A-frame

Aaberg, Denny

Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

Abbruzzi, Sid

Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

Adler, Tom

advertising and surfing

Aeder, Erik

aerial

Aguerre, Fernando

Aichner, Scott

Aikau, Clyde

Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

airbrush

Airshow

Ala Moana

Alabama

alaia board

Alaska

alcohol and surfing

Alexander, Kala

Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

Alter, Hobie

Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

Andaman Islands

Andersen, Lisa

Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

Angola

Angourie

Antarctica

Apocalypse Now

Arabian Sea

Aragon, Janice

Arakawa, Eric

Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

Ashton, Juan

Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

Atlantic Ocean

August, Robert

Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

Australia

Avalon, Frankie

Azores

backdoor

backside

backside attack, Pipeline

backwash

bail out

Bain, Rob

Baja California

Baker, Bernie

Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

Bali

Ball, John “Doc”

Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

balsa

Baltic Sea

Banks, Jim

Barbados

Barilotti, Steve

Barland, Michel

Barreda, Sergio “Gordo”

Barry, Michael

Bartholomew, Wayne

Baxter, Jackie

Bay of Bengal

Beach Boys, The

Beacham, Debbie

beachboys

beachbreak

Beachcomber Bills Grand Prix

Beachley, Layne

beavertail

Becker, Phil

Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Long-celebrated surf moved made by California filmmaker Bruce Brown; originally screened on the beach city surf circuit in 1964, two years before it was put into general release, where it became a surprise critical and commercial hit. "A brilliant documentary," a 

 review said of Brown's deceptively simple $50,000 film, "perfectly expressing the surfing spirit. Great background music. Great movie. Out of sight." Just a handful of surf movies are thought of as first rate; 

 alone is regarded as a surfing masterpiece.

, and had already produced five well-received movies for surfers. 

 was different in that it had a plot of sorts, as it followed two surfers—Californians Robert August and Mike Hynson—as they traveled the world in search of the perfect wave. The dark-haired and easygoing August, a nimble goofyfooter, was just out of high school when he signed up to make 

. Hynson, a strutting 21-year-old regularfooter with slicked-back blond hair, was one of the sport's top stylists.

Brown carried a single 20-pound box of camera equipment during the 

 shoot that took the group to Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, and Hawaii; he shot nearly all the travel footage himself. The highlight of the trip came with the discovery of a remote pointbreak along Cape St. Francis in South Africa, where four-foot swells arranged themselves into long, fast, beautifully groomed walls. "On Mike's first ride," Brown says in a climactic bit of 

 voice-over narration, "he knew he'd finally found that perfect wave."

Editing his film in early 1964, Brown masterfully split the difference between his core surfing audience and a hoped-for mainstream audience. 

 had far less actual wave-riding than any surf film yet produced, and Brown, while never once sounding pedantic to surfers, narrates the movie as a primer to nonsurfers. His definitively casual Southern California voice is in fact the star of the film—more so than the seen-but-not-heard August and Hynson—and imitation Brown voice-overs would be the norm in surf movies for the next 30 years. (The Sandals' soundtrack is another enduring 

 legacy, along with the John Van Hamersveld-designed poster, featuring Brown, August, and Hynson in silhouette against a Day-Glo orange, pink, and yellow background.)

Many of the era's best surfers made cameo appearances in Endless Summer, including Phil Edwards, Butch Van Artsdalen, Greg Noll, Nat Young, George Greenough, Paul Strauch, Lance Carson, and Mickey Dora.

 across the East and West coasts in 1964; the following year he screen-tested the movie at the Sunset Theater in Wichita, Kansas, in the dead of winter, and it was a smash hit; in 1966 the film was re-edited slightly, blown up to 35-millimeter, and put into general release by Columbia Pictures, where it eventually earned $30 million. The critics went into raptures. 

 magazine called Brown a "Bergman of the boards," and his movie was "an ode to sun, sand, skin and surf." 

 as one the 10 best films of 1966. (Robert August, who went on to become a successful board manufacturer, later said that

 was a hit in large part because it served as "a big time-out" from the Vietnam War.) In 1967, at the height of the Cold War, the US State Department sponsored 

 quickly became dated, as the late-'60s shortboard revolution dovetailed with the counterculture movement, changing the sport forever. But if '70s wave-riders got a chuckle watching the movie on television, as August and Hynson walk across the Los Angeles International Airport parking lot wearing suits and ties, 

 remained near and dear to surfers everywhere. The feelings evoked by the movie, if not the surfing performances themselves, were timeless.

Brown dropped off the commercial surf scene entirely for nearly 25 years;

 follow-up, was about motorcycle racing, and he resisted making 

 until the early '90s. Brown and August meanwhile remained close friends, while the irascible Hynson, after distancing himself from anything having to do with 

—including Brown and August—became a first-rate boardmaker in the late '60s and early '70s, then fell into drug addiction, served time in jail, and lived for a while on the streets. He unsuccessfully sued Brown in 1995 for breach of contract (Brown paid the surfers' expenses during 

, but didn't give them a salary), and later called Brown "a kook who doesn't surf [and who's] made millions off surfers like me." All three surfers showed up for a terse but cordial 

 reunion at the 2001 San Diego County Fair.

 was released on video in 1986 and on DVD in 2001. In a best-surf-movie-ever poll conducted in 2000 by Real-Surf, an Australian surf website, 

 not only came out on top, but nearly doubled the vote tally of the second-place finisher—which was Brown's 1994 sequel, 

. In 2001, Dana Brown, Bruce's son and a soon-to-be star filmmaker in his own right, released a DVD of previously unreleased 

The United States National Film Registry arm of the Library of Congress added 

 to its list of historically significant films in 2002.

The phrase "Endless Summer" meanwhile took on a life of its own: it was used as the name of a tanning salon chain, for a light beer, and a hydrangea strain, as well as greatest hits LPs by Donna Summer and the Beach Boys.

Endless Summer, The

Subscribe or Login

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features

The Sunday Joint

Videos