The story behind this image of the boys (and girls) in this classic red Cadillac is a long tale, which all started close to a year before it was taken. In early 1988, Quiksilver made surfing history when they signed a million-dollar sponsorship contract with Tom Carroll, with one of the clauses being that Tom be included in their film projects.
From Tom’s perspective, an important part of that clause was a commitment to make a feature film that would showcase his extraordinary tube riding ability in waves of consequence.
As Quiksilver’s Australasian Advertising and Marketing Manager at the time, there were months of planning with all the Quiksilver offices around the world, before finally a surf trip to G-Land was announced.
Surfing Magazine was going to cover the trip. Tom’s brother, Nick, was along to write the article and staff photographer, Jeff Hornbaker, would be shooting stills. Cameramen, Dan Merkel, was shooting water footage and Dick Hoole had been assigned to shoot from the land. I was along to shoot stills as well as coordinate the logistics of the trip. It was all systems go.
It absolutely pumped during our trip, and we scored amazing footage of Tom Carroll surfing classic G-Land, however, it wasn’t enough to make a whole film. Over the next six months, footage of Tom and the Quiksilver team was shot during the North Shore winter, before filmmaker, Paul Witzig, came on board as Director with his wife Marianne as Producer to pull the project together.
To finish the film a loose script was put together with a production schedule based around the 1989 Pro contest season in Australia. Paul Witzig was based in Yamba and put forward the prospect of shooting Angourie and breaks on the North Coast of NSW around a swell.
Jeff Booth, Dave Macaulay, Michael Rommelse, and Ross Clarke Jones were on the east coast for the contests, and they were put on standby for a filming session at Angourie. If you can find a copy of the film, you can see the crew scored.
To tie all the surfing together, some of the Quik team riders had to become actors. After his exploits in ‘Mad Wax’ Ross Clarke Jones was cast as the party boy cruising up the Pacific Highway in a bright red Cadillac convertible with his mates Carwyn Williams and Jake Spooner, flanked by a bevy of beautiful girls. The boys in their red Cadillac hit Byron Bay and hooked up with a 13-year-old Danny Wills, or as Tom calls him throughout the film, Daniel, for some ‘grommet training’ and as a surf guide.
There are some funny and cringe-worthy moments in the film. One of many being when the crew hit The Piggery, a Byron Bay nightclub during the 80s, where I got a walk-on role as a Club Patron. There were also some glaring continuity clangers as the crew drove around Byron in the Caddie, but funnily enough these ‘cringe’ scenes were the string that tied all the surfing together in the finished product which became the movie ‘All Down the Line.
