The Story

“Ruffo” is a feature length documentary about 47-year-old professional surfing legend Anthony Ruffo, his struggles with methamphetamine addiction, and his ambitious efforts to lead his communities – both Santa Cruz and the professional surfing world – out of drug dependency and into a clearer and healthier future. Anthony Ruffo was born and raised on the west side of Santa Cruz, CA. He is regarded as one of the “Godfathers” of the infamous Westsiders surf brotherhood who put Santa Cruz on the pro surfing map. Ruffo rose to surfing fame as the first champion of the Coldwater Classic in 1985 and at age 47 still surfs at a professional level. With success came partying, with partying came addiction, and with addiction came consequences. Anthony is currently facing a potential five-year prison term for distribution of methamphetamine. His trial date is November 15th, 2011.

Anthony voluntarily checked himself into the Clear Mind Healthy Planet treatment center in New York on November 5th, 2010. After completing his treatment, and feeling a renewed sense of purpose, Anthony began to look for a way to give back to the community of Santa Cruz. He partnered with the Clear Mind Healthy Planet team and created his own treatment concept: The Anthony Ruffo Project. He introduced his concept to the city of Santa Cruz on December 10th, 2010 with a weeklong open house. Over 40 people attended at least 4 hours a day for the entire week. Anthony continues to run his rehab project with Clear Mind Healthy Planet and is committed to repaying his community by volunteering his time with non-profits and speaking about the consequences of drug use to local schools.

The end of Anthony’s story is yet to be determined, but the hope is that ‘Ruffo’ will serve as a cautionary tale about life choices and as one of the most effective anti-drug use documentaries ever made. ‘Ruffo’ includes some of the best surfers in the world candidly discussing Ruffo’s rise to fame and his spiral into addiction, drug dealing, and criminal lifestyle. For the first time, they also break the code of silence in the surfing industry and open up about their own addiction issues, discuss the problem of drugs in the surfing industry, and include messages of hope for Anthony Ruffo and for others who suffer from addiction issues. “Ruffo” includes appearances from: Shawn “Barney” Barron, Dino Andino, Vince “The Godfather” Collier, Christian Fletcher, Peter Mel, Ken “Skindog” Collins, Darryl “Flea” Virostko, Peter Townend, Shawn Dollar, Tyler Fox, Nat Young, Jake Davi, Timmy Reyes, Troy Rettig, and Shane Desmond.