'The Endless Summer' Was The First Real Surfing Movie

By | October 2, 2019

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Left: A still shot from the production of The Endless Summer. Right: The treatment of the picture that was made famous on the poster. Source: IMDB

Before The Endless Summer, Bruce Brown's 1966 documentary, surfing films weren’t really films about surfing. They were beach party films that were less about catching waves and more about presenting a sanitized version of life in Southern California. Movies like Beach Blanket Bingo and Gidget could be fun to watch, thanks to so many frolicking scantily-clad young people. But they misrepresented surfing culture, ignoring the spiritual nature of grabbing a board and hitting the waves. Out of nowhere came Bruce Brown, a filmmaker who spent $50,000 on a riveting documentary that followed two surfers across the world as they tried to live the endless summer.

With only two surfers in tow, Mike Hynson and Robert August, Brown traveled to Australia, Ghana, Hawaii, New Zealand, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Southern California, and Tahiti. Brown documented everything on one camera and a couple of lenses. He just wanted to show the world a mythological representation of what he and his friends lived every day.

Before 'The Endless Summer' The Only Surfing In Theaters Was Straight Cheese

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source: cinema V

There really weren’t any real surfing movies before The Endless Summer. Movies like Beach Party and Ride the Wild Surf didn’t show the real community of surfers who hit the beaches up and down Southern California. Genuine surfers felt that beach party movies minimized their love of the waves, communion with nature, and the way they inherently understood their favorite spots.

Bruce Brown had directed four other surfing documentaries before taking off in search of the endless summer but none of them connected the same way. With this film, Brown tapped into something chemical and emotional within its viewers, and if it didn’t inspire them to pick up a board it gave them an appreciation of the sport.