The waters surrounding my city are so incredibly interesting!

Being introduced to the rivers and the ocean by my parents at a young age has instilled a devotion and love for water that gets stronger as I get older.

Something else I was exposed to at an early age was skateboarding. My dad owned a bike and skate shop in our city when I was a kid, and this exposed me to the skateboarding world that I fell in love with. I would spend endless summer nights learning tricks and trying to master the small half pipe my brother built in our backyard. Eventually, my skateboard passion evolved into a snowboarding passion in the winter seasons. In my mid-30s, my wife and I learned how to surf in Hawaii, and eventually surfing became an all-season water activity for me to fall in love with.

My wife and I learning to surf for the first time, during a 2006 vacation in Hawaii.

The week we got back from that trip, we did some research and found that there were a few guys who surfed in Saint John. I had no idea. I immediately bought a board from Terry, one of the early-day surfers in our waters. Terry, along with Joe, Pete and Dave welcomed me into their small, tight-knit surf community. It was this group of fellas who I jumped into Courtenay Bay with on that glorious wave-day that resulted in a nasty rash. As a result, we spent most of our future surf days at two other beaches that were considerably cleaner.

After the Cleanup

In 2014, a local environmental group called the Atlantic Coastal Action Program Saint John (ACAPSJ) announced that a multiyear, multi-stakeholder harbour cleanup initiative was complete, and within one day and one ribbon cutting, the raw sewage from the east side of our city, along with the industrial effluent, stopped flowing into our waters.

It didn’t take long for the fish to come back.

It didn’t take long for the birds to come back.

It didn’t take long for the vegetation to come back.

It didn’t take long for the surfers and paddlers to come back.

Today, the water is cleaner and safe to swim and surf in. What a difference. We now surf Courtenay’s often, and there are no more rashes. It took the will of environmental groups, citizen volunteers, scientists, municipal leadership and industry to come together to make the harbour cleanup happen. It took a number of years, but our city is so much better as a result.

The movie poster, designed by Allie Beckwith.

Every time I sit on my board past the break and look toward my city with its old brick and sandstone, with its natural surroundings, and with its Gotham City-like industrial skyline, I feel grateful. As a filmmaker, I wanted to make a film that captured that view and the feeling I get while sitting on the board and looking at my city that I love, warts and all.

We produced a surf film to celebrate the cleanup of our waters!

After a number of community members and organizations helped me raise a few dollars, we made From the Water, a film about the Saint John surf scene and our happy surfers enjoying clean water to play in. On a good day you can count up to 15 or more bobbing heads in one of our three surf spots, including Courtenay Bay. The film celebrates the grittiness of our industrial city and the spirit to make right the wrongs of the past and invest in infrastructure that protects the majestic waters that we rely on so much.