Bruce Brown, Creator of The Endless Summer, passes away

Bruce Brown, legend of surf films and the creator of one of the best surf films has passed away at the age of 80 on 10th December 2017. He will be well remembered for his filmography and the great contribution he gave surfers and aspiring surfers alike in tenure as a filmaker and founder of surf films. I want to write a story of how lived and not how he passed. Here goes the story of the late Bruce Brown.

Bruce Brown, Founder of Surf Films

His first work into filming started in mid 1950’s on a 8mm short film from Navy Submarine in Honolulu in Hawaii, afterwards he later returned to California. Dave Velzy, one of the earliest commercial surfboard shaper, saw potential in Bruce’s talent and flew him to Hawaii, but this time to do a full feature film called Slippery When Wet in 1957. It had more of a Jazzy underscore to the film on the adventures of few young surfers during the golden age of surf. What really made things outstanding was Bruce’s narration of the film which gave the film shape making enjoyable for all.

Later works included Surf Crazy (1959), Barefoot Adventure (1960), Surfing Hollow Days (1961) and Waterlogged (1962). Each similar in it’s message but unique in setting and a really good introduction to surfing and surfboards like. Those were the great golden days of surfing! Afterwards came his treasured masterpiece.

Bruce & The Endless Summer

How did The Endless Summer become the The Endless Summer. It was not easy. Bruce Brown, knew that if was to make a proper homage to Surfing he would need 2 years and US$ 50,000 in film budget to do it quoting him:

“I felt if I could take two years to make a film, maybe I could make something special”.

So Bruce toiled on, took all the best footages of his previous films and made the film Waterlogged. Bruce took pitched his plan to many big-shot Hollywood film distributors but they did not think he was “mainstream” enough.

Bruce began brainstorming again. He knew there were many films and he needed a special something to make it good. He premise would be two surfers Robert August and Mike Hynson would take advantage of winter time in the Northern Hemisphere and pursue the perfect wave during summer in the Southern Hemisphere. An idea that the surfer is always on a quest for the perfect waves. That is how The Endless Summer was born.

Afterwards when Bruce put in the work and completed the Endless Summer in 1966 and again pitched it to the Hollywood distributors by getting movie-goers in to watch at Wichita Kansas for 2 weeks screening and again they felt it was not good enough.

He again rented a theater in New York and held a screening at New York’s Kips Bay, this time it caught on. Cinema 5 took on the distribution rights for the film. Brown chose Cinema 5 as they were the only film distributors that would leave the poster and movie as is without alterations. That’s how we got the iconic poster of The Endless Summer.  From then on the film gained wide success grossing US$ 5million domestically and US$ 20 million worldwide. Praised by The New York Times, Robert Alden and Roger Ebert for it’s unique and humorous narration and storyline. This move was set for the times.

You can check out my review for The Endless Summer here.

Later Works

Later on in th 1970’s Bruce Brown worked on his other passion, which was dirt bikes. He produced another film called On Any Sunday with his co-producer and actor Steve McQueen. That full also garnered wide success and is regarded as the best motorcycle film of all times.

His later works would include On Any Sunday II (1981), Baja 1000 Classic (1991), and On Any Sunday: Revisited (2000). He also produced another sequel in 1994 with his son called The Endless Summer II. This film was also widely regarded not as much success as the first film but great revisitation nonetheless. Bruce at this stage would do a few short films for surfing sportswear or skateboarding companies such as The Wet Set or America’s Newest Sport.

Fun Fact Bruce Brown made a guest appearance as narrator in Spongebob Squarepants episode “SpongeBob SquarePants vs. The Big One”.

How He Lived, How He Passed

Bruce was never a guy who liked the busling cities. He would later semi-retire in the 1980s and move with his wife, Pat and 3 kids (Dana, Wade and Nancy) to remote ranch north of Santa Barbara. There Bruce did whe loved most surfing, riding motorcyles, build houses, restore cars and do the occasional rally racing with his wife. His quite living could be summed up in is words: “We try to stay upright as much as possible”.

He lived a fulfilling life watching his kids grow up and doing what he loved most. He passed away in his sleep at the age of 80.

Legacy

His legacy will keep on living before him. Brown is a 2009 inductee into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach, California and his film The Endless Summer in 2002 was selected preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Cape St. Francis in South Africa became a famous surf spot thanks to The Endless Summer. Not to mention other treasured surf areas in Africa and around the world.

His narrations has always added color to stories he wove. Being humorous and friendly they would invite into his world and bring along for the ride. I myself was entranced by his story-telling in The Endless Summer that his re-stoked to keep on surfing. The film itself became more than a surf documentary for me as it made me want to do a good trip myself. I still sometimes watch it as it still helps me get pumped up for waves.

You can also send some condolences to twitter account Bruce Brown Films over here @brucebrownfilms.

Our condolences are with his family and we hope he knows that the surf community thanks him for all he has done.