Legendary surf filmmaker Jack McCoy will be at Avoca Beach Theatre on May 14 to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Blue Horizon, a documentary covering the surfing career of Andy Irons and Dave Rastovich at 6.30pm.
McCoy, who was awarded the 2025 Service to the Industry Award by the Australian Surf Industry Association at the Honours Night on May 5, will be doing his trademark talk story presentation prior to the movie where he shows unseen footage and stories from throughout the production.
He was able to follow Irons for three world titles in 2002, 2003 and 2004 when he rivalled Kelly Slater as the greatest surfer of all time.
The cult classic film follows the journeys of two of the world’s best surfers of the time, who chose very different paths to the pinnacle of surfing with Rastovich (Ratsa) choosing to escape the spotlight as a free surfer in search of perfect waves across every corner of the globe, while Irons became the most famous surfer on the planet by plying his trade on the ASP World Tour (Association of Surfing Professionals).
McCoy began shooting the feature film in 2002 and captured Irons’ treble of World Titles and the intense rivalry he shared with Kelly Slater which reached boiling point when Irons took down Slater in the final event of the year at Pipeline to claim the 2003 World Title.
The anniversary of the film couldn’t come at a more relevant time with recent world champions John John Florence and Stephanie Gilmore stepping away from professional surfing to focus on free surfing and cultural exploration.
“When I came up with the concept of the film, I wanted to show the audience the two distinct paths in professional surfing,” McCoy said.
“It was ultimately the ying and yang of surfing and I not only had two of the best surfers to ever do it, but two of the most unique characters I’ve come across in my life.
“The end result was magic, I couldn’t have scripted it better.
“Andy has always held a special place in my heart and I wanted to do something to honour his legacy and what better way than to showcase the amazing drive and determination it took to become world champion.
“Not once, not twice, but three times in a row.”
The film won many awards including the 2004 Surfer Movie of The Year, touring 10 countries, showing 156 screenings in front of more than 88,000 people.
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