The Endless Summer

The Endless Summer was probably the beginning of surfing adventure films. The director Bruce Brown and the surfers in the film went around the world and surfers had a glimpse of a big wide world with waves all over it. The boards are long and the fins are single. It starts with a young george greenough at santa barbara. There are the obligatory big waves and the wipeouts. Summer in Hawaii mean the reefs of Waikiki. Paul Strauss is hanging five but he is not stretching. They go to Kaisers, the water temperature is 75 degrees. Ala Moana harbour entrance is a popular surf break in hawaii. There are some classic surfers such as Fred Hemmings.

In California malibu had crowds even in the sixties. Lance Carson goes right at malibu and hang toes over the nose. Micky Dora bicycles and side slips through the malibu tubes. Corky Carrol goes backhand. Winter in California gets cold especially at steamer lane in Santa cruz. The seals are the only ones that are not freezing. Redondo Beach breakwater gets big in winter.

The premise of the movie is to follow the summer around the world with robert august and mike hinson. The take the plane to africa in their suits. They land at Dakar senegal. Right out in front of their hotel was surf never ridden before on an island. They then went to Accra, Ghana and put their boards in the boot of the taxi. They go to a fishing village to surf and the villagers go wild. It is a small beach break. They teach some of the kids how to surf. Then they go to Lagos Nigeria. They go look for a beach and find some little waves near the harbour of Lagos. They hike through a jungle to get back to the road to hitch a ride.

Next port of call is South Africa to cape Town and then they head to Durban. First they do some tourist things on Table Mountain and look out over the Indian ocean and the atlantic ocean. All the south african surfers go to the same beach and surf the same wave. They borrow a car and head north to Long Beach on the Atlantic Ocean and surfed in the kelp. The waves were glassy and smooth. They start hitching to Durban and reminisce about California body surfing at the Wedge. A woody comes down the highway and they get a ride to Durban. They surf at beaches along the highway, do some horse riding, and look at all the animals. They arrive in Durban and go for a surf at the beach. Next they head for Cape St Francis. Where this really is has been debated for decades. There is a Cape st Francis out from Jeffreys Bay. Or it could be Dakar. The waves are perfect right handers about one to two foot.

They cut back to Hawaii to Haleiwa Beach and see butch van artsdalen switch footing. Mickey Dora drops in. The catamarans sail around Honalulu.

The boys head to perth in western Australia via India from South Africa. They go to Ocean Beach at Denmark and see some sharks. They do not get any waves, ha ha , how little did they know! They go east to Bells Beach and it is flat. Rodney Sumpter tells them the surf at bells in the winter. Nat young at sixteen years old carves up bells. They go to Sydney and the waves are crap. Doh! it is summertime, the best waves are in winter.

Another flash back to big waves at Waimea Bay hawaii. And of course the Waimea shore break. Micky Dora takes off on a twenty foot wave and eats it. Greg Noll , the bull catches a wave. Only a select few surfers have the courage to ride these big waves. And of course what are big waves without spectacular wipeouts.

They leave australia and go to New Zealand. They go to the west coast to Arepare and surf a small left hander. They go trout fishing and catch some fish to eat on the fire. They head to Ragland and pass the bubbling mud of the geysers. On christmas day they surf ragland by themselves. The rides go for ages and they go left.

They go to Tahiti next and they tell us that there is no surf in tahiti. They surf some tiny little waves inside the reef while waves are breaking on the outer reefs. They drive to Papeete where there is no reef and they surf the backwash. How bizarre. We know now that Tahiti has some of the best surf in the world.

And of course, back we go to Hawaii for some water shots and wipeouts and wipeouts. Pipeline is featured and there are some sick wipeouts. Guys are going over the falls all over the place. A guy breaks some ribs. Butch van artsdalen is going goofy foot this time at Pipeline and breaks his board in half.

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