Thank you everyone for the amazing support and helping us exceed our target goal.
Keep It A Secret recounts the inspiring true story of the dawn of Irish surfing and how the sport’s brave trailblazing pioneers found peace and escape in the water during the most violent years of The Troubles conflict between The Republic of Ireland and Britain in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Thank you everyone for the generous support for the Keep It A Secret crowdfunding campaign!
The financial support from the campaign will help final editing, music licensing costs and give us budget to shoot additional water and drone footage with renowned Irish surf and water cinematographer Kev L. Smith. Kev's amazing footage will bring to life the majestic coast of Ireland, where world-class waves were first surfed by the pioneers of Irish surfing in the 1960s when the island was a surfing paradise completely unknown to the outside world.
About the director:
My name is Sean Duggan, I've spent much of my career working in radio/music and advertising. I've been thinking about making a film for years and five years ago I started to actively pursue and learn everything I could about filmmaking: watching more movies, reading every book I could get my hands on that relates to film, and making short films in Brooklyn.
About the film:
Three years ago I started to compile a list of film projects and stories which I thought would make interesting and entertaining movies. One story, I began to develop as a script was about a (fictional) California surfer who arrives in Ireland in the 1960s to bring the sport to island at the time when surfing was completely unknown and the West Coast Ireland was a remote place not yet touched by the modern world.
As I started doing some preliminary research for my script and began interviewing the Irish pioneers of surfing, many whom had never shared their stories before on film. I started to realize that the true story of how this group of trailblazing pioneers came together as the island was entering the most violent years of The Troubles conflict was an amazing story and better than any scripted film I could develop. And thus began the journey into making the documentary, Keep It A Secret.
This film covers.
- The story of a Dublin boy, Kevin Cavey who would see a surfing photo in Reader's Digest at the age of 12 and make it his life's mission to bring surfing to Ireland.
- The Troubles Conflict between Britain and The Republic of Ireland, how surfers on both sides of the conflict (Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland) came to find peace in the water
- The Belfast Boys who would take a DIY approach to surfing and develop the sport on their own terms with fearlessness and creativity that was year's ahead of mainstream commercial surfing in California.
- The Black Wetsuit Brigade a group of Irish surfers who would protest all major international surf contests and fight the commercialization of surfing in Ireland.
- The 1972 European Surfing Championship in Lahinch, Ireland. When Ireland hosted their first major international surfing contest during the most violent year of The Troubles conflict.
Sneak preview:
A sneak peak of a few of the surfing pioneers who appear in the film.
Davy Govan, pioneer Irish surfer from Belfast recounts surfing in the dark at Easkey.
Willie Britton from Rossnowlaugh, Co. Donegal, a three time Irish National surfing champion describes locals seeing surfing for the first time in West of Ireland. #theboyiswalkingonthewater! #itsamiracle!
Roger Steadman, a surf obsessed British marketing executive who would request a transfer from London to Ireland in 1966 for one reason-waves. Roger was convinced there had to be great surf in Ireland and he would discover a surfing paradise beyond his wildest imagination. Here Roger recounts a bad wipeout and what medical treatment was like in rural Ireland in 1969,
Davy Govan describes life in Belfast in the early 1970s while he was attending Queens University, Belfast. Between 1968-1972 Belfast become a war zone during the most violent years of The Troubles conflict with daily armed checkpoints, kidnappings, shootings, and bombings. For the Belfast Crew surfing would take on a greater meaning than just the pursuit of waves, it would mean escape for the turbulence and violence that was tearing their city and Ireland apart. #surfingfromtrouble #keepitasecretfilm
The Musgrave Twins, Damian and Derek Musgrave of Tramore, Ireland, share story of receiving their first surfboard and excitedly plunging into the frigid Winter Celtic Sea surf with NO WETSUIT. #anythingforsurfing #howcoldcanyousurf
