Endless Summer II (1994)

       

 Few are the sequels that are up to the quality of the original movie and Endless Summer II belongs to that restricted club. It  managed to keep the level of excelence of Bruce Brown´s masterpiece made 28 years before. Like the first flick it is a road movie. But instead of just discovering new waves, surfers Pat O´Connel and Robert Weaver retrace the steps of the first duo Mike Hynson and Robert August. What follows is a journey where the two american surfers observe what has changed on the places that the first film portrayed which such an innocent beauty.

       Endless Summer II has everything that made Bruce Brown the Spielberg of surf movies. The footage and specially the photography are near to cinematographic perfection. The surfing itself is masterfully filmed (the     underwater camera work is almost symphonic in its composition!) but as any surf film connoisseur knows what takes every surf movie to another level are the quality of the segments in between of the surfing clips, and solely for that Endless Summer is a masterpiece. The narration is humorous and the treatment of the ocean, landscape, cultures and people encountered will stay etched in the memory of every surfer for a long time.

Verdict: 9/10

Chasing the Lotus (2006)

          

     If there should be a surfing movie that represented something like a compendium of surf history this is it. The project was itself colossal: to reunite 40 years of surf history based on surf photos mainly taken by legendary surf photographer Greg Weaver from Surfer magazine and also footage from many landmark movies. The task was largely unmeasured and the expectations were maybe too high but, after all, lets be reallistic: 40 years of the rich history of surf would never fit into only 90 minutes of film. However, some good aspects are effective in hiding some of the flaws found in the movie. The interviews and the interviewed are excellent, and the authors (Greg mad it together with Spyder Willis) are sucessfull in grasping the adventure like sentiment and wanderlust that surround surfing since its invention. Oh, and Jeff "The Dude" Bridges does the narration.

verdict: 7/10 Check a more detailed review in the next link:  http://www.onelastwave.com/SurfFlickReviews/ChasingTheLotus.htm

Ride of the Year Entry - Brian Conley just WOW

Cosmic Children (1970)

         Never was the expression "go with the flow" so well applied as when we speak about the coolness of the surfing shown by the space age surfers of the 1960´s. It is a surf style that translates itself in a uncomitted, light and sensual approach to the waves. It looks the guys couldn´t care less and yet all the surf stars of the time are reunited in what makes this film one of the best compilation of american surfers of all time: Miki Dora, David Nuuhiwa, J. Riddle, Johnny Fain, Jeff Hackman Barry Kanaiaupuni, Mike Doyle, Corky Carrol, Owl, Rolf Arness, Billy Hamilton.

         Of course, the whole movie is affected by the symbolism of the hippie era. What remains after 60 minutes of vintage footage is not only remarkable surf but also the witnessing of the subculture that marked a whole generation. However don´t expect to find here a best of as the film also includes some inunteresting scenes of regular and sometimes even boring moments, but that, I think, was the sole goal of Hal Jepsen (who passed away in 2006): to show exactly how everything happened in a changing Time not only for America as a whole but also for surf.

This next video clip extracted from the movie shows what Topanga Beach was all about in the late sixties.



TLDR : Woodstock for surfers.

Poetry in motion

Sometimes people ask why I like to watch surf movies. I think there isn´t an answer to that. At least an answer that goes deeper than the superficial layers of words. The emotions involved rather belong to the realm of pure contemplation. It is an experience that allows the viewer a respite from the strife of desire, and feel a kind of purely mental enjoyment. But, while I was reflecting on this topic from the point of view of a spectator, a quick search on the internet gave me a similar opinion, but from the angle of Jonathan Paskowitz

“For me personally, words cannot describe the euphoria that surfing provides as a human. Words cannot describe the absolutely magical and romantic feeling of riding a wave, going up and down on the surface of the water and feeling, just an unlimited power under your feet and to be in harmony with the ocean; perhaps riding along and seeing a dolphin in the face of the wave next to you, or a beautiful rainbow as the spray of the wind is offshore pluming over the back of the wave. It’s just the most beautiful, romantic, organic thing I think a human can do”.

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Not a myth: kickflip in surf

Surf purists would say that skateboarding only appeared because surfers were so addicted to the ocean thrills that they needed to emulate surfing when the weather was bad or there were no waves to surf on. Truth is that in the beginning surfers were skaters and skaters were surfers. Nowadays, both extreme sports made separate ways. Skateboarding is more connected with an urban lifestyle and surfing, on the other hand, is rather linked to nature and to a more relaxed attitude towards life. Meanwhile, some kind of rivalry grew upon the two factions. However, the next video proves the contrary and that both sports can continue to influence each other in many aspects. Just watch a surfer performing the famous skateboarding kickflip trick in a surfboard. Like surfboarding and skating, talent and imagination have no boundaries.

TLDR: Like a youtube user commented: "the first skate style was surfing, so the last surf style should be skating".