Celebrating its fifth year, the Santa Barbara Surf Film Festival continues to honor surfing history and Santa Barbara’s rich surfing culture, and support ocean conservation. On September 26 & 27th at the Lobero Theatre, the 2025 festival will showcase films about iconic surfboard shapers, surfers, skaters, and Santa Barbara natives. The festival will honor a Carpinteria legendary shaper, and films about surfing in the local area that will inspire both new and old surfers. This year’s festival also includes a life changing uplifting presentation led by a world-renowned surfer. As always, we expect for there to be a few special guest appearances as well! SBSFF supports three ocean-centric nonprofits: Heal the Ocean, Surfrider Santa Barbara Chapter and the Surf Happens Foundation.

Kicking off the festivities on Friday, September 26th at 6:00pm will be 805’s short film Making Waves: The Lakey Peterson Story, about Santa Barbara’s rockstar female surfer, directed by Morgan Maassen. The short will be followed by the world premiere of local filmmaker Hunter Martinez’s short film “17@20” about a big west swell that hit Ventura recently, and a 4K restoration of a 1976 Super 8 short film by the renowned Campbell Brothers, “Before the Flight” which captures the revolutionary surfboard design of The Bonzer in action—the world’s first widely disseminated three-fin surfboard.

Following the shorts, SBSFF will proudly present the Legendary Award to Matt Moore, whose almost 60 years of contributions to watercraft shaping has become part of Santa Barbara’s surfing history. At eight years old in 1960, he began surfing and became interested in repairing the old boards that were hard to find at the time in Carpinteria. By the mid 60s in high school, he was making custom boards and continues with his craft to this day. Matt’s Rincon Design boards have been ridden by Santa Barbara legends such as Chris Brown, Tom Curren and countless others.

Following the awards presentation, SBSFF will present Bob Campi’s “The Shape of Things: The Dick Brewer Story,” a masterful documentary chronicling surfing’s Da Vinci of design – Dick Brewer. Prior to the feature, the audience will enjoy a panel discussion about the film from Anna Trent, Al Merrick, Allen Sarlo, Bob Campi, Jericho Poppler, Chuck Brewer, Jim Kempton and Teri Tico. At 9:30pm, Friday night will conclude with the feature film “The Big White House” by Chris Riel, a film that was 20 years in the making and a 100-year-old Victorian home in Montecito where swarms of upper-class youth found sanctuary. This heartfelt, and at times cautionary tale, shows how they avoided addiction and self-harm in their younger years as they leaned on one another to find their path into the real world together.

SBSFF Saturday September 27, 2025, kicks off at 2:00pm with the “The Rising Star to Surfing Professional” program in conjunction with the Surf Happens Foundation. This program, which was made possible with a grant from the John C. Mithun Foundation Community Access Fund, and will showcase a series of short films and Q&A’s featuring the 2025 Rincon Classic Grom Division surf competition winners, U12 winner Henry Goldstein, U14 RC winner Dominic Arce, U17 Wahines winner Vela Mattive, and U17 Junior Men’s winner Fynn Neth. The program will end with a Q&A with Santa Barbara’s own Lakey Peterson, who has been ranked as high as No. 1 by the World Surf League, the highest professional level of women’s surfing, and Chris Malloy, an accomplished surfer, big wave rider and filmmaker.

At 4:00pm Legendary World Champion Surfer, bestselling author, and globally renowned motivational speaker Shaun Tomson will present his acclaimed multi-media live interactive film, “Surfer’s Code: Stories of Courage and Commitment.” Through breathtaking visuals, personal storytelling, and interactive participation, Shaun takes audiences on a journey and shares the transformative power of The Code, a simple yet profound set of 12 promises that empower individuals to make better choices, build resilience, and navigate life’s challenges with hope and purpose.

At 6:30pm the programming continues with Tony Gentile’s “Shaping the Future” which chronicles the life of renowned surfboard shaper Lance Collins, and his brand Wave Tools, and documents the profound influence his design innovations made on a generation of surfers. A panel of speakers from the film including, Lance Collins, Tony Gentile and Robert Helphand will precede the film with a short introduction.

SBSFF’s Saturday night programming concludes with Dana Shaw’s “Circles: An Ode to Shredding,” a 16mm documentary film that celebrates the nuances of riding waves and skateboarding. It observes a range of people, places and themes that make these underground communities the poetry that they are. From the gathering points that founded style in surfing, to the concrete canvas that is skateboarding and the human connection between.

Heal the Ocean, Surfrider Santa Barbara Chapter and The Surf Happens Foundations will be tabling in front of the Lobero to offer more information and to raise money for their worthy causes with a raffle and silent auction.

Experience the vibrant stories, cinematography and the encompassing energy of the Santa Barbara Surf Film Festival on September 26-27th, 2025. Tickets for the festival are available for purchase at: www.santabarbarasurffilmfestival.com.

ABOUT SBSFF

For decades Santa Barbara has attracted and cultivated a mélange of surf innovators. From board shapers like Renny Yater, Al Merick, Matt Moore, and George Greenough, who have taken shaping to a whole new level. To surfers like Bobby Martinez, Chris Brown, and Tom Curren, whose unique styles have stood the test of time. There is a certain element to “Santa Barbara Surf Culture,” which combines tradition with radical innovation, that has played an influential role in the international surf scene for over 50 years.

The Santa Barbara Surf Film Festival celebrates this rich surf history and the diverse storytelling styles of filmmakers, artists, shapers, and surfers who started it all. The festival started in 2019 with the idea to combine the love of cinema, ocean conservation, and community. Aligning with our mission to protect the ocean, a portion of the festival’s proceeds are given to our local non-profit organizations.