Fish

While filmmaker Joseph Ryan's enthralling documentary can sometimes lose the viewer by getting too deep into the technical weeds of engineering the perfect surfboard, Fish constantly redeems itself with superb footage of world-class surfers performing the seemingly impossible while riding short, stubby boards that were invented in the mid-‘60s. The film serves up a collective portrait of one San Diego-area surfing community where upstart surfers developed so-called “fish” boards—noted for their short length, wide width, concave bottoms, fins, and distinctive “V” shape at their tail ends (making the boards look like the profile of a fish). Chief among these is inventor Steve Lis, who talks about his long-gestating design ideas and why he didn't bother to patent anything. That questionable decision led to multiple other board “shapers”—both independent and industrial—tweaking the fish model and causing confusion over who actually started the trend. But no uncertainty exists among the many surfers who appear here to tell great stories about the gradual integration of fish boards into world championship contests and also talk about what is happening today to keep the original concept alive. It's fun hearing the wave-riding tales of these greying champs. Recommended. Aud: P. (T. Keogh)