Tim Bonython’s surfing documentary The Big Wave project to tour the country

A DISCARDED Super 8 movie camera sitting idle in the home of talkback radio king John Laws changed Tim Bonython’s life forever. The Big Wave Project, his surfing documentary beings screening this week.

A DISCARDED Super 8 movie camera sitting idle in the home of talkback radio king John Laws changed Tim Bonython’s life forever.

It was just one of the many big moments in the award-winning photographer and cinematographer’s four decades behind the camera that have culminated in his most ambitious project to date, The Big Wave Project.

The film showcased in this year’s Australian Surf Movie Festival documents the world’s best surfing gladiators and the monster waves they attempt to tame.

His family’s move to Sydney in 1974, where his dad opened the Bonython Art Gallery in Paddington, introduced him to the world of surfing and he has been documenting surf culture on film ever since.

Big wave surfer Danny Griffith in action at Shipsterns in Tim Bonython's The Big Wave Project.

Bonython expressed his love of the ocean through photography from the age of 12 but it was a visit to the home of Laws that ignited the filmmaker within.

“One of dad’s better friends was John Laws and we used to spend a lot of time at his home in Woollahra where there was this movie camera on the ground. It was a brand new German Nizo movie camera,” Bonython says.

One day he finally plucked up the courage to ask Laws if he could use the camera and his passion for filmmaking began.

“I spent a lot of time on Bondi Beach with this movie camera filming Cheyne Horan,” he said. “He was our best surfer of the time.”

Tim Bonython pictured at Avalon Beach is an award-winner cinematographer who's spent five years making The Big Wave Project, a surfing movie which will be released and taken on tour around Australia from next week. Picture: Renee Nowytarger.

Filming of The Big Wave Project.

Bonython’s father sold the gallery to John Singleton and they moved back to Adelaide in 1974. Here Bonython was sponsored by Top Of Taps Surf Shop to shoot surf competitions at Sydney and Bells Beach.

“Bells Beach in 1981 was pretty much the birth of modern surfing,” he says.

“That is where Simon Anderson pulled this three-fin board out, called a Thruster. He proved to the world that three fins are better than one.”

Bonython showed the Super 8 footage he had shot at the pub next to the surf shop that sponsored him.

“There was line about a mile long going to the Victoria Hotel and this is when I thought: ‘Wow I could make a real living out of this’,” he says.

Ryan Hipwood showing off his big wave skills at Shipsterns.

For the past 15 years Bonython has concentrated on big wave surf action and The Big Wave Project documents this big wave revolution.

It features some of the biggest waves in the world, including Portugal’s Nazare that boasts 30m
A-frame peaks, but it also focuses on what Bonython calls the “band of brothers”, a mateship code among these violent-wave riders.

“When these guys surf these waves, they really look out for each other,” he says.

The Big Wave Project documents the best big wave locations in the world.

A surfer in The Big Wave Project, at the top of a monster wave.

SEE THE BIG WAVE PROJECT

■ May 16, Hayden Orpheym, Cremorne.

■ May 17, Ritz Cinema, Randwick.

■ May 18, Event Cinema, Cronulla.

■ May 19, Balgowlah RSL.

■ May 20, Club Palm Beach.

■ May 21, Avoca Picture Theatre.

Tickets, on sale now, from ASMF.net.au or buy them at the door

You can see the movie camera being held up in bottom right hand corner of the photo.