Riders of the wild west coast caught on film

As American surf docos continue to roll in on the tide, a feature on the history of riding the waves of Auckland's west coast is coming to the big screen.

Old Men of the Point, which covers the history of surfing at Piha, Karekare and the other beaches from 1958 to the present, has its first commercial screenings at Auckland's Academy Cinema next weekend.

Director-producer Evan Booth says the film uses some historical film footage - some of it from surfing features Children of the Sun and Beautiful Day of the 1960s and early 1970s. As well there are interviews with West Coast surfing pioneers and identities.

"We focused on Auckland's west coast where I grew up surfing - that's how I met a lot of these characters - and thought it would be great to record some of their stories before they passed on. That was basically the motivation."

Booth says the film shows how the coastline has changed since visiting American surfers Rick Stoner and Bing Copeland first brought their balsa boards to Piha in 1958.

Combining the archival material, interviews and contemporary footage and editing them into a feature-length film took a year.

"Part of why it took so long was trying to tie in all these different stories about New Zealand surfing history from the 60s and 70s and somehow link them to the modern day," says Booth. "Tying all these characters together was a craft."

Old Men of the Point comes with a dub and electronica-fuelled soundtrack from the Kog Transmissions label.

It screens at the Academy at 8.30pm on Friday March 11 and Sunday March 13 with the possibility of a longer season and a release on DVD.