This artist film offers an energetic portrayal of surfing at five locations along Brighton's coastline, using a variety of camera and editing techniques and musical accompaniment.

Fast editing and speeded-up motion introduces the viewer to the surfing waters off Brighton Marina. Male and female surfers wear wetsuits as they ride the large waves - the camera is mounted onto the nose of one surfer's board, capturing the power of the ocean and the dedication of the surfer. The surfers are next seen surfing near the Palace Pier - their animated efforts are interspersed with colourful and fast-moving images of the pier and the beach. The tone is subdued when the surfers are filmed at the West Pier - the seafront is enveloped in fog and the sea is relatively calm - an early choral music soundtrack accompanies the surfers when they are filmed in slow motion bodyboarding out to sea. Rapid editing is used to present a tour of the industrial area near Shoreham-by-Sea - the surfers are seen riding the waves at Hotpipes as the tide comes in. The final section of the film records a mass of surfers braving the huge, albeit infrequent, waves which break in the rain-drenched harbour.

Richard Gregory made Not California: This is Surfing in Brighton (2002) when he was a student at the University of Brighton - it was produced as part of his end-of year degree show for an MA in Sequential Design and Illustration. The images were captured on a digital camera - some of the most intense ones resulting from a camera which was fixed onto the nose of a surfboard - and were edited into sequence using a soundtrack produced by local musicians. The film articulates Richard's twin interests in surfing and design - he has since become the director of Brighton Surfers Against Sewage and has done numerous design projects via his company Wavedreamer. Richard also utilized the film to explore his, "[interest] in the use of video on the internet and how people get into hidden sub cultures", creating the website 'Not California: This is Surfing in the UK' as a distribution tool.

Screen Archive South East holds several others films which were made by MA students at the University of Brighton. These include Cobb (2002) and The House That Jack Built (2002), both of which were produced by students studying animation. Screen Archive South East has an increasing number of artists' films in its collection.