Fresh Fruit for Rotten Vegetables

Review by Ian Yarnell

Steve Cleveland’s latest surf film, Fresh Fruit for Rotten Vegetables, is a feast of style and futuristic progression served up on longboards... with a side of fish. Being a self-confessed shred-snob, I wasn’t sure if I would make it to the end without switching back to the weather channel, then throwing STF back in the DVD player where it lives. Good thing old Stevie schooled me with his new flick, and made me remember that stoke comes in many forms. The opening montage showed a bunch of guys I had never heard of flaring up and doing things I didn’t even know were possible on boards over seven feet in length, let alone nine or ten. There’s a Joel Tudor part where he seems to be levitating in the curl for ten second intervals. His board falls away behind him and he’s just standing there; effortless, zen-ish, a complete master. Then, about halfway through, there’s a section where a guy blasts a superman air on an eight foot board- and sticks it! What…? Full roundhouse cutbacks where five feet of board blow out over the back of the wave. For me, it was mind-bending stuff. Crazy time. Edited to New Order, Fugazi, The Pixies and a gaggle of other cool bands that I’m too lame to have ever heard of, the sound track is smokin’ and will get you amped, or center your chi, or something. It made me re-think my surfing. Re-consider the possibilities check out the rotten veggies… ripe for harvest at Stoka.