Bruce Brown: 1937-2017
One of the surf world's most loved figures has today passed away. Bruce Brown, who in 1966 released the Endless Summer, surfing's biggest and best known film, died in Southern California aged 80.
Brown was born in San Francisco and moved to Southern California aged nine. As a teeneager he was surrounded by the blossoming surf culture and was among the raucous auditorium crowd when filmmakers such as Bud Browne showed their latest movie.
Brown's first movie was an untitled 8-millimetre short film he shot while stationed on a navy submarine in Honolulu in 1955. Two years later, back in California, surfboard-maker Dale Velzy bought Brown a new 16-millimetre movie camera and paid his way to Hawaii to shoot Slippery When Wet, Brown's first feature-length surf film.
Brown on location in Hawaii
Brown, Browne, Greg Noll, and John Severson were the only surf filmmakers at the time and Brown set himself apart with slick editing and his casual and corny narration that sufers loved.
Surf Crazy, Barefoot Adventure, and Surfing Hollow Days followed over the coming years before Brown took a few years out from the seasonal Hawaii-California tripping to make his next film.
The Endless Summer was a semi-documentary that cost Brown $50,000 to make and debuted in Southern California in the summer of 1964. It was originally shown in the same manner as Brown's previous films with Brown himself driving from auditorium to auditorium to do live-narration screenings.
The following year Brown 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-millimetre, and put into general release by Columbia Pictures, where it eventually earned $30 million. Time magazine called Brown a "Bergman of the boards." Newsweek named Endless Summer as one the 10 best films of 1966.
Ironically, The Endless Summer dated quickly; by 1967 the Shortboard Revolution was in motion and the sight of Robert August and Mike Hynson dressed in suits and ties while carrying 10 foot logs caused wry amusement to late-60s surfers.
Yet the message in the film ran deeper than its fashions. Brown's "search for the perfect wave" has become surfing's most enduring trope, an idea that spanned generations, and in fact still touches surfers and filmmakers today.
Rest In Peace Bruce Brown
Comments
Bruce Brown was an utter inspiration. Those of a certain age, who can forget the first time they saw Endless Summer? Who was not inspired to a life of the sea in all its beauty by a simple promotional poster? Who do you think of when you fill up the car before a surfari? We owe this man more than we can tell.
a legend
Vale ..............RIP...........
Rotten trout...
RIP.
Sorry to hear about Bruce Brown. I remember back in 1985 I arrived at Bruces in S/Africa.
Surprisingly enough it was a S/West swell, very unusual for this place. We parked our car on the dirt track and went crazy putting on our wetsuits while looking at Perfect Bruces 3:5 ft and empty barrels all the way up top SHARK HUT in the distance, it was truly a dream come true. We all said in unison ENDLESS SUMMER here we come and jumped off the sharp barnacle rocks. We surfed for 5 hours that day thru the most amazing tide changes of sick barrels and reeling walls, something I will truly not forget. We were living down at SEALS at the time and the drive thru the back roads to J BAY was a default every time after that day just in case we would score again. I used to do a speed check from SEALS with a 250cc dirt bike with NO kick pedal, so stalling it was not an option and the hills from those sand dunes didn't allow me to jump start it, BUT mostly I would see waves breaking from SHARK hut all the way thru and could tell if BRUCES was worth it and most times YES!!!! truly a great alternative to J BAy most times with the festering crowds back then. We surfed many place thru the TRANSKIE that I surely would've thought have been on Bruces check list at time of discovery of the east coast of SA. One particular place MMBOLLOPO Point a reeling left hander starting from a BOMBIE way out past the headland but of course very Sharky jump off , just like SHARK POINT further into The T'. The true adventures of BB are in all of us to some point and I know I still have much to discover even at 60. RIP BB You will be missed, thanks for your adventuresome spirit and photography.
Look at that back!