The film is set to premiere on the Tracks YouTube channel on Friday 21 November.
‘Channel Man’ tells the story of Red Head’s Col Smith, one of surfing’s most intriguing and perhaps underappreciated figures. Smith was a charismatic titan of Australian surfing in the mid 70s and early 80s. On his first visit to Hawaii, Col redefined the possibilities of backhand surfing when he rode channel bottoms to victory in the1977, Sunset Pro Class Trials. Smith also made a name for himself at Pipe, endearing himself to the Hawaiians with his brazen ability to slay the wave on his radical channel-bottoms and roll with the ‘da boys’ when it was time to party.
In the film, Mark Richards, Rabbit Bartholomew, Tom Caroll, Michael Ho and Derek Hynd are amongst those who offer candid reflections on Smith’s highly original approach to life and design. ‘Channel Man’ also traverses the evolution of the channel bottom, detailing the role played by Col and contemporaries like Jim Pollard, Phil Myers and Martin Littlewood in bringing the curious design into mainstream surfing consciousness.
(Read Stu Nettle’s detailed take on the evolution of the Channel bottom here.)
We caught up with the director, Nicholas Cupelli, to talk about his film, which delves into the life of a free-thinking surfer and his premature death. In an era when pro surfing can look decidedly vanilla, Col Smith’s tale reminds us of a time when individualism was celebrated in surf culture.
What’s your background in film and surf/other?
I grew up about 14 hours from the nearest surf; outside of the Rocky Mountains in Canada and found surfing through skateboarding. I was the filmer in our skate crew and we spent some time making skatevids and that interest led me to surf vids. The first surf film I watched was Morning of the Earth at a friend’s house party. He had a dvd copy of it and I just hid out in the basement and watched it on repeat all night. Life changing. Insane looking back that my buddy had that film, us being in a tiny prairie town. I started to travel after dropping out of university multiple times, cinematography being one of the failed university stints. But the purpose of the travel was to surf. I ended up in Tofino on Vancouver Island so I could surf and work, instead of travelling for waves. I met my wife on the Island and with her being from Australia, we ended up in Aus and have been here the last 5-6 years.
How did you stumble across Col Smith and come to see it as this great untold story?
My partner on the project, Terry Campbell, had been canvasing the Aussie Surf Hall of Fame for about 4-5 years trying to get Col voted in. Just cold-calling, emailing, and insta messaging whoever he could get contact details for and sending them a little fact sheet with Col’s surf accolades and contributions to Channel Bottom design. When I met Terry in the surf, he eventually told me about the legend of Col Smith and his failed efforts to get him in the HOF. After realizing how little info was in the public domain about Col it became evident how important it was to get something out there. His contributions and story are so important to Aussie Surf History and surfboard design history. So, after a surf I pitched a video project to Terry and he asked, “Who’s gonna do that?” And I said, “Me.”
In an era where hi performance, Insta length clips dominate what inspired you to adopt a long form documentary approach?
The project snowballed like crazy from the beginning. We started with the intent to just interview a few local guys around Newy and make a short YouTube video showcasing Col and his channels. But once word got out, we were doing it and with MR and Grubby (Peter McCabe) contributing interviews early on, so many others wanted to contribute. And the more research we did the more we uncovered that wasn’t common knowledge and his story just got deeper and deeper and more difficult to condense. I just thought we needed to take a real crack at telling the entire thing.
There are two stories being told here. The history of the channel bottom and the history of Col.
Yeah exactly, you can’t tell one without the other.
There is a lot of love for Col Smith. It seems like he made an impression from Australia all the way to the North Shore – particularly with guys others saw as too heavy to hang out with.
No matter who we spoke with one thing rang true in every interview. That Col’s personality and individuality was like no other. And that he never hid who he was or compromised his spirit. That seemed to ring true with the Hawaiian heavies, especially Michael Ho, Bryan Surrat, and Rory Russell. It also helped that he could drink and smoke them under the table…and then go out and put on a show in the water.
The film also features some well-known surfing luminaries- Derek Hynd, Nick Carroll, Mark Richards. Their praise for Col is also quite effusive.
I think that comes down to how genuine Col was. This is only through their stories that I know anything about Col. Nick Carroll explained to us that as grommets coming up, Col was a huge influence and role model for them and that he was so relatable because even though he seemed like a rockstar, he still had time for everyone. He treated everyone the same no matter who they were. Add in his insanely good surfing and style and a radical board design and I’m sure you would be hard pressed to find someone who had anything negative to say about him.
He was likeable and good natured, but you get a sense there was a hint of mischief.
We’ve heard a lot of stories from the community and those we’ve interviewed. I’d say a hint is an understatement. Richo tells a (PG) story in the film about lending Col a board for the Mattara and Col winning the comp on it. Richo calls him up to get the board back, but Col had already sold it.
You talk to shapers and surfers and many still struggle to explain why channels may or may not work. Does the film offer answers to the channel bottom riddle?
The general consensus from the legends we interviewed was that Channels are best in clean and powerful/hollow waves. And that the better the waves got the better the boards performed. The speed, the drive, the hold. Col (and AB) completely validated the channel bottom, and they did it in all conditions. Still, they are a radical design and not for everyone.
Hawaii is portrayed as a proving ground for both Col, and the channel bottom designs by Jim Pollard he took over.
MR dives into it with us and explains that Hawaii was the ultimate test to prove you could surf big powerful waves, and that it was the undoing of many board designs. When Col arrived with his Pollard Fluid Foils on the North Shore, it was his chance to prove himself in the Mecca of surfing and push himself and the design to the limit. MR (and others) were skeptical of the design and completely taken aback. Col proved them all wrong and history was made. Upon returning to Australia, Jim Pollard wouldn’t share his design and shaping secrets with Col, so he continued on with his shaping partner in Redhead, Martin Littlewood (Delta Designs), to develop the Clinker Bottom, hard-edge channel bottom. And that’s where Al Byrne enters the story.
Modern pro surfers can look a little conservative when it comes to board design, their surfing styles and how they project their images. Does Col represent the magnetic power of someone who was a genuine surfing individual?
I think he represents that for sure. Again, I only get to read the old mags and listen to the oral history as told by his peers. In our interview with Wayne Lynch, he described Col as someone who actually made a contribution to surfing as well as being among the last and/or dying breed of pro surfer/shapers. But he wasn’t just a guy who ripped. He was a larger-than-life personality that everyone seemed to adore. From the research we’ve done and getting to listen and converse with some of the ultimate legends of surfing, it sounds like there will never be anyone like him again.
What do you hope people get out of watching Chanel Man?
I’ve always had lots of respect for the history of any of my interests. Surfing, skateboarding, music, ice hockey, you name it. Its important to understand where it all came from and who helped get it to where it is. All the different eras of progression or change. You need to look back and get the whole story to understand the big picture. When we started we hoped the documentary might be a tipping point in getting Col in the surf HOF. That ship seemed to sail ages ago, and now we just hope people see it and actually learn something and realize how important his contributions were. And if no one sees it atleast we did our part and put in the effort to get it out there and contributed a tiny bit to this subculture we love.
Are you working on anything else in the surfing genre?
Terry and I are about to dive into a similar project with Grubby aka Peter McCabe.
