“Odd Todd” is an exceedingly humble, reluctant participant in the telling of his own story. Through a series of interviews and anecdotes from friends and admirers alike, a universally loved, “renegade soul” emerges. In this age of shameless self promotion, we find a rare individual, as defined by the proud tradition of the surf community’s oral history. Within this resplendent collective consciousness, indelible memories of only the most honorable legends live on in a state of timeless respect.
As Sachi Cunningham, Professor of Journalism at San Francisco State University, pointed out, SeaLevelTV’s approach follows the genre of literary journalism invented at Esquire Magazine in the 1960’s by writer Gay Talese with his piece known as “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold”.
When we showed up to our first location to begin shooting, it was blatantly evident that we had set out on a fool’s errand. Though we’d contacted Todd and he seemed open to the idea of filming a story, the opening sequence shows the moment we knew we had to look for other ways to tell the story.
In retrospect, this massive, unexpected challenge was actually the perfect way forward. We immediately began reaching out to the community, showing up at beach locations and asking for stories about Odd Todd.
As we pushed open a heavy new door, we found a tremendous abundance of the most wonderful kind of rich folklore all around us. In fact, the outpouring of enthusiastic support was more than we could fit into our final edit.
Lucky for all of us, Todd gave this work his blessing and we were able to progress to the release. We hope you enjoy this tribute to a true Northern California “Underground Legend” named Todd.
Thank you to the surf community in and around San Francisco, California. We could not have produced this without you.
Created and Produced by Beth O’Rourke and Jeff den Broeder.Music by Waylon Thornton
