Documentary (2009) 68 minutes ~ Color
"Being Captain Zero" is a movie about two friends from very different backgrounds who grew up surfing together in 1950's Montauk, New York. Allan Weisbecker and Patrick Abrams.
In the 1970's, their friendship turned to criminal enterprise. They began transporting multi ton shipments of Marijuana from Columbia & Jamaica into the United States by both sea and air. The violence of the emerging cocaine trade and the threat of the DEA, forced them to separate. They made a pact to keep their destinations secret, even from each other.
Allan moved to Hollywood and cashed in on his marijuana running experiences by writing for "Miami Vice". Patrick moved to Puerto Viejo, a town along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, in search of the fastest and most dangerous wave in Central America. Salsa Brava.
After 20 years Allan sold his home and bought a truck with a camper and went looking for his old friend Patrick in Costa Rica. On this trip Allan wrote "In Search of Captain Zero". It is a memoir combining their drug running exploits with the adventure of looking for his old partner. Patrick. Upon his arrival in Puerto Viejo Allan was shocked to see what had become of his old friend. What Allan saw would shake the very foundation of their friendship.
Director: Ama MacDonald
Cast: Allan Weisbecker, Patrick Abrams
"Being Captain Zero" is a movie about two friends from very different backgrounds who grew up surfing together in 1950's Montauk, New York. Allan Weisbecker and Patrick Abrams.
In the 1970's, their friendship turned to criminal enterprise. They began transporting multi ton shipments of Marijuana from Columbia & Jamaica into the United States by both sea and air. The violence of the emerging cocaine trade and the threat of the DEA, forced them to separate. They made a pact to keep their destinations secret, even from each other.
Allan moved to Hollywood and cashed in on his marijuana running experiences by writing for "Miami Vice". Patrick moved to Puerto Viejo, a town along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, in search of the fastest and most dangerous wave in Central America. Salsa Brava.
After 20 years Allan sold his home and bought a truck with a camper and went looking for his old friend Patrick in Costa Rica. On this trip Allan wrote "In Search of Captain Zero". It is a memoir combining their drug running exploits with the adventure of looking for his old partner. Patrick. Upon his arrival in Puerto Viejo Allan was shocked to see what had become of his old friend. What Allan saw would shake the very foundation of their friendship.
Director: Ama MacDonald
Cast: Allan Weisbecker, Patrick Abrams
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:01:00This is the story of two friends that grew up surfing together in 1950s Montauk, NY.
00:01:27Alan Weisbecker and Patrick Abrams.
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, plenty of money to be made, you got to watch
00:01:59out, it lures you into the web and then you get noticed and then you become a star for
00:02:05the feds.
00:02:06Yeah, we'd have ships and planes and it was not that suitcase stuff and we got to the
00:02:13point where, well I lost a load of 100,000 pounds.
00:02:19The violence of the emerging cocaine trade and the threat of the DEA forced them to separate.
00:02:25If these people are looking at our pictures and maybe we'll be picked up and if we put
00:02:33pressure on us, we might even tell on each other, we know we love each other so I should
00:02:39find a place where he didn't know I would go and he would pick a place and don't ask,
00:02:43don't tell.
00:02:45Alan moved to Hollywood and cashed in on his marijuana running experiences by writing for
00:02:49Miami Vice.
00:02:52Patrick moved to Porviejo, a town along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, in search of
00:02:56the fastest and most dangerous wave in Central America, Salsa Brava.
00:03:04After 20 years, Alan sold his home and bought a truck with a camper and went looking for
00:03:08his 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 Porviejo, Alan was shocked to see what had become of his old friend.
00:03:32It was terrible.
00:03:34He's living in a tent on the beach but the first thing he said to me just about was let's
00:03:39score 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.
00:04:01You don't berate yourself, you just rearrange your priorities and destroy them.
00:04:09After a lifetime spent on the edge, could Patrick's downward spiral destroy their friendship?
00:04:151948, New York City, Alan Weisbecker is my name, grew up in the suburbs of Manhattan,
00:04:44had a strange father who was a weightlifter in the early 50s when you had to buy weights
00:04:53from an oddball company and he took me spearfishing off Long Island, Montauk Point, one time.
00:05:03I still remember my first ocean excursion and it changed everything.
00:05:11Then 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
00:05:31York.
00:05:32I was born in Copaig Hospital, Long Island, New York.
00:05:39My arrival on the planet, January 23, 1945, was an accident.
00:05:49My mother's husband with two children, with Bill Abrams, was in Europe for over a year.
00:05:58My father had a wife and two children in Connecticut on his way home from Europe and they had an
00:06:04affair and here I am.
00:06:08Thank God for lust.
00:06:10And 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.
00:06:23And I caused a lot of hardship for Mom, I'll tell you that.
00:06:27She had a lot of explaining to do and Bill Sr. came back, hello, surprise.
00:06:35Well, you know, my mother, of course, later on in life did, you know, I never met her
00:06:38until I was, well, I met her off and on, you know, but they were trying to put me up for
00:06:43adoption but I was an unadoptable, cantankerous child.
00:06:48And so they, you know, they tried not to get us together too much so we wouldn't bond.
00:06:56Brooklyn Hall is an orphanage in East Eastlip, Long Island, on the border of both townships
00:07:02that I was raised in for a number of years.
00:07:04They gave me the foundation of my life, probably the most emotional, wonderful feeling that
00:07:09I've ever had.
00:07:10And I was a privileged child to live with these people.
00:07:13My average day was like this.
00:07:15First of all, they had juniors, intermediates, and senior dormitories.
00:07:21This is like a giant Vanderbilt house that looked like the Vanderbilts walked out, you
00:07:26know.
00:07:27I mean, huge, beautiful archways and gargoyles called around the building, 52 acres, Ball
00:07:32Field Lake.
00:07:33My experience in Brooklyn Hall, I believe, was my organization of my whole moral principles
00:07:42and I think the basis of this whole beautiful feeling, because we are the receivers when
00:07:50we do that, it comes directly from the people that raised me in Brooklyn Hall.
00:08:03And this is where I met Patrick out in Montauk.
00:08:14We became friends, quick friends there.
00:08:18This is 64, 65, and we'd camp out, spend the summers in tents near the surf break.
00:08:27Well, the first time I met Alan is hard to remember, but I remember him showing up in
00:08:32Montauk every summer when we were young, older teenagers.
00:08:37He was like the most likely to succeed, the class president, and we were so opposite.
00:08:50Graduated from high school in 66 in June, in California by August, did my first acid
00:08:58troop at the doors at the Whiskey Go-Go, still legal at the door at the time, never
00:09:02forget it.
00:09:03Jim Morrison was playing at the time.
00:09:05Jackson in September, I was in Vietnam by April.
00:09:09So you know, it was pretty quick, and then by the following September, I was a hardened
00:09:17military guy.
00:09:21So I volunteered for Airborne Rangers and then I went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma and I did
00:09:27artillery training.
00:09:28I was a radio man, lifespan's not good, and then I did jump training in Fort Benning,
00:09:37Georgia, and then I did ranger school in Vietnam and OJT, on the job training.
00:09:44I was a radio man, photo observer for artillery, way out there, way up front, you know.
00:09:51We had a company of men, usually understaffed, and we were always being harassed and martyred.
00:10:03If it happened a dozen times, we actually hit any real hard stuff the whole time you're
00:10:12there.
00:10:13Some groups were harder than others, so it's hard to compare.
00:10:19I've seen my share.
00:10:21Sleeping on the ground 24-7, 365, you know, I mean, you're way the fuck out there.
00:10:29Humping, I'm talking about, you wouldn't see people for maybe a month, even.
00:10:36One of the scariest things, orientation for the first couple of days before jungle school,
00:10:44Most of you boys will be going home in body bags.
00:10:49Thank you very much.
00:10:52And 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.
00:11:02Well, I've been ready all these years, and I figured I was such a problem, anyway, I'd
00:11:09better 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
00:11:17it's prepared me for life.
00:11:28The thing I did leave out was that I spent two years on the north shore of Oahu, surfing
00:11:34at, you know, I lived between Pipeline and Waimea in 68 and 69, which were the two most
00:11:41formative years, and formidable 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
00:12:04rule the world if we wanted.
00:12:06That would never occur to us, but we could just do whatever we wanted, and nothing could
00:12:10go wrong.
00:12:11I was wrong, of course.
00:12:16Things always go wrong.
00:12:18So that was very much a part of my forming who I am.
00:12:26And at that time, at that same time, Patrick was in Vietnam going through a completely
00:12:30other thing, and I don't know how he got through that with the cheerful attitude he has now.
00:12:56The government made me an adrenaline junkie, and I needed the rush, I needed the excitement,
00:13:08I needed the thrill, if you'd call it thrilling.
00:13:11Of course, I was getting paid a lot better than the military had paid me, but...
00:13:16And he turned out to be quite an interesting guy, and of course, the compatibility and
00:13:20all the variables that go along with smuggling fit my qualifications.
00:13:27And then I did a recon with a friend of mine.
00:13:32In 1970, it was just after the winter of 69, which was a real formative winter for me surfing
00:13:42and mental attitude-wise, when I believed I could do anything.
00:13:48So I decided to go to Europe and buy a Volkswagen van and drive around, look for waves.
00:13:56And I quickly ended up in Morocco, where I realized I could buy a kilo of hash for about
00:14:01$40, and that hash could be sold for about $1,000, actually it was 1,000 a pound, I think,
00:14:10in the States.
00:14:11I'm trying to remember now.
00:14:12But whichever it was, it was ridiculous, and all you had to do was bring it back.
00:14:17And I had a connection, bought a few kilos of hash, and smuggled it back, and I had various
00:14:25ways 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 don't know, it was 1971 or 2, and I had like $50,000, a 22-year-old kid
00:14:46by then, that's a lot of money in those days.
00:14:50And I wanted to buy a boat, and I knew I could put a lot more in a boat, you know, I could
00:14:58pack that sucker, you know, bring back a ton.
00:15:02And that led to Columbia and Learjets, and I mean, the level I was on, I would do business
00:15:16with CIA people, they were mostly Cuban exiles that were in the pot business as to raise
00:15:29money to do something to Castro, or to do various other nefarious CIA activities.
00:15:37CIA has been smuggling drugs forever, I mean, that's common knowledge now, but I know from
00:15:43personal experience.
00:15:48Sail out from Fort Lauderdale, bank around the Bahamas, and then we would sneak up behind
00:15:53Haiti and Dominican Republic, come in by the Negril, hopefully not get stopped by anybody
00:15:59where we have to show papers or get a stamp, and then load up and then bank down behind
00:16:04the Caymans, and if it got tricky, we would tuck in behind the islands off the coast of
00:16:09Mexico and between Mexico and the islands, and pop up out into the Gulf, and so you were
00:16:14far enough away where if you did get stopped by the patrols, you could say you were out
00:16:19on a day sail, which is a couple of days of sailing around the Gulf, you know, and any
00:16:24probable cause, and of course, you could go on a boat, and the only way you could find
00:16:28it was to tear the fucking walls out, of course, whenever there's money involved, you have
00:16:31predators, so you have to watch out, we weren't involved, we didn't care about the police
00:16:35much, but there were robbers.
00:16:38Yeah.
00:16:39In Columbia, both happened, shot at and arrested for a few minutes, until they realized who
00:16:48my connection was, and then the cops were literally kissing my feet, sorry, sorry, kind
00:16:54of thing, and in Morocco, I had a real close call at a roadblock in the middle of the night.
00:17:04Look, it's interesting that they would call me Captain Zero, because I was the captain,
00:17:12I never wanted the responsibility, but I could take over at any minute, and there's no doubt
00:17:17about it.
00:17:18Sometimes, I didn't have to, I could just say a couple of sharp little things, and straighten
00:17:23him out, you know, give him the confidence, say, no, it's okay, I never had to push him
00:17:28out of the way and grab the fucking wheel, it's okay, I know he's a competent man, but
00:17:33sometimes, I think my experience is in the past, you know, don't panic, you know what
00:17:41I mean?
00:17:42Steady as she goes, the end of the torpedoes, cut me off, all right.
00:17:46The thing about Patrick, which I still love, is no matter what happens, it doesn't seem
00:17:51to bother him, and the downside to that is he's not really thinking about how to get
00:17:57out of a horrendous situation, he's going, this is, dig this, you know, it's like a story
00:18:02we're going to tell later, and I'm going, yeah, if we get out of it, but he was fun
00:18:09that way, and he always was fun.
00:18:11We ended up parting ways, and when I decided that it was a bad business to be in, it was
00:18:23just when marijuana was on its way out, cocaine was on its way in, things were getting very,
00:18:29very dangerous, it wasn't fun anymore, I was just getting tired of it, and I also got
00:18:37to the point where I would have had to kill some people to stay in the business and be
00:18:43respected, do you know what I mean?
00:18:47And that was a choice, and it was, I found out who I am in a way, you know, it wasn't
00:18:54fear, I just didn't want to do it, you know, I could have paid somebody to kill this guy
00:18:58and rip me off, and I didn't do it, I just left, but I couldn't do both, I couldn't stay
00:19:03in the business and let this particular person live, so I just left, that's really a lot
00:19:10to do with it.
00:19:11We 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, and one thing led to another,
00:19:34and we ended up parting ways in the 80s.
00:19:42And of course, Alan went to Hollywood, and that's cool, thank God, and then after a period
00:19:50of time, we felt we were okay, of course, you know, I hadn't seen him, he was really
00:19:55hot, because he was like, you know, he had accumulated material, and so they were constantly,
00:20:00you know, me, who the fuck, they could look at me, I didn't have shit, you know, now,
00:20:06I had a great fucking time, and I've been all over, and of course, money, I was going,
00:20:10you know, first class, and there was no tomorrow, you know, after Vietnam, you never know, so
00:20:15I was always like, people say, what did you do with the money, I go, I spent it, no regrets,
00:20:21you know.
00:20:30It was getting to be narco-terrorism, what they would call now, and so I decided to change
00:20:56my occupation, and I became a screenwriter.
00:20:59Why I picked that, I can't explain, I had something in me that wanted to be a writer
00:21:05for a long time, and I decided to get out of the business.
00:21:10I thought, well, why don't I just write that story that I had in my head, and I'll write
00:21:15it as a movie, and that's what I did.
00:21:18I spent a month in limbo in a hotel in New York City, bought a book on screenwriting,
00:21:24how it looked and everything, and wrote it, and went out to the West Coast, and I happened
00:21:30to know one person there, a TV producer, and he told me to come out if I ever wrote a script,
00:21:37and I came, went out, and he knocked on his door in Bel Air, and handed him the script,
00:21:42he read it that day, because it was an actor's strike at the time, he had nothing to do,
00:21:49read it by his pool, snorting coke, and bought it from me, optioned it, I should say, that
00:21:56day, so it was probably the world's record of a jerk showing up in Hollywood and getting
00:22:01a deal, it was within hours.
00:22:05So I thought, man, this isn't so hard.
00:22:07Michael Mann hired me, he had optioned the screenplay I wrote a few years before, and
00:22:14when he started the show, he 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, I hadn't heard of it, and I hadn't been on,
00:22:26and the pilot hadn't shown yet, and I didn't think it was a really dumb idea, but he persuaded
00:22:32me to go down to Miami and rewrite this thing that was being shot, and it was an emergency,
00:22:38you know, the script's no good, and we need blah, blah, blah, so I went down,
00:22:40it was a script about marijuana smugglers, which was my business, so yeah, I made it
00:22:46more authentic, I can't tell you specifically that it was based on my experiences, but I
00:22:56became a Hollywood asshole for a few years, and I don't look back on those Porsche days
00:23:06very fondly, you know, I 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
00:23:20some success in the film business, or TV business.
00:23:27I quit my job, I stopped doing that, I sold my house, bought a truck with a camper on it,
00:23:53and in the meantime, Patrick had disappeared, he up and went south, and that's sort of,
00:24:02to make a long story short, all we knew, we knew he was down somewhere in Central America,
00:24:08or Mexico, but probably Central America, and so I decided to go and find him and say hi,
00:24:15and I spent a year traveling between Mexico and Costa Rica, and the irony is,
00:24:26I couldn't go any further south is where I found him, it was at the end of the road,
00:24:31the 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
00:24:43say about the Salsa Brava, and I came for 90 days, and I've never set foot on American soil,
00:24:49end of story. Where's your name? Manuel Leon Salazar, from 50 to 60, 53, the oil company from
00:25:00Caracas, from United States, the Loveland Brothers Company, come to Costa Rica and find oil,
00:25:09and in 88, we have power in Puerto Viejo, that is the best news, well everybody have light,
00:25:17because first time we used to have generator, that's how we have a plant generator, everybody
00:25:22have that from four o'clock till eight o'clock in the night, no more than that, everything finished
00:25:27in the night, and from 1990 to 2000, from 1992, we have phone, the phone, everybody have phone.
00:25:39Holly Edmiston, July 24th, 1952. Since I've come here, all of Costa Rica has changed,
00:25:47which is since 1978, I guess I first came down to Costa Rica. It's changed a lot. I've known
00:25:55him for many years, I guess since the 70s, Montauk, New York, which is at the end of Long Island, and
00:26:01it's a surfing town, I guess, fishing town, and I met Patrick there a long time ago, and
00:26:11knew him for many years after that, ever since, and in Florida, where he lived for quite a while, and
00:26:18then he showed up in Costa Rica one day.
00:26:22You know, it was something about the people here, can you imagine us going to another culture,
00:26:28and a little culture of villages like this, and being accepted, inquisitive to let us stay,
00:26:37encouraging, 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, and forgiveness of that.
00:26:54Dangerous? Well, I equated to a pitching machine here, where you see that thing coming out of there.
00:27:21Wow, it fucking flies, buddy. Yeah, and once you're a master, which you never really do, but once you
00:27:27kind of get the fear of God, and you're taken off on fucking sorts of brava, if you want to
00:27:33pretend you're a big wave hero, this is a good place to come. All right. I'm Kurt Van Dyke, born
00:27:40in Santa Cruz County, March 25th, 59. I just, my main life when I grew up, the main thing to life
00:27:50was Pipeline and Sunset Beach in those days, so that's where I lived in the winters, and that's
00:27:55what I rode by the time I came down here to settle down here. It was about the time all these other
00:28:02waves started getting discovered, but I was already tied into this, and surfing, you know, six weeks,
00:28:09swells that were empty, six weeks, eight to ten, twelve feet, surf, just right hand stand up barrels
00:28:17all 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
00:28:32YMA, and my dad surfed all his life, my uncle too, my mother surfs, great-grandfather surf,
00:28:39you know, it was great, it was sunny, it was beautiful, turquoise green, beautiful
00:28:44tubes, I couldn't believe how hollow the place was, it was mind-boggling. The first bowl out here
00:28:50is every bit as fast as taking off a backdoor or anywhere else in the world, it sucks out so fast,
00:28:57it's incredible. Yeah, I've seen some bad white pods, I've seen some guys come in with their faces
00:29:05so cut that their skin curled up like meat, you know, like dreads on their face and shit,
00:29:12and I've taken some bad blows myself, just yesterday I took a bad, took off on one and
00:29:18got in this huge tube and it compressed me down, threw my arm up over my shoulder or something,
00:29:22kind of partially dislocated it, you know what I mean, went numb for about 30 seconds on me,
00:29:29so you're constantly, it's a challenging way, not only the fact that it's a challenging way,
00:29:39it's challenging to stay in one piece, you know, you want to, that's the main part there. Yeah.
00:29:49I know of someone who broke their neck there, I don't know of anyone who was killed there,
00:29:55and I'm surprised about that. I'll give you an example, the first time I paddled out,
00:30:00I remember there were 11 guys out and eight were wearing helmets, and I had never seen that
00:30:05anywhere, you know, and it became obvious why after my first wave. My name is Federico Pelluzzo,
00:30:14I was born 7-7-1983, I am 25 years old, and yeah, yeah, the guys always tell me,
00:30:22yeah I broke his bar, 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,
00:30:34you definitely tell that it goes into knee-deep water, and you know, it's a bunch of seawater,
00:30:39and reef, like, you know, a live reef, so you know that, you know, if you fall, you're gonna hit the
00:30:46reef, or even if you duck dive, you're gonna, you know, get smashed on it, like, yeah, it definitely
00:30:54gets some big, yes, big barrels for sure. Well, Salsa Brava was, started surfing in
00:31:0965, 66, it was good, I mean, it was huge, you can put 18 wheelers in that, in that tubes,
00:31:17and you feel that bore going, when the bore, you start in that tube, you start making,
00:31:23you know, moves, and the bore is going, and it start, I call it mash one, mash two, mash three,
00:31:33the bore start vibrating, and vibrating, and you feel like it's turning into jelly, the whole bore
00:31:39is turning into jelly, and you just go, this is going to, this is going to blow up, this is going
00:31:44to blow up, and when you come out of the tubes, so it was intense, it was, the adrenaline rush was
00:31:52nothing like that, and I don't think I experienced any other, any other rush in my life like that one,
00:31:59come out of huge tubes, and it gets spit out 15 feet up in the air.
00:32:10When I, when I set out on the trip, I didn't have any idea that I would write a book about it,
00:32:14I 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,
00:32:26because of Patrick, and because of where I was going, and the environment, I started thinking
00:32:31about my past, and I just started weaving my back story into the front story, the trip,
00:32:43and it just evolved into a memoir, you know, I don't remember when I realized I was writing a
00:32:50book, but at some point I realized this is not an article anymore, and it became,
00:33:00it became not an obsession, but I wrote about everything, the book was four times longer than
00:33:07than it was going to be, you know, I just wrote whatever, I wrote every day, and I,
00:33:12that's when I really, you know, I'd written screenplays, a lot of screenplays, but screenplay
00:33:16writing is different than prose writing, and I didn't know if I could write prose, I had no idea,
00:33:23and I slowly evolved a voice, that, you know, a style, or whatever, that seemed to work for me,
00:33:33the back story, and Captain Zero has to do with, invariably, my relationship with Patrick,
00:33:43you know, my looking for Patrick, I believe, in retrospect, was a rationalization for making
00:33:51the trip, I mean, the trip was really about me, I needed to escape, and I needed to get back to my
00:33:56roots of surfing, you know, I just had a lot of experiences that I, you know, I'd always thought
00:34:03that memoir writers, there must be something wrong with them, that they think their life is worth
00:34:09somebody else spending hours reading about, and maybe that's still correct, I don't know, but
00:34:16it seemed, I realized that I had done some things that were, I never thought of my life as being
00:34:22that interesting, you know, the smuggling and all that, just seemed like things that I did that
00:34:28are done now, you know, but when I started to describe them, I got a kick out of it.
00:34:52I read that this guy, Patrick Abrams, wrote to his friend, Alan Weissbecker, a postcard,
00:35:08and signed it, you know, never coming home, this is your buddy in the jungle, Captain Zero,
00:35:15and he picked up on it and made the article for the Men's Journal, and then it turned into the
00:35:21book, and holy shit, here I am, and it's just a fantastic thing, you know, and it's helped me
00:35:28realize just who the hell I am. You know, I laugh, apparently he's doing well as Captain Zero,
00:35:38and, you know, I get emails all the time about people that, you know, they got off the bus, and
00:35:44I'm Captain Zero, and I'm your guide, and he is fun to be with, and, you know, he apparently,
00:35:52from the impressions I've gotten from people that I don't know that write to me because of my book,
00:35:58I know who he is and all, well, some of them are negative, but most of them, they write to reassure
00:36:07me that he's fine, and they really liked him. I'm Melba Mauldin, and I am 65 years old.
00:36:17Do you think he enjoys his celebrity? Certainly, man, I mean, you know, it's like,
00:36:23I mean, it's like we wouldn't want him to get him, like, t-shirts and hats, you know, so he
00:36:27can identify himself as Captain Zero all of the time, not just, you know, by word of mouth, you
00:36:33know, so he can actually wear a badge, you know, since I'm Captain Zero. Yeah, he enjoys it. He
00:36:40loves it. Oh, he loves it. Yeah, he loves it. It's very, it's very exciting to him to be looked at
00:36:50in a different way or in that way, and he plays up to it, sure. He loves it. It's good for him.
00:36:57Actually, yeah, being Captain Zero and having become Captain Zero has been a great experience
00:37:03for me. I finally got a job, you know. I needed a job, and I got one. I had leisure consulting, but
00:37:10Captain Zero also has given me an identity, and I kind of knew I was Captain Zero
00:37:20before I was Captain Zero, but I didn't know if anybody else noticed, you see,
00:37:25but I can handle a part, and I'm quite capable of being the captain. Get that straight.
00:37:32Okay, what does he call it? He calls it Captain Zero Adventure Tours, or, no, it's better than
00:37:38that. It was leisure something, a leisure consultant. Perfect, you know, title for him,
00:37:46a leisure consultant, and so, you know, by God, if you can make a living as a leisure consultant,
00:37:52God bless you, huh?
00:38:22I mean, we hadn't seen each other for a long time. We were good. We were good friends, but,
00:38:29you know, you go your separate ways, and I hadn't seen him in eight years, well,
00:38:34five years, and in the years before that, we really had drifted apart, you know. I mean,
00:38:40it was like he went his way, I went mine, and we'd go for years without
00:38:45speaking or having any reason to, so it was tough in the beginning, you know. Like I said,
00:38:53the first thing he suggested was let's buy some crack, and, you know, and we used to party in
00:38:59the old days, but, you know, when I said I didn't want to, it was like a light went off in his head.
00:39:07Oh, yeah, tremendous amount of people doing crack. It's pretty much devastated the community
00:39:13in a lot of ways. I think, you know, drugs really have come here and hurt the community in many ways
00:39:21because it's so small. She, you know, got involved with crack and stuff like that. I guess
00:39:26at that point in time, nobody really probably wanted to deal with them because no one usually
00:39:31wants to deal with anybody that's on that kind of drug, and, you know, I think a lot of people
00:39:37really like Patrick. A lot of people don't. Because he make his living going in town and
00:39:45buying drugs for the foreigners, so he said, oh, $50, and he spent $20, and he win $30,
00:39:52so he always got some money coming from that, you know. It's a lot of people looking for drugs
00:39:57in town, tourists, so he goes and talk and this and that, and he comes out with the line that
00:40:03Capital Zero, I am, here's the book, so people go, whoa, yeah, far out, and this and that. So,
00:40:09actually, he used that as a bait, you know, to get money from you or anything. So, actually,
00:40:20I don't dislike the old man, you know, because that's his way of living, but
00:40:26he's not a person to trust.
00:40:30Bill Mauldin in 11, 1952. The very first time, I guess you'd call it street hustling,
00:40:40and he came up and offered the contraband, I suppose, and I gave him some money, and
00:40:48uh, we came back six months later and actually got the contraband. So,
00:40:56I didn't see him again in that visit, so, you know, but it was, we did get what we asked for, so
00:41:05I 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
00:41:19contraband, actually, and that's how we met him, you know, but he was a real friendly guy, so,
00:41:29you know, well, well, he's made some other people mad. I know that. He personally, we hadn't had too
00:41:39many bad experiences with him. You know, he normally corrects whatever mistakes he makes
00:41:45with us. Now, whether or not he corrects those with the other people, I don't know, but he normally
00:41:51takes care of, it might not be in the time or the fashion that you wanted it in, but if you
00:41:58live long enough, he'll finally get even with you. Yeah, crack cocaine is a formidable adversary.
00:42:07I recommend it for the young, particularly, because the emotional, physical, spiritual,
00:42:14and mental states are shifting and variable, and of course, it has the ability to
00:42:25make you think you want more, and therefore, you lose sleep, and then you become a bit
00:42:32disoriented, and sometimes you can go for days. Not that you're not enjoying it,
00:42:37but it can be confusing over consumption more than any other drug. I was into crack cocaine
00:42:42every day for years, and don't try that at home, either. I'm a veteran. I'm an experienced guy,
00:42:50so I can get away with shit like that. I think to pass on is the rock bottom.
00:42:56When there's life, there's hope, and no, I've never felt that I was in any danger. Yeah,
00:43:01I was probably 50 pounds underweight. Smoking coke, let me think about that.
00:43:09I may have started, I mean, I might have smoked my first coke
00:43:16probably. I would suspect when I got there, you know what I mean? It might have been one or two
00:43:22times. They didn't call it, they called it freebase, but I believe it's the same stuff,
00:43:28you know what I mean? Never really where I felt I was overindulging and enjoying it. One would never
00:43:35think that you would overindulge and enjoy it. Of course, I look back on it now, and I say,
00:43:39what the hell was that all about? What, were you crazy? Yeah, I probably was.
00:43:45And I'm sure he had his moments during that period of time,
00:43:50but luckily he got out of that, and he had the strength to get out of that on his own,
00:43:57which I think is pretty commendable. To be honest with you, there were times when I
00:44:07thought that maybe I should cut back on it, but I didn't know how I was going to do it.
00:44:11Something happened subliminally, I think, but it kind of like just faded, you know?
00:44:17I mean, it's like going through a storm, you know, all of a sudden there's storms of size.
00:44:21Don't think that I didn't have some periods where I go, you know, leave this thing,
00:44:32but I knew I would, and I didn't know where, and I was very surprised at how I kind of slid
00:44:39out of it, and I just one day never even cared.
00:44:54I always admired him, you know, leading an interesting life. Well, first of all,
00:45:01his intellect, and of course, his ability to see intellect in me, which, you know,
00:45:06we were from different worlds, kind of like more structured education in mind,
00:45:12but I always felt flattered that Alan would interact with me, and he would find our
00:45:19philosophical discussions fruitful, because I sure did his, you know, he was a part of everything.
00:45:28Yeah, sure, yeah, yeah, I hope I do. I'm not going to go back to Costa Rica, I don't think,
00:45:37and he's apparently not going anywhere, so it seems unlikely, but we'll see.
00:45:45Yeah, I'd love to see him.
00:45:57So,
00:46:05my name is Alma MacDonald, and I was born in 1972. I'm the guy making this film. I had
00:46:11originally planned to end the film there, but after watching that ending, realized I would have
00:46:16to reunite these guys. The last two times they had met up, they only argued, and worse yet,
00:46:21they had not surfed together in almost 30 years. Alan had left Costa Rica three years ago,
00:46:26under life-threatening circumstance, and could not go back. He is currently living in Mexico.
00:46:32Patrick would have to make the trip to visit his old friend, despite not having been on a
00:46:35plane in 20 years. It would be a huge challenge to get Patrick to make the trip. I was excited
00:46:41and nervous to see what would happen if I could get them to reunite. A couple of minutes just
00:46:47to do what I'm going to do. In fact, walk away.
00:47:02First time in 20 years I've flown in an airplane, and this guy that sent me the ticket never told
00:47:08me it'd have to be on three airlines, three different planes. I feel like I'm in another
00:47:12galaxy in a long time. Well, I got a call from Alma, who said drop what I'm doing, and I'm on
00:47:20my way to my first house in 20 years. I've been camping for seven years. I have electricity, and I
00:47:30have running water, and I have an outside toilet, but it's a real toilet. I have outside cooking,
00:47:37but it's a nice shelter, which I like anyway, because I like to be out. I am an animal. I am
00:47:43not a man. I happened to pass by a place where I get messages, and I have a plane ticket waiting
00:47:50like the next morning, which means I have to get up at four o'clock in the morning, and it's like
00:47:55already 11 o'clock in the afternoon, and I have to catch a bus for a four-hour bus ride. I was up
00:48:03partying the night before, celebrating my new house, and anyway, somehow the powers got me here,
00:48:10you know. I walked up there, and I was freaked out. I mean, here you are. Here he is. Then I found out
00:48:16you both just walked into the freaking building a few minutes before me like it was meant to be,
00:48:20and Alan looks pretty damn good, you know.
00:48:23This is the old Alan I know right here. Look, we couldn't look at each other and not get a good
00:48:28fucking laugh. Yeah, I was in Mexico. Even now, you know, of course, we're just settling it down,
00:48:40you know. I haven't seen him in seven years either. My last, the last time I saw him
00:48:48I guess it was 2004. It's in my book. It's funny that I don't remember the year, or 2005.
00:49:04Came here, and as soon as I saw the point and the setup in terms of the little cabinas and
00:49:11restaurants on the sand, and no nothing over two stories high, no elevators, no traffic lights
00:49:17within many miles, I decided I liked it. So I came back last year, drove here from New York with my
00:49:26camper, and spent five months. Most of it I'd rented a place, and then decided then that I
00:49:36wanted to be here semi-permanently. So when this year, for financial reasons and because of the
00:49:44way I like to live, I had planned on camping and making a really slick campsite that's really
00:49:50comfortable. It's very consistent. Last year, in six months, there was not one day that was
00:49:56unsurfable, and most days it was chest high or bigger. So I decided I wanted to do something
00:50:04chest high or bigger. I mean, I'm talking 90 percent of the time last year. This year has
00:50:09been a little less spectacular, but still, like today, you know, these are good waves.
00:50:16And it tickles me to see him living in a tent. The power of influence, and you know something?
00:50:23He's a happier man for it, so I really feel this way. You know, it's like we're an old couple,
00:50:28you know, that's arguing, and you, and you, and after all these years, it's, you know, it's
00:50:34immediately back to the same, you know, the same way it was when you, you know, when you were
00:50:40buddies. And so I'm yelling at him, and he cops an attitude and walks away. For the things like
00:50:48what he just did, smoking a joint, right in public where I live, with kids having, and their families
00:50:57eating in a restaurant right there, feet away, and he lights up a joint, smoke everywhere,
00:51:03and he thinks that's okay. Is he smoking a joint? Yeah, he's always smoking a joint. Yeah,
00:51:10well, it's not cool. Oh, it's not cool? All right. But it's, it's strange with Patrick when you,
00:51:18you know, you've, it's like you haven't seen him for two years or four years or whatever,
00:51:24and it's like, you know, the odd couple from hell kind of thing, the two of us, you know,
00:51:30is about all I can say about, about poor, poor Patrick. Anyway, we'll probably see him again
00:51:40later today, don't you think? Oh, no, of course I was happy to see him.
00:51:46Our last few meetings have been like,
00:51:48uh, like separated husbands and wives, 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 park.
00:52:04Yeah, but, you know, look, I don't want a hair set up. If it's coming, it's coming. If it's not,
00:52:09it's not. It's irrelevant at this time. And, and, uh, you know, look, uh, I always had a policy where
00:52:16I would never let money interfere with my friendships. And the one thing about it is
00:52:21that I've been right on the money all that time. Now, of course, when I don't have any money and
00:52:26I think, God damn it. No, no, but that's not the point here, you know. He has his persona now. I
00:52:32mean, as he said to you, uh, he's Captain Zero. It makes him money and it makes him feel good.
00:52:38Um, how he could be angry at me and at the same time use the book, you know, for, for part of
00:52:45who he is and, and, and, and to make money on is, I mean, you can't do that. You can't be angry at
00:52:52the person and plus then take advantage of what that person did that you're angry about. It doesn't
00:52:57work that way. My, uh, smoking a crack, you know, and my preoccupation and Alan's trying to
00:53:02communicate with me and it was hard to really get through. Hello, Patrick. Is anybody home?
00:53:09Yeah. That if you're friends with someone, you know, and you've been through a lot together,
00:53:16you try to put it aside, you know, things have changed so much since the old days when we were
00:53:25flush and big shots in the underground empire and running around in jets. And, uh, I'm always
00:53:31excited to see Alan. I'm sure that's why he comes because he's excited to see me too. But, uh, uh,
00:53:37you know, like it's been a long time since we've been maybe on this even plane.
00:53:42So look at me. I mean, I was my own worst enemy back in 2005 and 96. And so there you go,
00:53:49there you have it. But anyway, look, Alan, I'm just glad to see him, uh, uh, and let it,
00:53:56let it happen. Whatever's going to happen. And, uh, you know, things, I feel the energy. See,
00:54:00I'm on a real, real, uh, just like a long time ago. Uh, my intuition, my instincts,
00:54:07and of course my face, that's why I'm here. We'd have fun. Uh, he'd come up with some
00:54:12bizarre theory, you know, that is not actually logical or whatever. And I'd pick it apart and
00:54:18make fun of him. And he'd make fun of me. And, um, and we get a laugh out of it. Okay. Anyway,
00:54:24hey baby, I love that. You haven't fucking forget about, you know what I mean?
00:54:28And he's a funny guy, you know, and I'm usually a funny guy, you know, I can be put it that way.
00:54:34So, you know, we, we have had horrendous laughs together. And when you've, you know,
00:54:40been through a lot with someone, um, you know, you can communicate without, uh, explaining
00:54:48everything, you know, you just know what, what's going on. And that, that's, um, that's unusual.
00:54:54That's great. Okay. Did I answer the question or did I go off?
00:56:24You're on your own.
00:56:39Taking on your own control.
00:56:44Finding out what you don't know.
00:56:46Meaning what took its toll.
00:56:48Meaning everything you say.
00:56:50Living like today's the day.
00:56:52Hopelessness will fade away.
00:56:54You're on your own.
00:56:56Death from a broken bone, man.
00:56:58You're on your own.
00:57:00You're on your own.
00:57:02You're on your own.
00:57:04You're on your own.
00:57:06You're on your own.
00:57:08You're on your own.
00:57:10You're on your own.
00:57:12You're on your own.
00:57:14You're on your own.
00:57:16You're on your own.
00:57:18You're on your own.
00:57:20You're on your own.
00:57:22You're on your own.
00:57:24You're on your own.
00:57:26You're on your own.
00:57:28You're on your own.
00:57:30You're on your own.
00:57:32You're on your own.
00:57:34You're on your own.
00:57:36You're on your own.
00:57:38You're on your own.
00:57:40You're on your own.
00:57:42I can't take this any longer.
00:57:44I will die or become stronger.
00:57:46I can't take this any longer.
00:57:48I will die or become stronger.
00:57:50I can't take this any longer.
00:57:52I will die or become stronger.
00:57:54I can't take this any longer.
00:57:56I will die or become stronger.
00:57:58I can't take this any longer.
00:58:00I will die or become stronger.
00:58:02I can't take this any longer.
00:58:04I will die or become stronger.
00:58:06I can't take this any longer.
00:58:08I will die or become stronger.
00:58:10I 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 him, basically.
00:58:40I think he had a difficult home life.
00:58:43Patrick was always very conscientious about seeing after him.
00:58:48He talked to him a lot.
00:58:50He's 21 now.
00:58:52I heard he's expecting twins.
00:58:54He's quite young for that, I guess.
00:58:57He still looks at Patrick for advice.
00:59:01He's a good kid.
00:59:03I think Patrick helped in that.
00:59:06I met Werner.
00:59:08He was Kiko when I met him.
00:59:10But as he grew older, he became more sophisticated.
00:59:12Don't call me Kiko Werner.
00:59:15Werner was hustling his pig home that he was sent back.
00:59:20None of the other children wanted to do it.
00:59:24Kiko was four years old.
00:59:26He had this big twitch and this 800-pound hog.
00:59:30The visual of this was outstanding.
00:59:33This hog knew Kiko all his life.
00:59:38He was a buddy, basically.
00:59:41I noticed that Kiko was snorting and grunting like they were talking to each other.
00:59:46It was too much.
00:59:48Then he was grabbing the ear like this.
00:59:50I 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 and the hog.
00:59:57I was born in 1987.
00:59:59My name is Werner.
01:00:01I was four years old.
01:00:03Going for five years.
01:00:05I met him while I was riding my piggy from school back home.
01:00:11My 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.
01:00:19That was like a dog.
01:00:21A really nice pet.
01:00:23I ride down by the pig.
01:00:25She used to ride me home.
01:00:27Like a bike.
01:00:29She used to go around with me.
01:00:31Nice.
01:00:32He helped me out a lot.
01:00:34He was amazing.
01:00:36I always talk about Patrick.
01:00:39He came out to be part of my family.
01:00:44Like a second dad.
01:00:47I liked him a lot.
01:00:48He bought me a bike.
01:00:50We used to go around town riding bikes.
01:00:53That was my first bike I ever got as a present for my birthday.
01:00:58He used to teach me a little bit about the map.
01:01:00He had a huge map.
01:01:02He used to teach me a little bit about this and that.
01:01:05You know, a little reading in English.
01:01:08Stuff like that helped me out a little bit with my English homework.