The "Father of Offshore Video" is ailing

[T2x]

Phil Lewis has been very quiet about this, but he has so many friends, admirers, contacts and racers whose stories he helped to tell, that I thought it was appropriate to publish some facts. As some of you know, Phil Lewis pioneered Offshore video coverage in the late 70's and his famous NNRT video footage became the foundation for most of the broadcast TV programming in the 80's and early 90's (when budgets were much larger and fleets much bigger than today). His footage was the best in the sport worldwide and his equipment was much more sophisticated (and costly) than any of his competitors, not to mention his eye for great shots, and the ability to find incomparable pilots. Finally, he was respected by all of the top teams, due to the quality (not quantity) of coverage provided and his personal knowledge and relationships with the key players. Back then respect and trust were paramount, and his good nature was welcomed virtually everywhere in Offshore Racing.

To the point, Phil has had serious health issues in the past few years and recently suffered a kidney failure that was complicated by the fact that he had lost the other one in a previous required medical procedure. I will not go further into detail, but suffice it to say that one of the folks we all owe a lot to is undergoing a very trying time. If you know Phil or his work, you can send him well wishes (His email is pml.pml@verizon.net ), believe me they will be appreciated. Phil did an awful lot for the sport we all love, and a few minutes of our time might help him overcome the most serious challenge of his life.

For me, I am proud to call him friend, hopeful for a good outcome, and eternally grateful for the opportunities and trust he gave me in those helicopters oh so many years ago.

God Bless you old friend....

T2x

[Ratickle]

Sorry to hear he's having issues again. I remember back in 2011 I was hoping to see him in Key West that year but he had the abdominal surgery.

Not only is Phil, NNRT on here, famous for his Offshore Videos but his Needlenose Race Team had an some awesome Bertram 38 competition that I think Charlie was assisting a restoration project on with Phil's input.

[Ratickle]

Excerpts From:

EYE IN THE SKY
Powerboat Magazine
October 1988
By John Crouse

............

In this TV-crazed era the one who first and most consistently got the sport on movie and video film was a one-time driver who's dedication to making racers famous has, ironically, seen him threatened, banned and sued!

For Phil Lewis, controller of his family's private-brand perfume company, and his Needlenose Productions squad, hero making has been a strange odyssey. After three years ofracing his 28-foot and 36-foot Bertram Production class hulls-both named Needlenose because that's how the salesman who sold him the little one described it and winning a few races, Lewis sold the bigger one to a colorful character named Diamond Don who shot himself the following year.

Lewis, who admits to being 37 years old, began filming offshore races with a Kodak Super 8 sound movie camera. At his first race, the 1978 Hurricane Classic off St. Petersburg, Fla., he was at the right place at the right time to capture one of the classic crashes in the sport. Rocky Aoki, the Japanese restaurateur of Benihana renown, set the stage by spinning out apropos of nothing to send his ace throttleman Richie Powers into the water. There are those who felt that the charming little Benihana man who brought the hibachi stove to America and baptized Powers in the Gulf of Mexico that day, loved the ricocheting as much as the racing.

By 1980 the $160 Kodak Super 8 had been replaced by a hand held video camera with a character generator which, incidentally, has nothing to do with Lewis' self-improvement. In 1981 Lewis'twin brother, Peter, joined to shoot still photos from helicopters. Peter's works have been featured all over in magazines, The Needlenose team became the first in the sport to do live recordings in the air when Rich Luhrs, an ex-powerboat racer and boatbuilder (Conquest Marine), joined the flying, filming Lewises. Kathy Latham, the wife of high-performance parts manufacturer Bob Latham, was added as co-announcer with Luhrs in 1988.

This year the Needlenose team went to sea with a state-of-the-art Ikegami camera with Beta Cam SP tape, editing one-inch broadcast quality tape to put it on a level with the major networks. Although it is not generally known, half of the footage used by IPI, the firm that covers the APBA Offshore commission's national circuit races, is provided by Needlenose.

In the past ten years Needlenose Productions has shot more than 165 races from the U.S. to New Zealand, building up the world's most extensive offshore powerboat racing film library in the interim.

........

So, the next time you see a video tape of an offshore race or even still shots, remember it took a bit of heroics and perseverance to get them-such as hundreds of hours of risky aerial work with oft ponderous and obscenely expensive camera equipment, sometimes resulting in lawsuits...and even death.

John Crouse

[Ratickle]

From Phil,

"Hello Paul,

Thank you for the Post –“John Crouse” – a long time ago – but its all factual !

Phil"


I'm hoping he feels well enough to tell us all a bunch of stories about Rich!!

[old377guy]

sent

[Ratickle]

I believe this is Phil's Needlenose III before the restoration started.