To Be Frank – A short film distills the warmth and wisdom of ‘surf familia’ godfather Frank Paine
by Mark McDermott Anna Wilder Burns was new to the area, and to surfing, when she encountered a heavily mustachioed man sitting on his surfboard south of the Hermosa Beach Pier. He scared the wits out of her. It was late summer 2021, and Burns had recently relocated from the East Coast. She was 22. She grew up in Maine and graduated from the University of New Hampshire the previous year, launching her adult life right into the eerie isolation of the early pandemic. Burns had a degree in journalism and a gift and a passion for filmmaking. Somewhat boldly, she had moved to the far side of the country to work as a freelance cinematographer. Burns wanted to surf, and to meet new people, and so she found her way to Morgan Sliff, a local longboarder renowned for her surfing streak. On July 21, 2021, Sliff celebrated her sixth year of surfing every single day — 2,190 days — and was joined in the water south of the Hermosa pier by her “surf familia,” a burgeoning group of friends that by this point included dozens of surfers. Burns and her boyfriend Christopher Miller joined the group in the water that day, and then went out with Sliff a few weeks later on a less momentous and less…
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