they are individualistic. Surfing IS its own culture. It’s peculiar. It’s a tribal culture. It’s not a part of normal society. We are different. We are branded. We can have jobs and everything else in society but we are different. It’s almost a religion.

SCOTT BASS: Was the

Vietnam era a significant turning point for surfing as a culture?

JOHN MILIUS: Yeah, because surfers basically went hippie. Man of the land type hippies. You know, guys on

Maui chanting their mantra, living off the land, eating blotter acid, surfing

Honolua

Bay and in their down time contemplating the ultimate Brewer gun. Now, the other significant part of surfing during that time was people like Farley. The surf media just didn’t publicize it. Surfers going to war for their country? What? They might have been viewed as slightly unhip. But they became hip again with APOCALYPSE NOW and now this film. Many, many surfers went to

Vietnam. Some wanted to talk about it and others never wanted to talk about it. What is great in this film is that there is no condemnation for either group, going to war or not going to war. What is really powerful about BETWEEN THE LINES is that you can really view the era in the light of time and history. For me, this is my era, this is my generation. There is a time when you are distant enough from it that it becomes a piece of history. Like talking about the Civil War or World War I. You can see it clearly for what it is. It’s almost like a sigh of relief. It doesn’t have the weight of judgment anymore. The burden of judgment is gone.

SCOTT BASS: There are a lot of larger than life characters in the surf world.

JOHN MILIUS: Well Laird (Hamilton) is sort of like Daniel Boone. He’s a frontiersman. He led the way out at Peahi. He really is like Daniel Boone. He’s a very affable guy that everybody likes, but he also lives in his own distinct world. Laird is a pure character. He is as close to those old mountain men as you’ll ever find. Like Daniel Boone, Laird is the best of the best. He is the model. Laird never really sought any publicity. He was going to do what he did and what he does with or without us. He just did his thing. But it is interesting because people have found his path and cluttered it up. But for a while he was the only one, or you know one of just a few. Of course now there is a lot of guys doing it. That’s inevitable isn’t it?

SCOTT BASS: If there is one John Milius film, besides APOCALYPSE NOW and BIG WEDNESDAY, that a fan of you work should go see which one would you recommend?

JOHN MILIUS: Gosh I don’t know. I like ROUGH RIDERS a lot. RED DAWN. No. What they should see, I don’t why it skipped me, they should go see CONAN! (laughter) CONAN THE BARBARIAN has it all. I mean it’s got Gerry (Lopez); it’s got Arnold (Schwarzenegger).

SCOTT BASS: There’s a rumor floating around that your movie RED DAWN is being remade with a modern twist.

JOHN MILIUS: Well, (chuckles to himself) if Hillary Clinton gets elected President we wouldn’t have to remake anything, it would be reality.

We have finally put together a really solid demo fleet of surfboards at Hansen’s Boardroom in Encinitas California. The surfboard selection consists of boards from Surf Tech and Boardworks. All these board are epoxy sandwich construction, but over the past 5 years they have become one of the most popular technologies available in the surfboard market place. We decided to get serious about the demo program when we realized that the price of surfboards is much higher and the economy is slowing so people are only going to buy if they are sure they like the surfboard. Well there is really only one way to know and that is to ride the board so now you can stop by our surf shop and choose from over 40 surfboards to demo. If you want to check out the list of board as well as get more details on this demo program click the link below.

Click Here For The Demo Surfboard Page

This article has some great points as to why Hansen’s has decided to provide a demo surfboard program.

Boosting Surfboard Sales in Today’s Confusing Market!
In the two years since the closing of Clark Foam, surfboard sales have been on the decline—much to the dismay of surfboard shapers, glass shops, fin and accessory companies, and surf shops alike. There are many reasons or theories as to why this decline happened, especially after several years of steady growth in hardgood sales.

As an industry observer (and consumer), the reason seems obvious— today’s consumer is completely and totally confused with too many choices, blanks, shapes, and materials.

Foam, epoxy, TufLite, Aviso, Firewire, four-fin, moontail, vector fins, whatever. It all spells product overload. In addition to the overwhelming number of choices and options, prices have also risen on new boards.

Now more than ever the consumer needs to be educated by experts working in the shops.

“Too many choices, too many options, not enough information, too expensive if you buy the wrong board”—I’ve heard it all while standing in shops along both coasts. Even surf shops with more than 300 new boards in stock are frustrated, as their sales are still flat.

As evidenced by the success of recent consumer-oriented surfboard expos in Southern California, the consumer wants to know about all of the new materials, new shapes, new fins, and more! Today’s consumers has more choices and questions than ever before in the history of surfing, yet more must be done to educate them about which board, shape, fin set-up will help improve their surfing.

For the rest of this article click this link

Well, I just got back from a conference down in Cabo last week and one of the guest speakers was the CEO of Zappos, an online web site that started out selling shoes and is now one of the biggest online sites in the world. He talked at the conference for over an hour about customer service, and how important this is to the overall success of a business. I thought he made many great points and I guess the proof is in the pudding. They are one of the fastest growing companies in the US right now.

What I am trying to get at is that Hansen Surfboards, from our single location in Encinitas, California, has made customer service the 1st priority over the past 50 years in business, and we are proud to say that began with Don Hansen, who started the company. We feel like at the end of the day, the one thing that can make us different from everyone else is our customer service and our willingness to go the extra mile.

We also make sure that our customer service commitment happens online. We are very proud of our friendly customer service gals who will do anything to make sure that an online customer gets taken care of. For example, if we sell out of a fast-moving item that has been ordered online, we will go above and beyond to make sure our customer gets taken care of and has a good experience.

I just recently had a customer who ordered some Quiksilver boardshorts that our system said were available, but we could not find them. His order was then backordered and he was leaving on vacation to Maui for Memorial weekend. He was very frustrated and understandably so, but we contacted him the minute the email came in and offered him a couple of different options to make sure he was taken care of for his trip. He emailed right back and here is his response when he heard what we were going to do for him. (His is the the review from Mark H near the top of the page).

I guess the reason for the blog is to let everyone know that while Hansensurf.com cannot always be perfect, we recognize that we have to be honest to our repeat customers as well as our potential new customers. When you buy from us you are buying from a 50 year old family-owned and operated store in Encinitas, CA. We want you to know that if there does happen to be a problem with your order, be it a backorder or a sold out item, we will do what ever it takes to make you happy.

Have a safe and fun Memorial Day weekend!

Josh Hansen
Hansen Surfboards Inc.

Just a reminder that summer is around the corner and our 3 day Memorial Day Sale starts tomorrow. It will run from May 24th through May 26th.

Lots of great summer gear is available including walkshorts, boardshorts, girls swim suits, sandals, sunglasses, shoes and much, much more.

Hope to see you there!

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT SCREENING BENEFITING THE RICK THOMAS VETERANS COUNSELING CENTER BETWEEN THE LINESthe true story of surfers and the Vietnam war JUNE 26 - 8 PMHANSEN SURFBOARDS 1105 S. Coast Hwy 101 Encinitas, CA 1-800-480-4754 General Admission $10 Tickets available at the door or in advance at HANSENS. Doors open at 7 VIP $35 (advance purchase only) VIP catered reception by JAKES DEL MAR & preferred seating. VIP reception begins at 6:30 p.m. All seating is very limited and advance ticketing is recommended -Rain or shine-

Hello Sponsors

We would like to thank you all very much for your very significant and gracious contributions to BETWEEN THE LINES. Without each of you the film and book would have never happened. We are happy to announce the Limited Engagement Veterans Benefit Screening of BETWEEN THE LINES on Thursday JUNE 26, 2008. Other shows are being planned throughout the summer.

This event will benefit the

Rick Thomas Veterans Counseling Center in San Diego. With this in mind we are requesting that your guest purchase a ticket for the event. Rather than purchasing tickets at Hansens, you and one guest will be on a guest list at the door. Your guest can pick up and pay for their tickets the night of the show. The seating is limited, especially the VIP reception. We are asking you to limit your request to yourself and one guest on the list. Please purchase additional tickets at Hansen’s as described below. Thank you for this consideration.

Details are below; VIP tickets are $35 and General Admission is $10. I will be surprised if any tickets are available the night of the show.

Check the website at http://betweenthelinesfilm.com/ for updates. We also have a My Space site at http://www.myspace.com/btlfilm Thanks for all of your support throughout this project. We are really looking forward to seeing you all!

We have another sale coming up and there are going to be some great deals to be had. Lots of boardshorts and trunks, tons of shirts, sweatshirts, and shoes. Always a bunch of sandals and a huge selection of womens and mens clothing. Sale dates are May 24 25 26 2008

We hope to see you in the parking lot!

Thanks,

Hansen Surf Shop Crew

Don’t go thinking all of these shark sightings will scare away the tourists…just click the link below to see the proof.

http://www.break.com/index/surfing-with-a-great-white-shark.html

Then you can decide!

WE HAVE A PRESS RELEASE:

4th Annual Kids for Clean Water Menehune Surf Festival

May 6, 2008

On Sunday May 3rd the Coronado Surfing Association hosted the 4th Annual Kids for Clean Water Menehune Surf Festival. With the support WiLDCOAST, Emerald City Boarding Source, and the City of Coronado, the annual event was once again held at the Coronado Shores.

The Clean Water event was created for Menehunes, with divisions (both long and short board) for boys and girls ranging in age from 5 to 17. Conditions for the contest were fair, as the 3-4 foot waves were clean early on. As the day progressed, the south wind rolled in, thus making the conditions a bit tricky for some of the older Menehune divisions. The surfable set waves rolled into a shorebreak reform for the littlest chargers.

With the south wind picking up, the finals got underway and saw some standout performances even with the less than perfect conditions. Clifford Nies took home first place in the boys 14-17 longboard division and second in the short board division, as Tyler Smith walked away on top of the boys 14-17 shortboard division. Sven Karlsson, Israel Dedina, and Jack Aldredge all took home multiple hardware in the boys 11-13 long and short board divisions. Aldredge won the shortboard division, while Karlsson took the longboard bragging rights. Daniel Dedina was the boys under 10 winner for the second year in a row, as was Malia Faramarzi in the under 10 girls division. Rounding out the top honors was Michaela Branscomb who won the girls 11-13 combined event.

For the rest of this article and all the surf contest results click the link below:

Annual Kids for Clean Water Menehune Surf Festival