Like many artists, filmmaker Kyle Buthman has been using some forced downtime to get creative. The streets of his hometown Santa Cruz, like many places across the country, have been empty and quiet under the circumstances of life during Coronavirus.
When beach closures were still fresh in the Original Surf City USA, he took a ride to the West Side, hoping to get some drone shots of Steamer Lane with nobody in the water. When he passed the famous Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk nearby, he was moved by the sight of a ghost town at a place usually drumming with energy and people. Rides closed. No cars in the massive parking lots. No bodies on the beach. He took his remaining drone battery and captured some footage. The entire scene inspired him to create something new altogether: a portrait of the rest of the town in complete stillness. Empty streets. Empty sidewalks. Empty landmarks.
“Reviewing the footage, I realized I needed something to tie it all together,” he tells The Inertia. “I wanted to use surfing, but how?”
Buthman found an old gas mask in his neighbor’s garage, modified it so it could be used while surfing, and asked local talent, Sam Coffey, to team up with him.
“Luckily, he was into the idea off the bat and we got going the day the beaches reopened. The goal was to have it appear that Sam was the only surfer in the water.”
Driving around town, the two collected shots of the lineups with no crowds, but Buthman was intent on capturing Santa Cruz’s most recognizable wave, Steamer Lane.
“We decided to go on dead high tide to avoid the mid to low tide crowds,” he says. “Of course there were a few epic shots that were ruined due to others in the frame but I somehow managed to get a relatively wide frame with the entire cliff in the backdrop without a person in sight.”
“The best part about wearing the mask was seeing the reaction of people in the water,” Coffey says. “I’m sure they were thinking I was a total weirdo.”
