Since I was a boy, I have dreamed of being a man who slides down mountains of water. I decided that I wanted to make a short movie that channeled my spiritual experience of big wave surfing. I wanted to inspire people to live bravely and to chase down their own dreams. To that end, I chose a few lines from a Walt Whitman poem and decided to tell the story of four big wave surfers. My oldest daughter did the voice over and some of my close friends captured the golden footage. This clip is about our journey to the land of the rolling, wet hills.
Patrick Burnet is a pirate because he shapes wooden surfboards and Yuria Muller is a shepherd who lives on land that his family has owned for 10 generations. Emi Erikson and I are the time-travelers. She crosses oceans to ride Africa’s tallest waters while I sojourn through distant lands as a commercial photographer. Jon Foreman lent us his soulful songs and the editors Rash Ferguson and Brett Shaw wove our four stories into one. My hope is that this story inspires people to be brave and to invest in the dreams of others…..as well as their own.
See a 15 minute version of The Shepherd, The Pirate & the Time Travelers HERE, and see more from Dougal on his website and on Instagram.
