Surf’s up: Sydney Opera House to showcase ’70s cult Australian surf films

Back in the 1970s, a time when film producer David Elfick recalls “the dole was called the surfing scholarship” the Palm Beach local made two iconic surf movies: Morning of the Earth and Crystal Voyager.

The first, released in 1972, directed by Alby Falzon, from beachside Maroubra, inspired an entire generation of Australian surfers.

The second, made in collaboration with Californian George Greenough, ended up becoming the highest-grossing Australian surf film of its era, earning over $100,000 on its first release, followed by a six-month run in London.

David Elfick, founder of Tracks Magazine, at the Sydney Opera House where his surf film Crystal Voyager will screen 50 years, after its premiere. Credit: James Brickwood

Both would become cult classics renowned for their seminal soundtracks, with Crystal Voyager filmed from the front of a surfboard to the accompaniment of 23 minutes of Pink Floyd.

But back in 1973, Elfick and Falzon – co-founders of surf magazine Tracks with northern beaches surfer John Witzig – wanted a wider local audience for their films. They set their sights on the soon-to-be-opened Sydney Opera House.

They recruited Witzig’s older brother Paul, a fellow surfer and architecture student who met Opera House architect Jørn Utzon on Palm Beach with his family. Utzon, a fan of surfing, helped him get an appointment with the general manager at the time, Frank Barnes.

David Elfick with an original Crystal Voyager posterCredit: James Brickwood

“I made a strong case that our surfing films were a very legitimate part of the Sydney cultural scene, and we deserved a place in the summer house calendar. Further, that the building existed not only for ancient opera lovers but also for the beach kids who would certainly love to come into those soaring sails,” said Witzig, who now lives in Brooms Head.

Barnes accepted the surfers’ arguments.

Crystal Voyager premiered at the Opera House in December 1973, and Morning of the Earth showed at the first surf festival there, too, in 1973.

The original invititation to the first annual summer film festival at the Sydney Opera House.

The “people’s house” became “the surfers’ house” every summer until 1984, when it screened 16 mm surf films in what was then the Music Room (now the Playhouse).

This weekend, 50 years on, a selection of recently restored psychedelic surf classics, including these two, will screen as part of the First Wave film festival.

Films such as The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun (1970) – a precursor to Crystal Voyager, The Blind Sea (2024) about blind surfer Matt Formston, Girls Can’t Surf (2022) featuring Pauline Menczer, and You Should Have Been Here Yesterday (2023) will also screen.

Elfick, who went on to produce Rabbit-Proof Fence and Newsfront with Phillip Noyce, will attend the celebratory screening, which he hopes will be less stressful than the 1973 premiere when they were struggling to finish Crystal Voyager in time.

“It was a bit of a rush job, but Alby jumped into the kombi van with the master version just after we transferred the sound onto it, raced across the Harbour Bridge without paying the toll and screeched up to the Opera House to get it there just in time,” Elfick recalls.

The First Wave at the Sydney Opera House takes place from Friday, August 9, until Sunday, August 11.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.