In late March of 2016, with the teeth of winter still gripping the landscape, brothers Ryan and Casey Higginbotham got dropped off along the wilds of Alaska’s coastline. With zero fanfare and a hardline commitment to going it alone, the twin brothers launched their 18-foot prone paddle boards into the icy, northern waters and began to paddle south. Some seven months and 2,200 miles later the duo from Pismo Beach would reach their destination, the bustling beaches of Tijuana, Mexico. Every inch of open-ocean conquered with nothing more than their own two hands.
Directed by Kellen Keene, the film By Hand, is the story of the Higginbotham’s grand adventure. The scale and scope of the accomplishment is impossible for us armchair enthusiasts to fathom — we spend an hour cruising a stand-up paddle board on a sunny summer day and we feel like athletic gods. We know nothing about true, zero safety net, personal-limit obliterating adventure. And why would we? But watching By Hand is like watching a mountain lion walk through your urban backyard; you are awed, stupefied, and in disbelief that things like this still happen. It freezes you with its truth. In a world gone lousy with geotags and lawsuits, wild freedom like this isn’t supposed to exist anymore. But there it is. Right in front of you. Real as the sun setting in the western sky. By Hand is a screaming affirmation of life lived outside the boundaries of boredom, a burning bit of inspiration to pursue the big and scary things while you still can. It is a powerful call to your better self.
With an original score from Ventura’s Todd Hannigan and narration from Jocko Willink, the Higginbotham’s understated approach to the epic gets a polished and professional finish. Their Go-Pro footage depicts world-class documentary drama as these two ridiculously handsome amateur athletes from Central California take on the gnarliest oceanic-adventure of the modern age. Even the great Jimmy Chin, one of the most celebrated adventurers in the world, is rendered speechless in the film as he tries to quantify the scale of the paddle and come to terms with what the brothers accomplished. And it’s all stitched together by Keene in a way that celebrates the untamable wild of the world as much as the drama of the paddle. Nature is clearly in charge and the film is all the better for it.