“There is no excuse for ‘Surfer’” – Variety

Surfing since as young as he can remember, at the age of 13, Sage is crippled by fear after suffering a wipeout on a huge wave. The wave slammed him to the bottom and held him pinned there without air until he nearly died.  With his whole life still ahead of him yet now paralyzed by fear, Sage no longer surfs the waves. But unable to ignore the mystical and powerful pull of the ocean, he fishes in the surf, and finds more than he bargained for.  This is the story of a teenager who confronts fear . . .

“A surreal meditation on faith and surfing, with the writer/director/producer also starring as a ghost made of squid ink… a fascinatingly absurd drama.” – Vice Magazine

“I can’t speak any higher about Surfer: Teen Confronts Fear than to say I am convinced that nobody on Earth could have made it except Doug Burke. It comes as a sort of anti-surprise that Burke wrote, directed, produced, starred in, and scored the film: the film feels like a glimpse into the man’s brain that’s more devastatingly insightful than he probably intended. Material this weird can’t be made up: it has to flow through one’s soul. Surfer: Teen Confronts Fear is rich with idiosyncratic intent and utterly bankrupt in self-awareness. And there’s no finer Incredibly Strange qualification in the world than that.” – Andrew Todd, Slash Film

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