Great Directors - Bruce Brown (Part III)

That´s right, Bruce has also a thing for dirt bikes

The theatrical release of "Endless Summer" turned into an huge success. At first the movie conquered the surfing audiences, but slowly it became more and more known by the mainstream ones. Brown struggled for the film to have a national release because he was very aware of the quality of his masterpiece. Brown was also sure of his abilities as a filmmaker and the resounding success of the movie proved him right and gave him the little confidence he might have needed to establish himself on the film biz.

The financial stability that followed the success of Endless Summer, allowed him to build new offices on Dana Point and to devote himself to his other passion - motocross. His movie on the subject called On any Sunday (co-produced with his friend Steve McQueen) even gave him an academy award nomination in 1970.

Soon after Bruce retired to a ranch near Santa Barbara where, according to Surfline magazine, he "surfed, rode his motorcycles, built a house, got into car restoration, raced sprint cars around his track and, more recently, got into rally cars -- an all-wheel-drive turbo-charged Mazda". 


Only in 1992 did Brown came out of his retirement and filmed the fantastic sequel to the first Endless Summer. In this second film, two friends (Robert Wingut Weaver and Pat O´Connel) followed the steps that the first pair made around the world´s waves.


Nowadays, still according to Surfline, Bruce  races his rally car and occasionally surfs for the sake of the his great past as the man that was capable to make a whole generation to dream with the perfect surf trip around the world.