Title: The Endless Summer,
A Film By Bruce Brown
Reviewer: Mark
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The Facts
 The
silhouette of a rack of single fin short 60鈥檚 Malibu boards
on a flimsy roof-rack, a wee car and a bright sun. This is not
what we now call retro surfing. This was the real thing, first
time round. The original surfari. These boys are off into the
horizon.
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Surfing movies and dvds can be an in-house, exclusive thing.
They can appeal only to the informed, or the anoraks of the sport.
In truth, only a few of the thousands of surf forays on film have
etched a place in the popular conscience. Big Wednesday did it
for sure. Maybe Point Break too. But ask our parents generation
about surf, and they鈥檒l almost certainly mention The Endless
Summer. People reckon that all these fancy global surf quests
you read about in the mags are the new thing 鈥 a big swell
goes off in Hawaii or Hossegor and tanned pro-surfers are flown
in from all over the planet to chase big waves, usually in the
name of a surf multinational. Well, that sort of thing isn鈥檛
new at all. The same global-quest-principle was arguably first
practised by two young American surfers in the 60鈥檚. In
1964 Robert August and Mike Hynson realised that when summer was
over in their part of the world, that it was only just starting
elsewhere. And so they chased the sun and the summer seasons around
the world from summer to summer, away from the Californian crowds
and to different places that had waves. Hence the 鈥淓ndless
Summer鈥.
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Mark reckons
The 60鈥檚 acoustic vocals and guitar are the first thing
you realise you recognise about this film. (The guy can hardly
play his two chord guitar either, but its cool). The format is
simple too; they leave Malibu and Santa Cruz in the States, then
hit Senegal West Africa, then Ghana, then South Africa, then back
to California, South Africa again, then Hawaii, Australia, New
Zealand, Tahiti and finally the mighty Pipeline in Hawaii.
And what a commentary. Its so dippy its brilliant .. 鈥渟ome
like to bodysurf 鈥 whooooo !!.. some surfers prefer the
hairy thrill of a big wave 鈥 you can go right or left, but
you cant do both at once 鈥︹ and on and on it goes;
鈥渢he only way to avoid a wipeout is to take this wide stinkbug
stance 鈥︹. Overseas it just gets worse. On the Dakar
locals: 鈥淏eing good Africans they threw a few rocks鈥濃ear
me 鈥..
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The name checking of the surfers featured in the American and
Hawaii footage is a surf history in its own right. Guys like George
Greenough, Micky 鈥淒a Cat鈥 Dora and Gene Harrison all
pop up in front of goofy 60鈥檚 la-la-la music. And they charge
hard.
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The 60鈥檚 Africa footage is a step back in time. Local chiefs
commandeer the white boy鈥檚 boards. White South Africans
form a 100 strong VW Beetle convoy to tail these intrepid yanks-on-tour.
Indeed the walk into and 鈥榙iscovery鈥 of St Catherines
in South Africa is worth the price of admission alone. That, and
the final footage of Waimea.
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Tight board shorts, no leashes and not a short board in sight
- they hadn鈥檛 been invented yet. It鈥檚 the wee things
about his film 鈥 the surfing seal, the 鈥榚ndless鈥
commentary by Brown himself, the goofy plane crash, staged jungle
scares and our deadly duo arriving in Senegal with shirts, ties
and perfect waxed hair. Priceless. It has to be done. You鈥檒l
not meet a surfer who doesn鈥檛 have a soft spot for this
film. Like Born Free, only with waves. It really is a paradigm.
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Who鈥檚 This One For?
Everyone. Absolutely everyone. It鈥檚 up there with the
Ennio Morricone westerns for me. Every surfer worth half their
salt has to see this film at least once. Regardless of the cheesy
overdubs, edits and grainy footage 鈥 and they are there
aplenty - this film is the baseline for all surfing movies. What
August and Hynson achieved was massive. They simply went off into
the horizon, in a time, and to places that were hitherto unsurfed.
This was before global surf culture took hold. Before many of
the people living in the places filmed had even seen a surfboard.
They were true pioneers, parachuting into new worlds, and their
achievement is a reminder to us all that surfing is about personal
frontiers and pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone.
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Ironically for the current generation where plastics fantastics
now form the mainstream, these guys on their trusty mals will
appear familiar. The whole thing is a lesson in nose riding, stance,
wave exits and easy surfing on meandering longboards.
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And Who Not?
It really does have universal, albeit cheesy appeal. Narrow
minded shortboarders might not get it, or have a lot of patience
for this sorta old stuff. But they don鈥檛 get a whole lot
do they?
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Extra Features
Nope, none. There are several different releases of the film,
but the two versions I have are just the good ol鈥 Endless
Summer in different covers.
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Details
Colour, 92 minutes.
芦...back
to DVD home
芦...back to surfing home
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