Steve has recently had the movie remasterd to digital and its now available on DVD .

You can purchase a copy by clicking here on Ocean Artwork
or check out Steve’s new site UtmostSpirit.com.

Below is a the original review published in TRACKS in 1975
written by the one and only Martin Tullemans

Steve gets it all Flowing.

Ocean Rhythms is not only a current up to date look at hot radical surfing – it is a refreshingly entertaining surf movie:  something very different from the stereotyped overseas formula for a surf flick. Certainly it is not as slick; without the mandatory Pipeline water footage and other effects which we have been accustomed to from the Hollywood of surf footage: Hawaii.
It largely owes its popularity to the fact that it is about Australian surfers surfing their own waves and ripping tem to its. You can’t help but get the feeling that was expounded years ago; that we’re tops now! For once a surf film maker has given an audience what they have been wanting; an honest in depth surfer’s movie featuring Australia’s best surfers on their favourite home surf breaks.
Definitely value, this one, as there is a variety of surfers and great surf breaks filmed from unreal positions as well as photographically stimulating approaches to keep you hanging on the edge of the seat. There is some Bells footage in there, an unreal reef sequence with P.T., Rabbit (the bunny in the burrow) and Ian Cairns where the film’s maker Steve Core was able to get a look straight down the length of the tube that is pretty full on.

Terry Richardson at his home break blowing people out with his cutbacks into the tube as well as some Bali material of a short trip. Rabbit rips up Duranbah, Burleigh, Kirra and carves great hunks at Uluwatu, often sliding into deep caverns and attempting radical moves which he pulls off frequently.
There are some crowd loosener-uppers tacked on to the opening moments in each half of the film of a zany W.C.Fields slapstick and a Woody Woodpecker enhancing the entertainment and assisting as valuable cutaways to keep you interested as pure surfing is a bit heavy to sit through continuously.
Michael comes on in the second half riding some outrageous tubes at Kirra and Burleigh which he carves up casually with a fierce radical aggressiveness that completely put his true ability in clear perspective.
Peter Crawford’s individual surfing style and ability on his circus machine at Dee Why and the incredible backside moves of Col Smith complete a well balanced overall picture of contemporary Australian surfers.
The coke contest section is a great statement of the radical surfing of the times, with everyone ripping, slicing, shredding, powering and generally going for it something fierce.
Martin Tullemans

Jolyon Hoff the producer needs to be applauded and congratulated for the sensitive rendering and the depth of historical research he went to.

I might take a walk on the wild side here myself. My mate and ‘brother in arms’ MP….. we used to hang out, play chess and rap at his factory where he rented me a small room for my darkroom work in 75/76.
Michael had a much stronger strain of a mental condition that I myself have had to learn to manage with discipline and application. I only have bipolar disorder which quite a few highly talented and respected surfers and artist’s high profile people have.
I regret to this day that I could not convince my film associate Chris Bystrom to get medicated. He had three major things go wrong in his life before his untimely head on with a semi trailer.
Michaels condition paranoid schizophrenia;   we knew nothing of at the time. We just knew he was as quiet and introverted as a ‘library bookworm nerd’ on land and did a complete out of the closet Clark Kent to superman switch once he hit the surf.
From my own experience, mental conditions are handed down the family tree line of some emotional pain or hurt of the parent/ grandparent/ great grandparent that has not been trashed out through the heart centre
releasing it.

I could have given you the standard reportage of the play by play film story rehash but I have just come back from a week of tai chi and meditation in the Noosa national park..I did not want to clutter your minds with more of the usual information overload rehash bash.

The reason Michael Peterson is so revered is he followed his heart and walked the talk. This is highly unusual today as in this entertainment world we let the great actors and general James Bond cats walk our own talk for us.
In Michaels day to be a surfer was really going against the grain as society still had be straight and conform to  normal  rules from the post second world war fallout and baggage. Michael’s behaviour if you read Sean Doherty’s book will reveal the clues on the things that caused his body and mind to be afflicted with the fear at every turn and step. If you do have such a condition as some of us big monkeys that swing from surfing’s tribal tree do.
Join us get medicated, and manage it. No shame be game. After all, they nicknamed MP the MONK for the long gangly killer ORANG UTANG paddler arms and the primitive psych out vibe that THE MISSING LINK was capable of.

We all owe a debt to Michael for BUSTIN DOWN THE DOORS of plain average surfing performance and showing us a standard of excellence and possibility.
A man of vision and courage!!.
His buddy and mate from 75 /76; MARTIN TULLEMANS surf photographer from 72 to 2003 on active tour of duty.
Now merely a pelican or sea eagle gliding and sliding on the winds above the jackals , hyenas, lions, tigers, kelpies, pure bred Aussie mongrels and barrel chested, pot bellied, chook legged, wave hogs on long lumber thrashing it out on the hydroscape.

BEFORE YOU GO FOR A SURF THINK THESE WORDS ‘SORRY MATE’, SHARE AND SOUL THEN MAYBE LIFE WILL BE A BEAUTIFUL WORLD AND A PARTY ONCE AGAIN IN THE WATER

MARTIN TULLEMANS

Check out more of Marty’s classic photos below and in our shop.

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