A premiere party this week will give the public a first look at a documentary featuring the extinct big-wave break Killer Dana.
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“Point Taken: The Legend of Killer Dana” will be shown from 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24, at Killer Dana Surf Shop, where many of the interviews and filming took place during the production of the documentary.
The filming kicked off in summer 2025, bringing a buzz to the surfing community, especially old-timers who once rode the surf break, considered the region’s best big-wave before Dana Point Harbor was built in the 1960s, which destroyed the wave.
The documentary is the brainchild of Dan Krolczyk, a Rancho Mission Viejo waterman who grew up windsurfing and stand-up paddleboarding in the Midwest.
He was in the Killer Dana Surf Shop buying surf gear for his sons when he asked owner Mike Foster where the name came from.
Foster, though too young to ever ride the wave, said he has been obsessed with the iconic surf spot’s history for years, so much so that when the retail store was in danger of shutting down in 2016, he scrambled to find investors and bought the shop to keep it alive.
Foster told Krolczyk about the big-wave spot that once ruled Southern California’s early-era surf scene of the ’50s and into the early ’60s.
“It clicked with me that there’s so much history here in Dana Point that’s not told,” Foster said in an interview last year. “I just always appreciated it and looked up to the guys who surfed it.”
Killer Dana got its name because of the big rocks on the inside that would demolish surfboards when wave riders lost control. Leashes were not yet invented.
Krolczyk started researching stories about Killer Dana, but found little out there except a few old videos and articles.
He linked up with Tommy Anderson, a 30-year-old surfer who has a film production company, Charthouse Films, out of San Diego.
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Anderson grew up surfing an hour south of where the surf break once was, but had never heard about Killer Dana, taken aback by the stories.
Anderson hopes the film will open up a conversation about how to strike a balance between protecting a surf spot and development, he said in an interview last year.
“We wanted to help tell in film format the epic story as the next generation bears witness to South Orange County seeing more development, change, progress and the eventual Olympics,” said Anderson.
Killer Dana’s demise came with the build-out of the Dana Point Harbor in 1966, a county project that put boat moorings where waves once rolled to shore, the rock jetty blocking the swell energy.
The screening will be held in the surf shop’s parking lot on Del Prado Avenue, a free community event that will feature an evening of music, shopping, refreshments and live commentary from the director and producer.
At 7 p.m., the producer and director from Charthouse will give opening remarks before the 40-minute screening begins, with the film concluding by 8 p.m.
The film features guest segments from several surf legends including Mike “Happy” Cruickshank, Dick Metz, Corky Carroll, the late Jean-Pierre “The Fly” Van Swae and more.
“What a better place than yards away from the original Dana Point Cove surf break, outside just after dusk,” said Krolczyk, producer and director for the film. “We’re a surf family and stand-up paddle family, spending countless weekends in the harbor and Doheny State Beach. When I learned the epic story about this mythological break that helped write Southern California surf history, I was compelled to help share the story for future generations.”
The film is scheduled for public streaming release later this fall. Killer Dana Surf Shop is at 24829 Del Prado Ave., Dana Point.
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For more information, go to charthousefilms.com/work/point-taken.