Celebrating its fifth year, the Santa Barbara Surf Film Festival will honor surfing history and the city’s surfing culture, and support ocean conservation in a film showcase, Sept. 26-27 at the Lobero Theatre.

The 2025 festival will offer films about iconic surfboard shapers, surfers, skaters, and Santa Barbara natives. The event will pay tribute to Matt Moore, legendary Carpinteria shaper, and include a presentation led by world renowned surfer Shaun Tomson.

SBSFF supports three ocean-centric nonprofits: Heal the Ocean, Surfrider Santa Barbara Chapter and the Surf Happens Foundation.

Opening the festivities at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26 will be 805’s short film “Making Waves: The Lakey Peterson Story,” about Santa Barbara’s rockstar female surfer, directed by Morgan Maassen.

Next up are the world premiere of local filmmaker Hunter Martinez’s short film “17@20” about a big west swell that hit Ventura recently; and a 4K restoration of a 1976 Super 8 short film “Before the Flight” by the Campbell Brothers.

“Before the Flight” captures the revolutionary surfboard design of The Bonzer in action — the world’s first widely disseminated three-fin surfboard.

Following the shorts, SBSFF will present the Legendary Award to Matt Moore, whose almost 60 years of contributions to watercraft shaping has become part of Santa Barbara’s surfing history.

At eight years old in 1960, Moore began surfing and became interested in repairing the old boards that were hard to find at the time in Carpinteria. By the mid 1960s in high school Moore was making custom boards, and continues with his craft to this day.

Moore’s Rincon Design boards have been ridden by Santa Barbara legends such as Chris Brown, Tom Curren and countless others.

Following the awards presentation, SBSFF will show Bob Campi’s “The Shape of Things: The Dick Brewer Story,” a masterful documentary chronicling surfing’s “Da Vinci of design” Dick Brewer.

Before the feature, the audience will hear a panel discussion about the film from Anna Trent, Al Merrick, Allen Sarlo, Bob Campi, Jericho Poppler, Chuck Brewer, Jim Kempton and Teri Tico.

Friday night will conclude with the 9:30 p.m. feature film “The Great White House” by Chris Riel. Twenty years in the making, “The Great White House” is about a century-old Victorian home in Montecito, where swarms of upper-class youth found sanctuary.

“The heartfelt, and at times cautionary tale, shows how they avoided addiction and self-harm in their younger years as they leaned on one another to find their path into the real world together,” film festival organizers said.

The Sept. 27 shows start at 2 p.m. with “The Rising Star to Surfing Professional” program in conjunction with the Surf Happens Foundation.

Made possible with a grant from the John C. Mithun Foundation Community Access Fund, the program and will showcase a series of short films and Q&A’s featuring the 2025 Rincon Classic Grom Division surf competition winners, U12 winner Henry Goldstein, U14 RC winner Dominic Arce, U17 Wahines winner Vela Mattive, and U17 Junior Men’s winner Fynn Neth.

The event concludes with a Q&A with Chris Malloy, an accomplished surfer, big wave rider, and filmmaker.

At 4 p.m. Tomson, world champion surfer, bestselling author, and motivational speaker, will present his acclaimed multi-media live interactive film “Surfer’s Code: Stories of Courage and Commitment.”

“Through breathtaking visuals, personal storytelling, and interactive participation, Tomson takes audiences on a journey and shares the transformative power of The Code, a simple yet profound set of 12 promises that empower individuals to make better choices, build resilience, and navigate life’s challenges with hope and purpose,” organizers said.

The programming continues at 6:30 p.m. with Tony Gentile’s ”Shaping the Future,” which chronicles the life of renowned surfboard shaper Lance Collins, and his brand Wave Tools; and documents the influence his design innovations made on a generation of surfers.

A panel of speakers from the film, including Lance Collins, Tony Gentile and Robert Helphand, will offer a short introduction to the movie.

SBSFF’s Saturday night lineup concludes with Dana Shaw’s “Circles: An Ode to Shredding,” a 16mm documentary film that celebrates the nuances of riding waves and skateboarding.

“It observes a range of people, places and themes that make these underground communities the poetry that they are. From the gathering points that founded style in surfing, to the concrete canvas that is skateboarding and the human connection between,” festival organizers said.

Heal the Ocean, Surfrider Santa Barbara Chapter and The Surf Happens Foundations will have tables set up in front of the Lobero to offer more information and to raise money for their causes with a raffle and silent auction.

Tickets for the festival are available at www.santabarbarasurffilmfestival.com.

For decades Santa Barbara has attracted and cultivated a melange of surf innovators. From board shapers like Renny Yater, Al Merick, Matt Moore, and George Greenough, who have taken shaping to a whole new level.

To surfers like Bobby Martinez, Chris Brown, and Tom Curren, whose unique styles have stood the test of time. There is a certain element to “Santa Barbara Surf Culture,” which combines tradition with radical innovation, that has played an influential role in the international surf scene for over 50 years.