Surfwise

First Hit: What an amazing story of a family that lived, what they believed to be, the way we all should live.

Having grown up in Southern California and surfed San Onofre, I had heard of the Paskowitz family.

Dorian Paskowitz was a Stanford trained physician who heard a different calling. After a couple of failed marriages and attempting to live a life of a material world doctor with a practice, he gave it up to live a life of a health oriented, surfing vagabond providing free medical assistance when possible.

He married Juliette and they ended up having 9 children (8 boys and 1 girl) while living in a series of second hand 24 foot campers.

They traveled all around the US but home base was San Onofre, California. The children didn’t go to school and the family lived off the grid and off the land. And although it seemed like an idyllic life for the kids; as they grew up and left the nest they lacked the educational skills, understanding of how the rest of the world works, and a working temperament to create a living for themselves and therefore they struggled.

This struggle turned in to, in some cases, a lot of anger towards their parents and between some of their siblings. After about 10 years of not being in contact with Dorian and Juliette, and with Doran being in his 80s, the entire family met again in Hawaii to “close the family circle”.

Doug Pray (Director) weaved interviews and old film clips of the family into reasonably well flowing story of their life. Some of the children had more screen time than others. I think, in all the interviews, the family openly shared their thoughts and wide range of feelings about being raised the way they were.

Overall: I like this film because it is an intimate journey and isn’t afraid to discuss the most personal aspects of their life together as a family. And although I think Dorian had a wonderful idea, the execution hurt the kids in many ways.

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