I’m sure I am not the only girl who has dreamed of walking up a red carpet.  What would I wear?  How would it feel to see the scarlet pathway beneath my feet while the cameras flashed?  Well, I recently discovered exactly how it would feel when I attended the world premiere of the Irish, historical surf documentary WAVERIDERS headlining at the Santa Barbara film festival.  The festival is a star-studded event held every year in the beautiful, film and surf-mad town Kelly Slater now calls home.  The same week, Kate Winslet, Penelope Cruz, Clint Eastwood and Mickey Rourke graced the same red carpet I would walk up at the Arlington Theatre; a 2500 capacity movie theatre with stars on the ceiling and movie stars on the giant screen.   

The night before, I stumbled across the men putting the name of our film up in lights and felt nervous at the prospect of nobody turning up to watch the film I had written and worked on over six years.  The following night, I slipped on my black silk Audrey dress given to me by the lovely Marta at Quiksilver Women.  The dress is stunningly simple with a black lace inlay and lining.  The design is loose and comfortable with side pockets in which to shove my shaking hands!  I accessorised with black lace stockings, high black shoes, chunky pearls and several deep breaths and I was finally ready to face the huge crowd that had gathered outside the cinema to watch the film.

We had won the Dublin film festival so we had faith in our creation but this was the film’s first foray onto foreign soil.  I joined the true stars of the film on the red carpet, Kelly Slater, Keith and Dan Malloy and Gabe Davies as well as filmmaker Jason Baffa, our Director, Joel Conroy and Producer, Margo Harkin.  The trip up the red carpet was both fun and nerve-wracking and I was asked countless times who had designed my gorgeous dress.  Once we were inside the packed theatre and the titles rolled and the atmosphere in the theatre buzzed, I knew we were in for a great night. 

The enthusiastic American audience whooped and cheered throughout the eighty minutes, none more so than in the final seconds when Gabe surfed the biggest swell ever ridden in Ireland, which Kelly quantified as fifty feet.  The audience then stayed for a Q&A session, most delighted at having the chance to question their surfing heroes while some writers in the crowd directed their questions at me.  Finally we were set free to party at a local Irish bar.  Believe me, the Irish are born to party and Quiksilver Women aren’t opposed to the odd knees up either!

The night was all I had imagined and the excitement was not over.  We had a second sell-out showing two days later and a third on the final day of the festival.  I then returned to the UK to have my jetlag suddenly cured by the news that WAVERIDERS was last night awarded an IFTA (the Irish equivalent of an Oscar) for the best feature documentary of the year.  The film will be released in selected cinemas on April 3^rd and who knows, there may be more awards to come?  Hmm, better get myself another dress….!

Lauren Davies

Jason Baffa (water cameraman), Kelly Slater, Gabe and Lauren Davies, Keith Malloy (pro surfer)

Lauren and Gabe Davies

Special thanks to Lucia Griggi for her great pictures