Kelly And Andy Let The Champagne Fly In Santa Barbara

Ever since announcing he was taking a brief respite from tour life Andy’s been on a bit of a whirlwind tour as of late, charging Teahupoo, a week in Fiji, a sold-out premier of A Fly In The Champagne in Encinitas Thursday night, then another premier in Santa Barbara on Friday. It appears taking a break from the hustle and bustle ain’t as easy as it sounds.

“This has all been amazing. Last week with the Nixon crew was great, and these premiers have been all-time. Still, I do want to get back to Kauai as soon as I can,” explained Andy, standing on a corner in front of the theater. “We’ve got the Pine Trees kids contest coming up, and it takes a lot to get ready for that.”

But more to the point, the Friday night premier—and the movie for that matter—was fantastic. Andy and Kelly were both there in the flesh, and they even got along. Actually, A Fly In The Champagne focuses on the rivalry between the two and how they’ve moved past the most of the issues…notice I say, “most.”

“Making this film has been a good process,” told Kelly. “It clears a lot of things up about Andy and I, and I think we better understand each other and are better friends now because of it.”

Earlier in the day, Kelly had been riding a 5’4” out at Rincon. And while that alone is enough for intrigue, the fact that he shaped it is even more interesting. He’s reportedly shaped over a dozen of them. It’ll be interesting to see if he rides these boards on the Gold Coast, but if he does, and the judges can comprehend what he’s doing, there’s going to be some sad surfers on tour.

Besides a really awkward moment when Andy and Kelly were giving a surfboard away, everything else went off without a hitch. There had been two golden tickets taped under the seat of a couple of seats in the theater, if you sat in said seat, you won a surfboard. Well one guy sat in a seat that had a piece of paper taped under it that simply read, “Board.” They weren’t going to give it to him, Kelly and Andy felt bad and gave him a new wetsuit, then the organizers of this elaborate scheme decided he should win the board. Anyway, the lucky bastard went home with a new board and suit.

So there you go, there’s a quick dish on the Friday night showing of A Fly In The Champagne. The surf was fun all day, the film was great (I’m saying possible Movie of the Year at the Surfer Poll this year), and it should go without saying that a good time was had by all…even the high school girl who smuggled six Silver Bullets into the theater in her purse.