In 1973, filmmaker David Elfick had managed to get his surfing flick Crystal Voyager on the screen at the newly-built Sydney Opera House.
The only problem was by the night of the premiere, the film still wasn't finished.
As the first of its two 16mm reels played to a crowd of surfing enthusiasts in what is now the Playhouse, fellow filmmaker Albert Falzon was still finishing the sound mix for the second reel, in a studio on the other side of the harbour in Kirribilli.
"We got to half time and Albert still hadn't arrived so we had a rather long interval, and I've got to say I've never been so tense in my life," Elfick told AAP.
As soon as the sound was finished, Falzon jumped in his Volkswagen Kombi van and sped across the Harbour Bridge with the precious second reel, racing straight through the toll gate to deliver it to a waiting projectionist.
Fifty years after that suspenseful premiere, Crystal Voyager has been digitally remastered and will play at the Opera House as part of First Wave, a celebration of Australian surfing culture on screen.
The film follows former world champion surfer Nat Young and pioneering surf cinematographer George Greenough as they explore remote waves across Australia and California.
The infamous second reel includes a pioneering 23-minute sequence shot from a surfboard inside the tube of a wave, set to the track Echoes by Pink Floyd.
Crystal Voyager would go on to be regarded as one of the most beautiful surfing films ever made, playing in cinemas around the world and becoming part of a rapidly-evolving surfing movement.
Crystal Voyager even enjoyed a six-month run in London.
"I think most of the people that saw it had probably never been surfing but I think they might have indulged in some psychedelic substances and that was their reason for going to see the film," Elfick said.
"It was the ultimate trip, going inside a wave for 23 minutes with fabulous Pink Floyd music."
Elfick and Falzon, who were also among the founders of Tracks surfing magazine, both played a key part in the surfing counterculture, spreading the word in print and on screen.
The Opera House actually became a destination for surfing films during the 1970s and 80s, with surfers seeking out the cinema among the crowds of opera lovers.
First Wave's program also includes Girls Can't Surf, the story of the battle to change a sexist surfing culture, featuring champion surfers Layne Beachley, Pauline Menczer and Pam Burridge.
A documentary The Blind Sea follows Australian world champion blind surfer Matt Formston, as he attempts to surf the massive waves of Nazaré in Portugal.
There's also another Falzon-Elfick remaster, the 1972 classic Morning of the Earth.
As for the restored Crystal Voyager, it looks and sounds better than ever, says Elfick, who promises the restoration has been completed before deadline.
"We won't be driving over the Harbour Bridge and not paying the toll to get the second half there - I hope not anyway."
First Wave runs from August 9 -11 at the Sydney Opera House.
