Surfwise: The Amazing True Odyssey of the Paskowitz Family

Really enjoyed this movie. It was about a rather interesting and unconventional family who grew up traveling around in a camper and surfing together wherever they went.

I found this to be an interesting documentary about a family who represents a not so standard deviation from the mean. I appreciated the fact that this film illustrated that the American dream is not all it's cracked up to be. It's great to remind ourselves, in these times of economic stress, that money and things are not always the be all, end all. If this film has anything to say about it, it seems that happiness is just a wave.

not your ordinary family, but that's why it's so entertaining. Surfing was and still is shaped by this family.

This is probably the best documentary I've ever seen. Their story is fascinating, but be advised that there is frank a very graphic language not suitable for younger viewers.

The charismatic doctor and surfing champion Dorian Paskowitz languishes through 2 failed marriages during the conventional 1950s before having his epiphany in which he will be a "free spirit" and travel with his third wife and 9 children like a band of surfing vagabonds. The new lifestyle is great for the father who finds sensual and spiritual fulfillment; sadly, though, it's a prison for his children who must live without schooling, money for clothes, and the normal opportunity to meet kids their age.

This documentary does an excellent job of showing how these children navigate precariously through their one life as celebrities of counterculture and their second life of social dysfunction and resentment toward a father who wanted unlimited freedom for himself and draconian imprisonment for his children.