- 6 hours ago
Being Captain Zero 2009
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Short filmTranscript
00:01:31Our friendship evolved eventually into criminal enterprises, and it was all based on surfing,
00:01:39how to not have a job. Jobs interfered with what we really wanted to do.
00:01:45They began transporting multi-ton shipments of marijuana from Columbia and Jamaica into
00:01:51the United States by ball sea and air.
00:01:55Back then it was like the Wild West, you know, funnier money to be made, you got to watch
00:01:59out. It boils you into the web, and then you get noticed, and then you become a star for
00:02:06the feds.
00:02:07Yeah, we have ships and planes. I mean, it was not that suitcase stuff, and we got to
00:02:13the point where, well, I lost a load of 100,000 pounds.
00:02:20The violence of the emerging cocaine trade and the threat of the DEA force them to separate.
00:02:26If these people are looking at our pictures, and maybe, you know, we'll be picked up, and
00:02:33if we'll put pressure on us, we might even tell on each other. We know we love each other,
00:02:38so I should find a place where he didn't know I would go, and he'll pick a place, and don't
00:02:43ask, don't tell.
00:02:45Alan moved to Hollywood, and cashed in on his marijuana-running experiences by writing
00:02:50for Miami Vice.
00:02:51Patrick moved to Por Viejo, a town along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, in search of
00:02:57the fastest and most dangerous wave in Central America, Salsa Brava.
00:03:04After 20 years, Alan sold his home, bought a truck with a camper, and went looking for
00:03:09his old friend Patrick in Costa Rica.
00:03:11On this trip, Alan wrote, In Search of Captain Zero, it has become one of the most popular
00:03:16books in the surfing culture.
00:03:20Upon his arrival in Por Viejo, Alan was shocked to see what had become of his old friend.
00:03:32It was terrible.
00:03:34And he's living in a tent on the beach, but the first thing he said to me just about was,
00:03:39let's go some crack.
00:03:42But the problem for me was, he wasn't surfing.
00:03:46He had sold his board for crack, and that is as low as you can go.
00:03:54He wasn't as interested in me anymore as a friend.
00:04:08After a lifetime spent on the edge, can Patrick's downward spiral destroy their friendship?
00:04:35In 1948, New York City, Alan Weisbecker is my name.
00:04:40I grew up in the suburbs of Manhattan, had a strange father who was a weightlifter in the
00:04:50early 50s before when you had to buy weights from an oddball company.
00:04:56And he took me spearfishing off Long Island, Montauk Point, one time.
00:05:03I still remember my first ocean excursion, and it changed everything.
00:05:11From then on, I knew that the ocean would be a big part of my life.
00:05:17My birthday is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, unusual indeed, January 23, 1945.
00:05:26My mother was found on a doorstep in 1918, if you can believe that, in Brooklyn, New York.
00:05:32I was born in Copaig Hospital, Long Island, New York.
00:05:38Well, my arrival on the planet, 1945, January 23, it was an accident.
00:05:49My mother's husband with two children, with Bill Abrams, was in Europe for over a year.
00:05:58And my father had a wife and two children in Connecticut on his way home from Europe, and
00:06:04they had an affair.
00:06:06And here I am.
00:06:08Thank God for lust.
00:06:11And then love intervened.
00:06:15I don't know how long it was, but I'm sure glad they got it together, you know.
00:06:20They would call me, I'm an original love child.
00:06:24And I caused a lot of hardship for Mom, I'll tell you that, you know.
00:06:27She had a lot of explaining to you when Bill Sr. came back.
00:06:31Hello.
00:06:33Surprise.
00:06:35Actually, no.
00:06:36My mother, of course, later on in life did, you know.
00:06:38I never met her until I was, well, I met her off and on, you know, but they were trying
00:06:43to put me up for adoption, but I was an unadoptable, cantankerous child.
00:06:47And, um, so they, you know, they tried not to get us together too much so we wouldn't
00:06:55bond.
00:06:56Brookwood Hall is an orphanage in Islip, Long Island, East Islip, on the border, both
00:07:01townships, that I was raised in for a number of years.
00:07:05They gave me the foundation of my life.
00:07:07Probably the most emotional, wonderful feeling that I've ever had.
00:07:10And I was a privileged child to live with these people.
00:07:14An average day was like this.
00:07:17First of all, they had juniors, intermediates, and senior dormitories.
00:07:21And this is like a giant Vanderbilt's house that looked like the Vanderbilt's walked out,
00:07:26you know.
00:07:27I mean, huge, beautiful arcways, gargoyles carved around the building, and 52 acres, ball-filled
00:07:33lake.
00:07:33My experience in Brookwood Hall, I believe, was my organization of my whole moral principles.
00:07:43And I think the basis of this whole beautiful feeling, because we are the receivers when
00:07:50we do that, comes directly from the people that raised me in Brookwood Hall.
00:08:10And this is where I met Patrick, out in Montauk.
00:08:13And we became friends, quick friends there.
00:08:17This is 64, 65.
00:08:22And we'd camp out, spend the summers in tents near the surf break.
00:08:28Well, the first time I met Allen, it's hard to remember, but I remember him showing up
00:08:33in Montauk every summer when we were young, older teenagers.
00:08:37He was like the most likely to succeed, the class president.
00:08:43We were so opposite.
00:08:50I graduated from high school on 66 in June, in California by August.
00:08:57Did my first acid trip at the doors at the Whiskey Go-Go.
00:09:00Still legal at the door at the time.
00:09:02Never forget it.
00:09:03Jim Morrison was playing at the time.
00:09:06Drafts in September.
00:09:06I was in Vietnam by April.
00:09:09So, you know, it was pretty quick.
00:09:10And then by the following September, I was a hardened military guy.
00:09:21So I volunteered for Airborne Rangers.
00:09:25And then I went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
00:09:27And I did artillery training.
00:09:29I was a radioman.
00:09:30Lifespan is my kid.
00:09:32And then I did jump training in Fort Benning, Georgia.
00:09:38And then I did ranger school in Vietnam and all JT on the job training.
00:09:44I was a radioman, a photo observer for our children.
00:09:49Way out there, way up front, you know.
00:09:51And we had a company of men, usually understaffed.
00:09:59And we were always being harassed and mortared.
00:10:04And it didn't happen.
00:10:06If it happened a dozen times, we actually hit any real hard stuff the whole time you're there.
00:10:13And some groups got harder than others.
00:10:16And so it's hard to compare.
00:10:17But I've seen my share.
00:10:21Sleeping on the ground 24-7, 365, you know.
00:10:25I mean, you're way the fuck out there.
00:10:30Humping, I'm talking about, you wouldn't see people for maybe a month even.
00:10:36One of the scariest things, orientation for our first couple of days before jungle school.
00:10:43He goes, most of you boys would be going home in body bags.
00:10:48Thank you very much.
00:10:54And there's one thing I can guarantee you, they're coming.
00:10:57Might be your first day, it might be your last.
00:11:00Doesn't matter if they come, as long as you're ready.
00:11:03Well, I've been ready all these years.
00:11:06You know, and I figured I was such a problem anyway that I better do something right.
00:11:11And I went.
00:11:12And now I'm glad, of course, I'm glad I went to Vietnam because my half a joke is that this
00:11:19prepared me for life.
00:11:28The thing I did leave out was that I spent two years on the North Shore of Oahu surfing at,
00:11:35you know, I lived between pipeline and Waimea in 68 and 69, which were the two most formative years and
00:11:44formidable years in the history of surfing.
00:11:46I don't think anybody would disagree with that.
00:11:53I really felt that I could do anything.
00:11:56I felt surfers could do anything.
00:11:58I felt that the people that did what we did on the North Shore in those years, we could rule
00:12:05the world if we wanted.
00:12:06That would never occur to us.
00:12:07But, you know, we could just do whatever we wanted.
00:12:10And nothing could go wrong.
00:12:12I was wrong, of course.
00:12:16Things always go wrong.
00:12:18But so that was very much a part of my forming who I am.
00:12:25And at that time, at that same time, Patrick was in Vietnam going through a completely other thing.
00:12:31And I don't know how he got through that with the cheerful attitude he has now.
00:13:03The government made me an adrenaline junkie, and I needed the rush.
00:13:07I needed the excitement.
00:13:09I needed the thrill, if you call it thrilling.
00:13:12Of course, I was getting paid a lot better than those had yet paid me.
00:13:16And it turned out to be quite an interesting guy.
00:13:19And, of course, the compatibility and all the variables that go along with smuggling fit my qualifications.
00:13:28And then I did a recon with a friend of mine.
00:13:32In 1970, it was just after the winter of 69, which was the real formative winter for me, surfing and
00:13:42mental attitude-wise, when I believed I could do anything.
00:13:47So I decided to go to Europe and buy a Volkswagen van and drive around looking for waves.
00:13:56And I quickly ended up in Morocco, where I realized I could buy a kilo of hash for about $40.
00:14:04And that hash could be sold for about $1,000.
00:14:08Actually, it was $1,000 a pound, I think, in the States.
00:14:11I'm trying to remember now.
00:14:13But whichever it was, it was ridiculous.
00:14:15And all you had to do was bring it back.
00:14:17And I had a connection and bought a few kilos of hash and smuggled it back.
00:14:24And I had various ways of doing it without putting myself at risk, actually.
00:14:30I used the U.S. Navy to do it and other ways.
00:14:40You know, I mean, I don't know, it was 1971 or two, and I had like $50,000.
00:14:4522-year-old kid by then.
00:14:47That's a lot of money in those days.
00:14:50And I wanted to buy a boat.
00:14:55And I knew I could put a lot more in a boat.
00:14:57You know, I could pack that sucker, you know, bring back a ton.
00:15:01And that led to Columbia and Learjets.
00:15:12I mean, the level I was on, I would do business with the CIA people.
00:15:18They were mostly Cuban exiles that were in the pot business as to raise money
00:15:30to do something to Castro, or to do various other nefarious CIA activities.
00:15:38CIA has been smuggling drugs forever.
00:15:40I mean, that's common knowledge now, but I know from personal experience.
00:15:47Sail out from Fort Lauderdale, bank around the Bahamas,
00:15:51and then we would sneak up behind Haiti and Dominican Republic,
00:15:56come in by the night grill, hopefully not get stopped by anybody
00:15:59where we have to show papers or get a stamp,
00:16:02and then load up and then bank down behind the Caymans.
00:16:06And if it got tricky, we would tuck in behind the islands off the coast of Mexico,
00:16:10between Mexico and the islands, and pop up out into the Gulf.
00:16:14And so you were far enough away where if you do get stopped by the patrols,
00:16:19you could say you're out on a day sail, which is a couple of days of sailing around the Gulf.
00:16:23And any probable cause, of course, you could go on a boat,
00:16:27and the only way you could find it was to tear the fucking walls out.
00:16:30Of course, whenever there's money involved, you have predators,
00:16:33so you have to watch out.
00:16:34We weren't involved with it. We didn't care about the police much.
00:16:36But there were robbers.
00:16:40In Colombia, both happened, shot at and arrested for a few minutes
00:16:47until they realized who my connection was,
00:16:50and then the cops were literally kissing my feet,
00:16:53sorry, sorry, kind of thing.
00:16:55And in Morocco, I had a real close call, a roadblock in the middle of the night.
00:17:07Look, it's interesting that they would call me Captain Zero because I was a captain.
00:17:12I never wanted the responsibility, but I could take over any minute,
00:17:16and there's no doubt about it.
00:17:19Sometimes I didn't have to.
00:17:20I could just say a couple of sharp little things and straighten them out,
00:17:24you know, give them the confidence.
00:17:26Say, no, it's okay, you know.
00:17:27I never had to push them out of the way and grab the fucking wheel.
00:17:30It's okay, though.
00:17:31I know he's a competent man.
00:17:33But sometimes, I think my experiences in the past, you know,
00:17:38don't panic.
00:17:40You know what I mean?
00:17:42Steady as she goes, damn the torpedoes.
00:17:44Just cut me off.
00:17:45All right.
00:17:46The thing about Patrick, which I still love,
00:17:49is no matter what happens, it doesn't seem to bother him.
00:17:53And the downside to that is he's not really thinking about
00:17:56how to get out of a horrendous situation.
00:17:59He's going, this is, dig this.
00:18:01You know, it's like a story we're going to tell later.
00:18:03And I'm going, yeah, if we get out of it.
00:18:08But he was fun that way, and he always was fun.
00:18:10And we ended up parting ways when I decided that it was a bad business to be in.
00:18:22It was just when marijuana was on its way out, cocaine was on its way in.
00:18:28And things were getting very, very dangerous.
00:18:31It wasn't fun anymore.
00:18:34I was just getting tired of it.
00:18:36And I also got to the point where I would have had to kill some people to stay in the
00:18:43business and be respected.
00:18:45Do you know what I mean?
00:18:47And it was a choice.
00:18:49And it was...
00:18:51I found out who I am in a way.
00:18:54I wasn't fear.
00:18:55I just didn't want to do it.
00:18:56I could have paid somebody to kill this guy who ripped me off.
00:18:59And I didn't do it.
00:19:01I just left.
00:19:02But I couldn't do both.
00:19:03I couldn't stay in the business and let this particular person live.
00:19:07So I just left.
00:19:08That's really a lot to do with it.
00:19:24We were going on an ultimate surf trip, and we had enough money to go around the world.
00:19:29But then instead of that, we decided to make more money.
00:19:32And one thing led to another.
00:19:36And we ended up parting ways in the 80s.
00:19:45And of course, Allen went to Hollywood, and that's cool.
00:19:48Thank God.
00:19:49And then after a period of time, we felt we were okay.
00:19:52Of course, you know, I hadn't seen him.
00:19:54I couldn't.
00:19:54He was really hot.
00:19:56Because he was like, you know, he had accumulated material.
00:20:00And so they were conscious.
00:20:01You know, me, the fuck.
00:20:02You know, they could look at me.
00:20:03I didn't have shit, you know.
00:20:06Now, I had a great fucking time.
00:20:08And I've been all over.
00:20:08And it cost money.
00:20:09I was going, you know, first class.
00:20:11And there was no tomorrow after Vietnam.
00:20:14You know, you never know.
00:20:15So I was always like, people say, what did you do with the money?
00:20:18I go, I spent it.
00:20:20No regrets, you know.
00:20:47It was getting to be narco-terrorism, what they would call now.
00:20:53And so I decided to change my occupation and I became a screenwriter.
00:20:59Why did I pick that?
00:21:01I can't explain.
00:21:03I have something in me that wanted to be a writer for a long time.
00:21:07And I decided to get out of the business.
00:21:11I thought, well, why don't I just write that story that I had in my head?
00:21:15And I'll write it as a movie.
00:21:17And that's what I did.
00:21:19I spent a month in limbo in a hotel in New York City.
00:21:23Bought a book on screenwriting and how it looked and everything.
00:21:26And wrote it and went out to the West Coast.
00:21:30And I happened to know one person there, a TV producer.
00:21:34And he told me to come out if I ever wrote a script.
00:21:38And I went out and he knocked on his door and Bel Air handed him the script.
00:21:43He read it that day because it was an actor's strike at the time.
00:21:47He had nothing to do.
00:21:49Read it by his pool, snorting coke, and bought it for me.
00:21:54Optioned it, I should say, that day.
00:21:57So it was probably the world's record of a jerk showing up in Hollywood and getting a deal.
00:22:03It was within hours.
00:22:05So I thought, man, this isn't so hard.
00:22:08Michael Mann hired me.
00:22:10He had optioned the screenplay I wrote a few years before him when he started the show.
00:22:15He called me about it and eventually I agreed to write for the show.
00:22:22I had never, of course, it was the first season.
00:22:25I hadn't heard of it and it hadn't been on.
00:22:26The pilot hadn't shown yet.
00:22:29And I didn't think it would have sounded like a really dumb idea.
00:22:32But he persuaded me to go down to Miami and rewrite this thing that was being shot.
00:22:37And it was an emergency, you know, the script's no good and we need blah, blah, blah.
00:22:40So I went down and it was a script about marijuana smugglers, you know, which was my business.
00:22:44So, yeah, I made it more authentic.
00:22:49I can't tell you specifically that it was based on my experiences, but I became a Hollywood asshole for a
00:22:59few years.
00:23:01And, you know, I don't look back on those Porsche days very fondly, you know.
00:23:08I spent more time in my Porsche than sitting on a surfboard.
00:23:12It's funny how, you know, my past nefarious dealings led me into some success in the film business or TV
00:23:25business.
00:23:44I quit my job and I stopped doing that.
00:23:48I saw my house, bought a truck with a camper on it.
00:23:54And in the meantime, Patrick had disappeared.
00:23:57He up and went south.
00:24:00And then sort of, to make a long story short, all we knew, we knew he was down somewhere in
00:24:07Central America or Mexico, but probably Central America.
00:24:10And so I decided to go and find him and say hi.
00:24:15And I spent a year traveling between Mexico and Costa Rica.
00:24:24And the irony is I couldn't go any further south is where I found him.
00:24:30It was at the end of the road, the bottom of Central America in Puerto Viejo, Salsa Brava.
00:24:38I came to Puerto Viejo and a friend of mine recommended this area and I had heard of this thing
00:24:44about the Salsa Brava.
00:24:46And I came for 90 days and I've never set foot on American soil. End of story.
00:24:52Where's your name?
00:24:54Manuel Leon Salazar.
00:24:57From 50 to 60, 53, the oil company from Caracas, from United States, the name Loveland Brother Company, come to
00:25:07Costa Rica and find oil.
00:25:10And 88, we have power in Puerto Viejo.
00:25:15That is the best news.
00:25:16Well, everybody have light because first time we used to have generator.
00:25:20That's how we have a plant generator.
00:25:22Everybody have that from 4 o'clock till 8 o'clock in the night.
00:25:26No more than that.
00:25:27Everything finished in the night.
00:25:29And from 1990 to 2000, from 1992, we have phone.
00:25:37Everybody have phone.
00:25:40Holly Edmiston, July 24, 1952.
00:25:44Since I've come here, all of Costa Rica has changed, which is since 1978 I guess I first came down
00:25:52to Costa Rica.
00:25:54It's changed a lot.
00:25:55I've known them for many years, I guess since the 70s.
00:25:58It's Montauk, New York, which is at the end of Long Island.
00:26:02And it's a surfing town, I guess, fishing town.
00:26:07And I met Patrick there a long time ago.
00:26:09And I knew him for many years after that ever since.
00:26:14And in Florida where he lived for quite a while.
00:26:17And then he showed up in Costa Rica one day.
00:26:22You know, it was something about the people here.
00:26:26Can you imagine us going to another culture?
00:26:29A little culture village like this and being accepted and inquisitive to let us stay.
00:26:40Encouraging, it's okay to have children and marry this other galaxy person.
00:26:47And then of course my behavior hasn't been exemplary over the years.
00:26:53And forgiveness of that.
00:27:14Is it dangerous?
00:27:15Yeah.
00:27:15Well I equate it to a pitching machine.
00:27:18You see that thing come out, you know?
00:27:23F***ing flies buddy.
00:27:25Yeah, and once you're a master, which you never really do, but once you kind of get the fear
00:27:30of God and take off and fucking sorts of brava, if you want to pretend you're a big wave
00:27:35hero this is a good place to come.
00:27:37all right i'm kurt van dyke born in santa cruz county march 25th 59. i just my main life when
00:27:48i grew up the main thing to life was pipeline and sunset beach in those days so that's where
00:27:54i lived in the winters and that's what i rode by the time i came down here to settle down
00:28:00here
00:28:00it was about the time all these other ways started getting discovered but i was already tied into this
00:28:06and surfing you know six six weeks swells that were empty six weeks eight to ten twelve feet
00:28:15surf just right hand stand up barrels all day long i had no reason to go anywhere still don't
00:28:25yeah my uncle fred's an old famous surfer from a legend from one of the first five that rode yma
00:28:33and my dad surfed all his life my uncle too my mother surfs great-grandfather surf you know it
00:28:40was great it was sunny and beautiful turquoise green beautiful tubes i couldn't believe how hollow the
00:28:47place was it was mind-boggling the first bowl out here is every bit as fast as taken off at
00:28:53back door
00:28:53or anywhere else in the world it sucks out so fast it's incredible
00:29:00yeah i've seen some bad wi-fi i've seen some guys come in with their faces uh so cut that
00:29:06their skin
00:29:07curled up like like meat you know like like dreads on their face and shit and uh i've taken some
00:29:14bad
00:29:14blows myself just yesterday i took a bad took off on one and got in this huge tube and it
00:29:19compressed me down
00:29:20threw my arm up over my shoulder or something kind of partially dislocated it you know what i mean
00:29:26went numb for about 30 seconds on me so you're constant it's it's it's it's it's uh
00:29:35it's a challenging way not only the fact that it's a challenging way it's challenging to stay in
00:29:41in one piece you know you want to that's the main part there yeah yeah i know of someone who
00:29:51broke
00:29:52their neck there uh i don't know of anyone who was killed there and i'm surprised about that um i'll
00:29:58give you an example the first time i paddled out though i remember there were 11 guys out and uh
00:30:03eight
00:30:03were wearing helmets and i had never seen that anywhere you know and it became obvious why after my first
00:30:10wave my name is federico pillurzu i was born 77 1983 i am 25 years old and yeah yeah the
00:30:22guys always
00:30:22tell me god broke his board came out all scratched up all his back this and that yeah everybody gets
00:30:29hurt in that place for sure well first you know as soon as you take off you can you definitely
00:30:35tell
00:30:36that it goes into knee deep water and you know it's a bunch of sea oceans and reef like you
00:30:42know a live
00:30:42reef so you know that you know if you fall you're gonna hit the reef or even if you duck
00:30:48dive you're
00:30:49gonna you know get smash on it like yeah it definitely gets me big yes big barrels for sure
00:31:00well salsa brava was starts uh surfing in uh 60 65 66 it was good i mean it was huge
00:31:14you can put
00:31:15an 18 wheelers in that in that tubes and you feel that board going when the board you start in
00:31:21that tube
00:31:22and you start making you know uh moves and the board is going whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo
00:31:29and it started i call it mash one mash two mash three the board start vibrating and vibrating and you
00:31:36feel like it's turning into jelly the whole board is turning into jelly and you just go this is going
00:31:42to this is going to blow up this is going to blow up and whom and you come out of
00:31:47the tubes
00:31:47so it was intense it was uh the adrenaline rush was nothing like that and i don't think i experienced
00:31:55any other any other rush in my life like that one come out of huge tubes and then you get
00:32:02spit
00:32:03out 15 feet up in the air when i when i set out on the trip i i didn't have
00:32:13any idea that i would
00:32:14write a book about it i thought i would take some pictures and write some articles that were travel
00:32:18or surf or whatever just to pay some bills but as i started um
00:32:26because of patrick and because of where where i was going and the environment i started thinking
00:32:32about my past and i i just started weaving my backstory into into um the front story the the trip
00:32:42and it just evolved into a memoir you know i i did i don't remember when i realized i was
00:32:50writing
00:32:50a book but at some point i realized this is not an article anymore um and it became
00:32:57um it became uh not an obsession but um i wrote about everything i the book was four times longer
00:33:07than
00:33:07than it was going to be you know i just wrote whatever i wrote every day and i that's when
00:33:13i
00:33:13really really you know i'd written screenplays a lot of screenplays but screenplay writing is different
00:33:18um than prose writing and i didn't know if i could write prose i had no idea and i
00:33:25slowly evolved the voice um that you know a style or whatever that um seemed to work for me
00:33:33the backstory and and captain zero has to do with uh invariably my relationship with patrick with
00:33:41patrick um my my you know my looking for patrick i i believe in retrospect was a uh
00:33:49um a rationalization for making the trip i mean the trip was really about me i needed to escape and
00:33:55i
00:33:55needed to get back to my roots of surfing um you know i just had a lot of experiences that
00:34:02i you know
00:34:02i'd always thought that a memoir writers there must be something wrong with them that they think um
00:34:07their their life is worth somebody else spending hours reading about um and maybe that's still
00:34:14correct i don't know but it seemed i i realized that i had done some things that were in i
00:34:21never
00:34:22thought of my life as being that interesting you know the smuggling and all that just seemed like
00:34:26things that i did that are done now you know but when i started to describe them i got a
00:34:33kick out of it
00:34:57that this guy uh patrick uh abrams uh wrote to his friend uh alan weisbecker uh a postcard
00:35:08and uh and signed it uh you know never coming home this is your buddy in the jungle captain zero
00:35:16and he
00:35:16picked up on it and made the article for the men's journal and then it turned into the book and
00:35:22holy
00:35:22shit and here i am and it's just a fantastic thing you know and it's helped me uh realize this
00:35:30who the
00:35:30hell i am and you know i laugh i apparently he's doing well as captain zero and you know i
00:35:40get emails
00:35:40all the time about people that you know they got off the bus and i'm captain zero and i'm your
00:35:46guide and
00:35:47and and he is fun to be with and you know he apparently from the impressions i've gotten from
00:35:55people that i don't know that write to me because of my books i know who he is and all
00:35:59well well they're
00:36:02some of them are negative but most of them um they write to to reassure me that he's that he's
00:36:09fine and
00:36:09they they really like them i'm melba malden and i am 65 years old do you think he enjoys his
00:36:19celebrity
00:36:20certainly man i mean you know it's like i mean it's like we wouldn't want him to get him like
00:36:26t-shirts
00:36:26and hats you know so he can identify himself as captain zero all of the time not just you know
00:36:32by word
00:36:33a mouth you know so he could actually wear a badge you know since i'm captain zero she yeah he
00:36:39enjoys it
00:36:40he loves it oh he loves it yeah he loves it it's very uh it's very exciting to him to
00:36:49be looked at
00:36:51in a different way or in that way and and uh he plays up to it sure he loves it
00:36:56it's good for him
00:36:57actually uh being captain zero and having become captain zero has been a great experience for me
00:37:04i finally got a job you know i needed a job and i got one i had leisure consulting but
00:37:10uh
00:37:12captain zero uh also has given me an identity and uh and and and i i kind of knew i
00:37:20was captain zero
00:37:20before i was captain zero but i didn't know if anybody else noticed you see but i can handle a
00:37:27part and
00:37:27i'm quite capable of being the captain okay get that straight okay do i what did he call he calls
00:37:34it captain zero adventure tours or uh no it's better than that it was leisure something a leisure
00:37:43consultant perfect name you know title for him a leisure consultant and so you know by god if you can
00:37:51make a living as a leisure consultant god bless you huh
00:38:24i mean we hadn't seen each other for a long time
00:38:27we were good we were good friends but you know you go your separate ways and i hadn't seen him
00:38:32in
00:38:32eight year or well five years and and and the years before that we really had drifted apart you know
00:38:40i mean it was like he went his way i went mine and we'd go for years without speaking or
00:38:47having any
00:38:47reason to so it was tough uh in the beginning um you know like i said the first thing he
00:38:54uh
00:38:56suggested was let's buy some crack and you know and we used to party in the old days but
00:39:02you know when i said i said i didn't want to it was like a light went off in his
00:39:05head oh yeah tremendous
00:39:08amount of people doing crack it's pretty much devastated the the community in a lot of ways
00:39:15i think you know drugs really have come here and and hurt the community in many ways because it's so
00:39:23small she you know got involved with crack and stuff like that i guess at that point in time nobody
00:39:29really
00:39:29probably wanted to deal with them because no one usually wants to deal with anybody that's on that
00:39:34kind of drug and yeah i think a lot of people really like patrick a lot of people don't
00:39:41because uh what he's leaving he make his living uh going in town and buying drugs for the foreigners
00:39:48so he said oh fifty dollars and he spent twenty and he went thirty so he always got some money
00:39:55coming
00:39:55from that you know it's a lot of people looking for drugs in town tourists so he goes and talks
00:40:01and
00:40:01this and that and he comes out with the line that capital zero i am here's the book so people
00:40:06go wow
00:40:07yeah far out and this and that so actually he used that as a bait you know to to to
00:40:14get money from you
00:40:15or anything so actually i'm i i don't i don't dislike the old man you know because he does his
00:40:24way of
00:40:24living but uh he's not a person to trust uh bill malden and uh 11 1952 the very first time
00:40:37i guess you'd call it street hustling and uh yeah came up and offered the the contraband
00:40:45i suppose and and uh i gave him some money and uh we came back six months later and actually
00:40:53got the
00:40:53contraband so it didn't see him again in that visit so uh you know but it was not we did
00:41:03get what we
00:41:04asked for so i guess everything's cool actually we ran into him on the beach you know just
00:41:13i was hustling yeah he was actually seeing if we needed anything of any contraband actually
00:41:22and uh that's how we met him you know okay but he was a real friendly guy so you know
00:41:30well
00:41:34well he's made some other people man i know that he personally we hadn't had too many bad experiences
00:41:41with him you know he normally corrects whatever mistakes he makes with us now whether or not he
00:41:48corrects those with the other people i don't know but he normally takes care of it might not be in
00:41:54the
00:41:55time or the fashion that you wanted it in but if you live long enough he'll finally get even with
00:42:01you
00:42:03yeah crack cocaine is a formidable adversary now i recommend it for the young particularly
00:42:11because the emotional physical spiritual and mental states are shifting variable and of course
00:42:19uh it has a uh the ability to uh to make you think you want more uh and therefore you
00:42:29lose less you
00:42:30lose sleep and then you become a bit disoriented and sometimes you can go for days not that you're not
00:42:36enjoying it but it can be confusing over consumption more than any other drug
00:42:40yeah i was doing crack cocaine every day for years and don't try that at home either yeah yeah i'm
00:42:49a
00:42:49veteran i'm an experienced guy so i can get away with you like that yeah i think uh to to
00:42:54pass on is
00:42:55rock bottom where there's life there's hope uh and no i've never felt that i was in any danger yeah
00:43:02i was
00:43:02probably uh 50 pounds underweight smoking coke let me think about that i may have started
00:43:10i mean i might have smoked my first coke probably i mean i i would suspect when i got here
00:43:19uh you
00:43:21know i mean that might have been one or two times they didn't call they call it uh free base
00:43:25you know
00:43:26but i i believe it's the same stuff you know what i mean never really uh where i felt i
00:43:31was like
00:43:31uh over indulging and enjoying it no one would never think that you would over indulge and enjoy us
00:43:37of course of course i look back on it now and i say what the hell was that all about
00:43:41what were you crazy yeah it probably was and i'm sure he had his moments during that period of time
00:43:51but you know luckily he got out of that and he he had the strength to get out of that
00:43:57on his own
00:43:58which i think is pretty commendable to be honest with you uh there were times when i
00:44:06uh when i thought that maybe i should cut back on it but i didn't know how i was going
00:44:10to do it
00:44:11something happened subliminally i think uh but it kind of like just faded you know
00:44:18and it's like going through a storm you know all of a sudden there's some size in it
00:44:22don't uh don't think that i didn't have some uh periods where i go you know leave this thing
00:44:30and uh but i knew i would and i didn't know where and i was uh very surprised at how
00:44:38i kind of slid
00:44:39out of it and i you know i just one day never even cared
00:44:55i always admired alan you know leading an interesting life well first of all his intellect
00:45:02and his uh of course his uh his ability to see it's like to me which you know we were
00:45:06from different
00:45:07world if we did kind of like more uh structured education than mine uh but uh i always felt
00:45:14flattered that alan would be uh would interact with me and that he would find uh our philosophical
00:45:21discussions uh fruitful because i sure did his you know he was a part of everything library sure yeah
00:45:29yeah sure yeah yeah i hope i hope i do i'm not going to go back to costa rica i
00:45:36don't think
00:45:37um and he's apparently not kind of going anywhere so it seems unlikely but but we'll see
00:45:45yeah i'd love to see him
00:46:06my name is alma mcdonald and i was born in 1972 i'm the guy making this film i had originally
00:46:12planned
00:46:12to end the film there but after watching that ending realized i would have to reunite these guys
00:46:18the last two times they had met up they only argued and worse yet they had not surfed together in
00:46:23almost
00:46:2330 years alan had left costa rica three years ago under life-threatening circumstance and could not go back
00:46:29back he was currently living in mexico patrick would have to make the trip to visit his old friend
00:46:34despite not having been on a plane in 20 years it would be a huge challenge to get patrick to
00:46:40make
00:46:40the trip i was excited and nervous to see what would happen if i could get them to reunite
00:46:46a couple of minutes just to do what i'm going to do okay in fact walk away
00:47:02first time in 20 years i've flown in an airplane and and this guy that sent me a ticket never
00:47:08told
00:47:08me it'd have to be on three airlines three different planes i feel like i'm in another galaxy
00:47:14in a long time well i got a call from alma who said drop what i'm doing and i'm on
00:47:21my way to my first
00:47:22house in 20 years i've been camping for seven i mean sorry seven years i have electricity and i have
00:47:31uh uh running water and i have an outside toilet but it's a real toilet you know i have outside
00:47:37cooking but it's nice shelter which i like anyway because i like to be out i am an animal i
00:47:43am not a
00:47:44man okay and i happen to pass by a place where i get messages and i have a plane ticket
00:47:50waiting like
00:47:51the next morning which means i have to get up at four o'clock in the morning and it's like
00:47:55already
00:47:5611 o'clock in the afternoon and i have to catch a bus for a four-hour bus ride and
00:48:02i was up
00:48:05partying the night before celebrating my new house and anyway somehow the powers got me here you know
00:48:11i walked up there and i was freaked out i mean here you are here he is then i found
00:48:17out you both just
00:48:17walked into the freaking building a few minutes before me like it was meant to be and alan looks pretty
00:48:23damn good you know i can't this is the old owl i know right here look yeah we couldn't look
00:48:31at each
00:48:31other and not get a good fucking laugh yeah i was in mexico
00:48:40even now we're you know we're just settling it down you know seven i haven't seen him in seven years
00:48:46either my last the last time i saw him i guess it was 2004 it's in my book it's funny
00:48:57that i don't
00:48:58remember the year um or 2005
00:49:07came here as soon as i saw the point and the setup
00:49:12in terms of the little cabinas and and restaurants on the sand and no nothing over two stories high no
00:49:19elevators no traffic lights within many miles um i decided i liked it so i came back last year
00:49:28um drove here from new york with my camper and spent five months um most of it i'd rented a
00:49:37place
00:49:37and then decided that i wanted to be here semi-permanently so when uh this year um for financial
00:49:49reasons and because of the way i like to live i i had planned on camping and making a really
00:49:54slick
00:49:55campsite that's really comfortable um it's very consistent last year in six months there was not one
00:50:01day that was unsurfable and most days it was chest higher or bigger i mean i'm talking 90 percent of
00:50:09of the time last year this year has been a little less spectacular but still like today you know these
00:50:15are good waves and it tickles me to see him living in the tent the power of influence and uh
00:50:22you know
00:50:23something he's a happier man for it so i really feel this way you know it's like we're an old
00:50:28couple
00:50:29you know that's arguing and you know when you did that and after all these years it's you know
00:50:35it's immediately back to the same you know the same way it was when you laugh you know when you
00:50:41were
00:50:41buddies and um so i'm yelling at him and uh and he cops an attitude and walks away for the
00:50:49things like
00:50:49what he just did smoking a joint right in in public where i live with kids having
00:50:57and their families eating in a restaurant right there feet away and he lights up a joint smoke
00:51:03everywhere and he thinks that's okay is he smoking a joint yeah oh man he's always smoking a joint yeah
00:51:11well it's not cool oh it's not cool all right um but it's it's strange with patrick when you you
00:51:19know
00:51:19you've it's like i haven't seen him for all for two years or four years or whatever and it's like
00:51:25you know the odd couple from hell kind of thing the the two of us you know that about all
00:51:31i can say
00:51:32about about poor uh poor patrick he's anyway we'll probably see him again later today don't you think
00:51:42oh no of course i was happy to see him uh uh uh our last few meetings have been like
00:51:48uh
00:51:52like separated husband and wife you know like uh kind of like
00:51:58suing for the estate well i was bothered because i thought i should get a piece of the pot
00:52:05yeah but you know look i don't want to hash it up if it's coming it's coming if it's not
00:52:09it's not it's
00:52:10irrelevant at this time and and uh you know look uh uh i always had a policy where i would
00:52:16never let
00:52:17money interfere with my friendships and the one thing about it is that i've been right on the money
00:52:23all that time now of course when i don't have any money and i think god damn it no no
00:52:29but that's not
00:52:30the point here you know he has his persona now i mean as he said to you uh he's captain
00:52:35zero it makes
00:52:36him money and it makes him feel good um how he could be angry at me and at the same
00:52:41time use the book
00:52:43you know for for part of who he is and and and and to make money on is i mean
00:52:50you can't do that you
00:52:51can't be angry at the person and plus then take advantage of what that person did that you're angry
00:52:56about it doesn't work that way my uh smoking the crack you know in there my preoccupation and
00:53:02alan's trying to communicate with me it was hard to really get through hello patrick is anybody home
00:53:10yeah that if you're friends with someone you know and you've been through a lot together you you try to
00:53:18put it aside you know things have changed so much since the old days when we were flush and big
00:53:27shots
00:53:27in the underground empire and running around and jets and uh i'm always excited to see alan i'm sure
00:53:33he that's why he comes because he's excited to see me too but uh uh you know like it's been
00:53:39a long
00:53:39time since we've been maybe on this even plane so look at me i mean that was my own worst
00:53:44enemy back
00:53:45in 2005 and 96 and so there you go there you have it but anyway look alan i'm just glad
00:53:53to see him uh
00:53:55and let it let it happen whatever's going to happen and uh you know things i feel the energy see
00:54:00i'm on a
00:54:01real real uh just like a long time ago uh my intuition my instincts and of course my faith that's
00:54:09why i'm here we have fun uh he come up with some bizarre theory you know that is not actually
00:54:16logical
00:54:17or whatever and i'd pick it apart and make fun of him and he'd make fun of me and um
00:54:21and we get a
00:54:22laugh out of it okay anyway anyway i love that don't you ever forget it probably you know what i
00:54:28mean
00:54:28and he's a funny guy you know and i'm usually a funny guy you know i can be put it
00:54:34that way so you
00:54:35know we we have had horrendous laughs together and when you you know been through a lot with someone
00:54:44um you know you can communicate without uh explaining everything you know you just know what what's going
00:54:51on and that that's um that's unusual that's great okay they answer the question or they go off
00:55:30what's going on and that's what about you what's going on and that's what's going on and that's what
00:55:55The glimpses of the future
00:56:00Follow past familiar
00:56:05Success becoming failure
00:56:10Meaning everything you say
00:56:13Living like today's the day
00:56:18The hopelessness will fade away
00:56:23You're on your own
00:56:29Death from a broken romance
00:56:34Held you back
00:56:39Taking on your own control
00:56:44Finding out what you don't know
00:56:47Meaning what took its toll
00:56:53Meaning everything you say
00:56:57Living like today's the day
00:57:01The hopelessness will fade away
00:57:06You're on your own
00:57:10You're on your own
00:57:13Death from a broken romance
00:57:17Held you back
00:57:22Held you back
00:57:41I can't take this any longer
00:57:47I will die or become stronger
00:57:52I can't take this any longer
00:57:57I will die or become stronger
00:58:02I can't take this any longer
00:58:06I will die or become stronger
00:58:32He had a relationship with a kid named Kiko here
00:58:38He always used to look after basically
00:58:41I think he had a difficult home life
00:58:44And Patrick was always very conscientious about seeing after him
00:58:48And talked to him a lot
00:58:50And he's 21 now
00:58:52And I heard he's expecting twins
00:58:55And he's quite young for that I guess
00:58:57But he still looks at Patrick for advice
00:59:01And he's a good kid
00:59:03And I think Patrick helped in that
00:59:06I met Werner
00:59:09He was Kiko when I met him
00:59:10But as he grew older he became more sophisticated
00:59:12He said don't call me Kiko Werner
00:59:15And so Werner was going
00:59:18He was hustling his pig home
00:59:20That he was sent out
00:59:21Because none of the other children wanted to do it
00:59:25So Kiko was four years old
00:59:26And he had this big twitch
00:59:27And he had this 800 pound hog
00:59:30The visual of this was outstanding
00:59:33And this hog knew Kiko all his life
00:59:38And he was a buddy of his basically
00:59:40And I noticed that Kiko was
00:59:44And he was snorting and grunting
00:59:45Like they were talking to each other
00:59:47It was too much
00:59:48So then he was grabbing the ear like this
00:59:50And I knew right away what he wanted to do
00:59:52He wanted to go and jump on that hog's neck
00:59:54This was a first for him to end the hog
00:59:57I'm born in the 87th
01:00:00And my name is Werner
01:00:01I was four years old
01:00:04Going for five years
01:00:06And I met him while I was riding my piggy
01:00:10From school back home
01:00:12My piggy went to look for me at school
01:00:14I used to have a piggy
01:00:16She knew what time I was coming from school
01:00:20That was like a dog
01:00:21You know a really nice pet
01:00:23I ride that much the pig
01:00:25She used to ride me
01:00:26Combed, go
01:00:27Like a bike
01:00:30She used to go around with me
01:00:31And like nice
01:00:32Yeah he helped me up a lot
01:00:34He was like wow amazing
01:00:36And always I talk about this
01:00:38About Patrick
01:00:40He came up to be like one of my
01:00:43Part of my family
01:00:44You know like a second dad
01:00:47And I liked him a lot
01:00:49He bought me a bike
01:00:50And we used to go around town
01:00:53Riding bike
01:00:54And that was my first bike
01:00:56I ever got a good present
01:00:57For my birthday
01:00:58He used to teach me a little bit
01:01:00About the map
01:01:01He had a huge map
01:01:02He used to teach me a little bit
01:01:04About this
01:01:05And you know
01:01:08Literating in English
01:01:09And stuff like that
01:01:10Helped me up a little bit
01:01:12With my homework
01:01:13English homework
01:01:14Yeah
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