Sad news...

Surfing wouldn't be what it is without this bloke...

The unforgettable theme..



Full movie link

Yeah what a shame,RIP Bruce....

in the 60s, no teenage boys bedroom was complete unless it had an endless summer poster, even way out west where I grew up.

I'm going to enjoy reading some of the many reminiscences that will start appearing around the web.

It's a bad year, first Midget, now this, icons of my childhood.

mmmmmmmmmmm

Only recently discovered for me.
Off and watching again.

RIP Bruce a true pioneer an icon nothing comes close.

I recall the rights at J'Bay went forever.

RIP

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NewScotty said..
I recall the rights at J'Bay went forever.

Cape st Francis mate in the ES1

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MickPC said..
RIP

That clip sums up the joy of surfing

I only watched Endless Summer II last week for about the third time. My favourite all time was actually On Any Sunday, coming from the motorcycling fraternity. (Where I grew up, if you didn't surf, you rode a motorcycle)

Bruce Brown was a bit of a pioneer in this genre, as well as a pioneer in some styles of camera work and editing.
Fast forward to about 12 minutes.

This is poetry on film. Much like so many of the sessions Mike Hynson and Robert August were filmed in during the original Endless Summer, which pre-dated On Any Sunday by about 6 years. Even more so with Pat O'Connell and Wingnut Weaver in Endless Summer II. Watching any of these movies makes me want to go out a wax up my board, or strap a helmet on and just bugger off for a day........

The best part of any of these movies, was that he stretched the truth just a little, and his research into particular areas, styles or cultures was often left wanting and sometimes completely wrong, but all in the name of comedy and getting the laughs out.

Might have to have another watch of a few of his films. I've a long plane ride ahead.

RIP Bruce, and thanks for the inspiration.

Awesome movies and awesome stoke.

I remember being a grom and watching Endless Summer, then running out of the theatre thinking "we have to do that".

Who remembers the Lion section in South Africa.

Well done Bruce Brown R.I.P.

ET.

Classic MR I forgot he made that

endless Sumer was the yard mark for all other surf flicks.

RIP to another legend.

My dad took my mum on their first date to see Endless Summer at Miranda way back when mum was 17, Dad was 19 and, in my mum's words, 'a good looking young bloke', who surfed Cronulla Point and played U21 Rugby League for the St George Dragons.

An aside, Jack Eden bought the camera which filmed Endless Summer and he subsequently used it to film Bobby Brown with some of that footage used in The Hot Generation.

^^^ Great clip - 50yo movie. Those boys would be men in their 70's now Hopefully one or two of them still get out for a paddle now and then...

I really like this video coz I feel like it was inspired by Endless Summer...love the travel, exploring, adventure with voiceover surf vid concept

Steve Core Tribute to Bruce Brown
Bruce Brown 1937-2017

How can anyone put a number on it? I would imagine it would be just safe to bet that it would be countless hundreds of thousands of surfer's lives that Bruce Brown influenced, inspired or changed with his landmark 1964 surfing film 'Endless Summer'. He certainly did all three to mine. Unquestionably.

Apart from the obvious surf film connection for me - I have an even better link to Bruce Brown - even though I never met him or saw him in person in my life. In 1971, I purchased a 'C' mount 230mm Century telephoto lens for my 16mm Bolex movie camera from Jack Eden. Jack was the Cronulla-based Australian surf photography pioneer who published Surfabout Magazine in the late '60s.

Jack had told me and I have repeated this story in print on several occasions over the years. That he purchased that same 230mm Century lens from Bruce Brown, when Bruce was in Australia filming. So I've always said about my films, that part of my movie making equipment had 'true surf bloodlines'. I used that same 230mm Century ex-Bruce Brown lens to shoot both my 16mm films; 'In Natural Flow' and 'Ocean Rhythms'.

To this very day, I always get good comments on how nice and crisp my '70s surfing footage looks - well that was a touch of Bruce Brown magic there folks - that was my Bruce Brown-by-birth lens doing its thing.

What provenance do I have to back up my claim? Do I have any signed authenticity certificates, bills of sale to prove it? Nah. Just the same story I have told everyone for the last 46 years. Just the story that Jack gave me when I drove over to his house in Sans Souci in 1971 to purchase that lens from him.

For Bruce Brown, he grew up surfing the beaches of Long Beach, California - he was born in San Francisco but moved to Long Beach in his early years and began riding the rolling waves at the entrance to Los Alamitos Bay.

Many of us long-time visitors to California know that Long Beach ain't no surf town. You never see pictures of surfers riding cracking barrels at Long Beach. Never in the modern era. Surfing the beaches of Long Beach - that's something you just can't do today. Why? Because in 1949 the US Army Corps of Engineers built a 2.5 mile long rock wall to protect the once US Navy base located there from submarine attacks.

In Bruce's younger years Long Beach was a booming surf town and used to be a premiere surfing location. It made today's 'surf city'; Huntington Beach look like a sleepy coastal hamlet. Long Beach with it's grand hotels and seaside attractions was known as the Waikiki of California. The construction of that sea wall is what killed surfing in ocean side Long Beach. And guess what - that Navy base no longer exists.

In his later years Bruce retired to a ranch up North of Santa Barbara, where he spent his days pursuing his life-long passions of surfing, riding motorcycles and racing sprint cars.

Better writers than me will explain the reasons why Endless Summer was a world-wide success. I thought it was a simple theme - ordinary people who discover something extraordinary - in people, travel, places, artifacts, while crossing the equator four times.

The film was seen a statement that defined a new generation and a new way of thinking, it was on the cusp of the Vietnam and hippy eras. It showcased surfing as both poetry and sport and people needed to feel good in those troubled times. Chasing an Endless Summer around the world was the perfect escape. Everyone left the theatre feeling incredibly high.

Back in the late '60s music wasn't so readily available to movie makers like it is today. So Bruce travelled to hundreds of High School Auditoriums, Theatres and Community Centers and wisely decided to substitute a rocking or originally scored complete soundtrack with his witty live narration. And like any good comedian on the road, he refined his monolugue narration after working out what lines got the best laughs, night after night.

I first saw Endless Summer at the Sydney University's Union Theatre [now the Footbridge Theatre] I think in 1966. I still have my original 'Endless Summer' printed program from that very first night. I remember, my old surf industry work colleague, Cronulla surf legend, Ross Longbottom [father of Dylan and Darren] being there in the vestibule that first night. In those days Ross had the biggest board bumps in town and he always wore shorts and sandals so you could see just how big his bumps were. That was the sure sign of a true surfer.

That night began a religious ascension for me which has never really stopped. That scene of The Sandals playing The Endless Summer guitar-driven theme as the sun sank into the west and that silhouetted car loaded with the surfboards on the roof drove off into a Summer sky with a melting orange ball, those patriotic emblems set a new tone for all of us that experienced it that night. Its values were ready to be shared.

Que the Endless Summer narration quote: "with enough time and enough money, you could spend the rest of your life following the Endless Summer around the world". Oh, wouldn't we all like to try.

I'm playing The Sandals theme from The Endless Summer as I type this. Thank you Mr Bruce Brown, my words can never begin to describe how you changed and influenced my and all my fellow surfers lives - but you sir, in particular, did have a lasting influence on mine - one continuing wave that is still flowing to this very day.

Now fade out to a black screen, roll the titles, while The Sandals play us out with that entrancing theme and everyone leaves the building happy while at the same time we're all constantly searching for that next perfect wave that may be forming just over the near horizon.

cool vid Mick

Yeah I like vids with good surfing backed up with some alt rock/punk music...but more like that with voiceovers are needed I reckon. Gotta have a voice for it though, my voice sux