I had a pretty horrid surf the other morning. The waves were decent enough but I just wasn’t in the groove, I was distracted. Couldn’t get my mojo working. Stumbling my way across the rocks before paddling out, I came across a massive dead leatherback rotting in the sun. It was the biggest turtle I’ve ever seen and the smell was absolutely rancid. A bad omen, something wicked kooky this way comes. Later, I got dropped in on by a man wearing what can only be described as booty shorts. My session was done. I was over it. Fortunately I had a long awaited event to look forward to that evening. Something to wash away the funk of decay and men in booty shorts.

It was a gray and misty August evening for the premier of ‘Water Brother: The Sid Abbruzzi story’ in Newport, Rhode Island last Thursday night. That didn’t stop the frothing droves from descending on Fort Adams for the highly anticipated screening. Sid broke the internet last week when tickets were released and newportFILM’s website crashed, leaving many locals scrambling for a way to attend and bear witness to the legend. At one point the heavens opened up and a hard rain began to fall but no one moved a muscle, everyone stayed glued to the action unfolding before them.

“It’s not like a 10 year documentary. It’s a 50- 60 year documentary.”—Sid

Seeing the dirty life and times of Rhode Island’s Godfather of surf and skate laid out on screen was a sight to behold, especially surrounded by his tribe of miscreants, malcontents, degenerates, reprobates… Good people. The definition of the word ‘core’. The film is directed by Kinnane brothers, Charles and Daniel and includes insights by the likes of Tony Hawk, Shepard Fairey, Balaram Stack, Pete Mel, Selema Masekela and others.

There is some incredible archival and unseen footage which chronicles Sid’s childhood from getting into surfing and skating, opening up a surf shack on the beach and running the Water Brothers shop and brand for over 50 years until the shop’s demolition last year. Obviously the gratuitous and abundant surf and skate porn. Well known is Sid’s long standing fight for coastal public access, which is still a big issue in the state to this day, getting arrested for pioneering surfing at Ruggles and eventually coming out on top in the supreme court. Nowadays he’s also the Director of Friends of Newport Skatepark. After 6 years of going back and forth with the city, a plan is finally in place with approval to break ground next year for a long overdue and sorely missed skatepark in Newport County.

It’s a truly inspiring story of turning a fast and loose, hard rocking lifestyle into one of sobriety, almost enlightenment and meeting the love of his life, his wife Danielle. Many vulnerable, sincere and touching moments.

It’s also very funny. Sid is just a humorous kid at heart. His friends tell about him being the worst businessman in the world because he would just give away all of his stock to the local groms, many times his excessive generosity getting taken advantage of, but Sid seems to just laugh it all off with a shrug. Water off a duck’s back.

“This is five decades of surfing and skating. Whether they know me or not, it tells a real story. Everyone will leave knowing what happened here in the 70s, what happened here in the 80s … how this got here in the 90s, how the XGames came here for the first time in 1995.”

Sid and The Kinnane’s plan to take the thing to some festivals and tour the doc around the country so definitely keep this one on your radar folks. I can’t recommend it enough. It’ll make you want to be a better surfer. I’m not talking about a tighter roundhouse or finally sticking that backside reverse. I’m talking about being a surfer who walks the walk. Gives and gets respect in and out of the water. Takes care of the groms, his community, and environment. One who never, ever sells out and is a custodian of the culture. A surfer who bleeds core, shares the stoke and never stops charging.—Joel Van Wyk

“Water Brothers cannot grow without this change. We are very grateful to be recognized for our dedication to surf and skate, and most of all, thankful to our generous loyal customers who support us around the world. Even with limited resources, we continue to make an impact through our outreach events and have enormous success selling our signature brand. It’s a tuff decision to close the shop. This is the last thing we wanted to do. Everyone loves the shop. But in a progressive industry like ours, without giant capital, our biggest challenge is remaining stocked with hard goods and items associated with today’s marketplace. So with that, we realize it is time for us to fully take our place as a brand and shift our focus to what we do best. We plan to fully expand our signature apparel, wetsuits, surfboards, and we’ll be adding a lineup of Water Brothers branded events to our calendar. Including Surf Fest VI next summer on July 8th, which will be our biggest event to date. This is what we love to do, bringing the surf and skate community together, and everyone having a great time."
—Sid Abbruzzi