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The Endless Summer

The Endless Summer

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $11.24
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: In Search Of The Perfect Wave
Review: The Endless Summer is probably my all-time favorite movie (I usually enjoy watching it with Endless Summer II & Endless Summer Revisited in one marathon session). The theme of two guys crossing the globe in search of the perfect wave is a classic. The raw, unrefined ("home movie-ish") surf footage makes you feel like you were there. The film itself is a snapshot of the early days of surfing and is a stark contrast to todays more polished sport. I particular enjoy seeing the now famous surf spots before they were over-run and when surfers both feared & respected them. The surfing is great for the era, the humor is light if a bit corny, and the scenery is not to be missed. Buy this movie if you want to see what surfing was really like in 1964. Annette & Frankie are not here!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brings out pure stoke!
Review: The only way I can describe what this movie brings out in me. Pure stoke! Any surfer who has never seen this movie is missing out on something BIG! this movie defines surfing in it's past, present and future! All I can say is CHECK IT OUT!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: In Search of that perfect wave.
Review: This classic surfing documentary retains its charm, high quality, humor and nostalgia. Bruce Brown's 1966 Endless Summer was one of the first and remains one of the best documentaries on surfing. It's a laid-back almost relaxing documentary to watch which occassionally features some awesome displays of surfing pioneers hanging ten on perfect, imperfect and very dangerous waves. Tubes, Pipes, perfect waves, surfing towards, and away from the shore, ridin' the wave, wipe out. . . it's all here.

This was a low budget affair, but the camera-work and richness of color is quite impressive. Most of the footage was shot silent with sound-effects and narration and occassional music added later. Don't expect to hear the Beach Boys, or the Ventures or even Dick Dale on the soundtrack--you won't. You won't get MTV fast edits, or occassional messages about pollution, over-population, or politics either.

That's refreshing.

Most refreshing of all is that you won't see a lot of ads for sneakers or cars, or sporting goods plastered all over the surfboards or cars of the surfers either. It was a less chaotic, simpler time.

The movie follows two young surfers Robert August and Mike Hynson as they follow Summer around the world. First after leaving their native California and the crowded beaches of Malibu, Santa Cruz and Newport Beach (the Wedge) they travel to Africa and surf places probably no one has ever surfed before (and have to be careful not to step on dangerous and lethal stone fish). The natives are fascinated by the California surfers and their sport. Soon Robert and Mike are giving surf lessons to the natives. They hitch a ride with an African Game Hunter and travel along the coast with a perfect tour guide. They find the perfect wave. In Australia, Mike and Robert don't have good luck and are told the best time to surf in Australia isn't in the Summer (which is the U.S.'s late fall, early winter), but in the winter. They have a little better luck in New Zealand, and as they go off to Tahiti they are told there is very little to surf in Tahiti. Ah but there turns out to be plenty to surf in Tahiti. Then Mike and Robert are off to Hawaii for two months where water and air temperatures are 75 degrees.

While there will be a few folks who will find Bruce Brown's narration (Bruce an early surfing enthusiast wrote, directed, photographed, edited and narrated this film) annoying, most will find his disarming, tongue in cheek humorous laid back narration utterly charming. And there are no contests or points or organized competitions taking place. It's simply a film about two surfing dudes in 1965 travelling around the world to catch a wave.

28 years later, Bruce Brown would make a well produced sequel to this documentary Endless Summer 2. It's got better production values, more exciting surfing action.... but it lacks the simple purity of this film.

A gem. If I've sparked any positive curiousity in you about this film, you'll enjoy it. ...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the BEST surfing video/movie I have ever seen!
Review: This is an awsome movie all about these two guys who go around the world in search of an endless summer of surfing! These guys go to some pretty of beat places and find some totaly, Da Kine waves! They visit Hawaii, California, South Africa, Australia, and numerous other locations. This is a must for surfer's, or anyone who loves the sport! On their many adventures they happen to actually start the surfing frenzy in the places the visit. And now today if you were to go to these places, surfing is just the Norm, thanks to to Bruce Brown, I think he's the one who made this movie? (Not Sure, I'd have to see the movie again to be certain.) Anyway, this is one of the all time greatest surfing video's anywhere. If you admire the sport, or even thinking of trying it, get this video, it is so great!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not what I expected!
Review: This is an OK movie but nothing to brag about.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER
Review: This is my favorite movie out of very movie ive seen even theatre ones. It truly makes you just want to get out and go surfing. I might like The Endless Summer II a little better, but they're both great movies. Even though I surf, if you don't you will still probably like it and it might make you want to start. Buy it if you've never seen it, guaranteed you will love it. :)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This movie is so stellar!!
Review: This is one of my favorite movies of all time!! I absolutely love it!! The first time I saw it I couldn't wait to travel the world surfing, but then I found out the Endless Summer Secret...that Bruce Brown filmed the entire thing in Cali!! Now whenever I see this "documentary", I can't stop laughing!! Especially knowing that all of people in the African tribes are actually hired actors!! That just cracks me up! This movie is stellar with a humorous twist!! I recommend this movie highly! Buy a copy and watch it until you can recite the movie in your sleep! Thanks to this movie, I have made it my goal to find all of the spots in Cali that our buddy Bruce filmed this movie on and surf them! So far I have about 6 of the spots down! Good stuff! Peace out and catch stellar wave all you surfers!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the Best
Review: This is one of the best surf films ever made, from one of the best producers of the genre. No review is really needed, though, as most surfers already know about it. If you don't own it ... what are you waiting for?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Big Kahuna
Review: This movie captures a time and a place, or should I say places, as Bruce Brown follows two surfers around the world in an endless summer of exotic locales including West Africa and the perfect wave in southern Africa, which never seemed to end. Surfing was a new thing in Cape Town and many would-be surfers flocked to see Hynson and August, but the best moments are the more candid ones such as in Senegal, when they turn over their boards to the locals and are amazed to see the chief get up on his first wave. The adventure takes in Australia, Tahiti and Hawaii as well, bringing them back to Malibu to close off what has to be the quentessential surfer's movie. Brown followed it up with Endless Summer II, but it lacked the spontaniety of the original as he went back to many of the same places many years later. This movie captures the romance of the big wave like no other movie, and is one you can watch over and over again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The definitive surfer's movie -- get the feel...
Review: This movie provides a connection to surf, surfing, and surfers, even for those of us who are no longer surf-connected (living in the midwest in my case). I first watched this show in a run-down old theater on the Oahu's north shore nearly 20 years ago. What a rush! Great footage, excellent story-telling and music.

What is the endless summer? It's the quest for the perfect wave.

This movie is probably best described as a biography of the essence of surfing. If you are in the mood for an outstanding break from the digital scenes of current box-office offerings, and you enjoy watching real people do real things in beautiful real places -- give this movie a look.

Still a crowd pleaser. Anyone will enjoy this movie.

5 stars all the way.

Alan Holyoak (formerly of Oahu and Santa Cruz, CA)


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