Review of Water Trix

. . . Preston "Pete" Peterson (1913 - 1983) was only 36 when this "Pete Smith Specialty" came out in 1949. At the time these Hijinks were shot, with a passel of young female co-stars looking young enough to be Pete's granddaughters, Pete already was famous world-wide as the four-time West Coast Surfing champ. Therefore, when this 9-minute short closes with a young chick astraddle a body-surfing Pete, it's not that much of a stretch for a guy whom narrator Pete Smith introduces merely as a champion water skier. Peterson was the first person of European descent to paddle from the California mainland to Catalina Island. He was a long-time Hollywood stunt man (though you would never know it by clicking on his name at this page, which brings up ONLY this one short). Pete's homepage at the Legendarysurfers.com site shows him performing one of his female-on-top stunts (called "tandem skiing" back in the day) which is also filmed for WATER TRIX. Pete was a pioneer of Hawaiian surfing for folks of European descent as well, popularizing the switch from heavy redwood to lighter balsa boards. Pete's pier-top shop and archives were washed away by a Pacific Storm in 1983, and he died of a broken heart shortly afterward.