“Bra Boys”-Surfing Documentary Review

Monday, May 4th, 2009
by WhiteD09

“Bra Boys” could possibly be one the best documentary movies that has been made. The Bra Boys are a group of friends from Maroubra, Australia who love to surf and love to stand up for each other. In Australia they are said to be a gang by the people of Maroubra, but the boys themselves do not believe that they are one.  The Bra Boys started at a surfing club in the 1960’s and as more people joined, the more noticed they got. They get their name from the town that they are from, Maroubra, which is a small suburb outside of Sydney.

The documentary itself is from the viewpoint of the gang members themselves, predominately from the Abberton brother’s point of view. The four brothers are from oldest to youngest: Sunny, Koby, Jai, and Dakota. The gang was started by the Abberton brothers and their friends going and hanging out at the Abberton’s grandmother’s house, which they called Ma. The gang’s first name was not Bra Boys; it was first Ma’s Hell Team. The tagline of the movie is “Blood is Thicker than Water”, which basically is saying that you will always have your family’s back and help them out whenever, and this gang was just a big family. They stood up and fought whenever they needed to and they were good fighters. In 2002, about 160 members were at an event and ended up getting into a brawl with off-duty police officers, and 30 of the police officers ended up injured. The serious part of the documentary was when Jai Abberton was charged with the murder of another surfer by the name of Tory Hines. Jai was eventually acquitted, but his brother Koby was found guilty of perverting the course of justice and was sentenced to a suspended 9 months in jail. After this happening the gang was not happy and they showed it by the protests and riots.

I believe that this is the best documentary because it does not just talk about the gang being a gang and how they do all these violent crimes. The documentary is from the point of view of the gang members and they tell their side of the story. Some of the main members of the gang are the Abberton brothers, Macario De Souza, Johnny Gannon, Richie Vas, Mark Matthews, Jack Kingsley, and many more. The member of the Bra Boys did not even think they were a part of a gang. The way they saw it was being loyal to their best friends and family. Bra Boys is all about respect, loyalty, brotherhood, and surfing as well. I have seen the documentary a number of times and it seems to get better every time that I watch it. I will leave you with my favorite quote of the movie when one of the Bra Boys, Johnny Gannon, is talking about the brawl they got into with the off-duty police officers and he says, “They call us a gang, they call us all these names, and we’re not a gang, it was a fight and you know we won.” This quote just proves that they just stand up for their brothers when they need help. Gang members go around looking for fights and other violent crimes. The Bra Boys fight when they need to stand up for each other.

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