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Driving the North Coast Road on the island of Trinidad with Chris Dennis is like being with a top-notch tour guide.  With his intimate knowledge of every nook and cranny of this rugged coast, Chris will jam it down any number of dirt tracks to access secluded beaches with solitary peaks.  And even while navigating many of these roads less traveled, and only hours from the craziness surrounding the world premiere of the documentary movie by local filmmaker James O’Connor about Chris’s long and arduous journey from rural Trinidad to a 2010 maiden assault on the WQS, Dennis exudes and eerie quality of calm and serenity.

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The crew enjoying the first viewing of the final edit with Chris.

Somewhere along Trinidad’s north coast, Chris finds some time to breathe before the mayhem of the premiere descends upon him.

Fielding another call from a stranger asking for comped tickets to the premiere.

Movie Towne is Port of Spain’s biggest cinema.

The local TV media was on hand to interview Chris before the film’s first showing.

Right this way, folks.

Avid local surfer, tennis professional, and longtime friend of Chris, Anthony Awai, was on hand to introduce the film to the first audience.

Chris looking bigger than life.

The sold out house was hooting and hollering to the surf action sequences.

After the film’s first showing, James O’Connor said a round of thank yous with some of the production and administration crew.

Chris, at center, with from left, his brother, mother, Bernadette, father, Paul, and sister.

The after party rocked.

The second showing was another sellout.

Chris’s Cali connection, Debbie Aicklen, and girlfriend, Tova Miller.

Some of the production crew before the test screening, from left: James O’Connor, Anthony Fung, Dos Ramos, Michael, and Kacie Gonsalves.

Driving the North Coast Road on the island of Trinidad with Chris Dennis it’s hard to know whether you’re “limin’ it” or competing in a road rally.  The curves in the winding mountainous road come fast and hard, Chris is never hesitant to pass slower traffic with his intimate knowledge of every bend, he’ll jam it down any number of dirt tracks to access secluded beaches with solitary peaks, and do it all while fielding phone calls and text messages from friends and strangers alike fishing for complimentary tickets only hours from the world premiere of the documentary movie by local filmmaker James O’Connor about his long and arduous journey from rural Trinidad to a 2010 maiden assault on the WQS.

“It’s been mad, dread!” commented Chris on the final hectic push towards the finish line of this groundbreaking and history-making project. “I haven’t even surfed in weeks, mon!!” he added.

But the road less traveled is nothing new for Dennis, who wasn’t even expected to survive a major surgery at one month of age, but yet rose against all odds to emerge from those humble beginnings in Balandra to finish ranked 340^th in the WQS last year.  With only minor sponsorship (and none from the surf industry) and limited access to QS events, Chris made history as the first T&T surfer to create noise on the global competitive stage.

Not to mention the 450 lb. grouper he speared far from shore in 2007 with two friends, and single-handedly extracted from a cave and wrangled to the surface before then swimming it through a raging beachbreak in the dark of night to get it to shore.  If Chris wasn’t already something of a legendary waterman in T&T at the point, the grouper story cemented his position in his country’s lore.

Or just weeks before the final edits of the movie, when Chris again went miles offshore in search of GoPro footage of a shark to compliment the film.  Diving to 70 feet and finding a big Tiger shark amidst a cloud of other fish Chris’s BC began to malfunction forcing him to the surface only to realize that a raging current had pulled him far from his boat and dangerously close to an oil rig while his two diving buddies were still below.  All three had to be rescued by a zodiac dropped from the drilling platform.

“Chris is a special human being,” said Executive Producer and owner of the jtography studio, James O’Connor, “and his story needed to be told. The entire crew that I enlisted to help were extremely dedicated to this project, and everyone invested hundred of hours of pro bono time and effort between our regular commercial projects,” he added.  “In particular, cameraman Anthony Fung, who’d never as much as shot a single wave before getting involved in this project, learned on the fly and employed cutting edge technology from a steady cam arm to a remote control helicopter camera mount to produce amazing angles that show Chris and Trinidad & Tobago in a light never before seen in any local production.”

The two showing premiere on April 4 was completely sold out, another first for a locally produced film, and the first week promises to have more sold out showings including an entire day catering specifically to children from Chris’s region of the island that will be bussed into town and fed for free just to see the story of their hometown hero.

But most importantly, and unlike most surf films, “Chris Dennis – Between Worlds” is a story about much more than surfing or a single surfer.  More than anything it’s a film about tenacity, persistence, good will, and inspiration, qualities that nowadays can often be in short supply in surf culture.

If you see only one surf film this year, or for the rest of your life, let it be this one.  You won’t be disappointed.