{"id":138352,"date":"2017-12-12T01:41:38","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T06:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=138352"},"modified":"2017-12-12T01:41:38","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T06:41:38","slug":"endless-summer-surf-film-director-bruce-brown-dies-at-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/12\/12\/endless-summer-surf-film-director-bruce-brown-dies-at-80\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Endless Summer’ surf film director Bruce Brown dies at 80"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Along<\/a>
Along with the music of the Beach Boys, Brown took surfing from a quirky hobby to a fundamental part of American culture. (Internet photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LOS ANGELES\u2014 Bruce Brown, who moulded the modern image of surfer as seeker and transformed the sport with his 1966 surfing documentary \u201cThe Endless Summer,\u201d has died He was 80.<\/p>\n

Alex Mecl, general manager of Bruce Brown Films, said Brown died of natural causes in Santa Barbara, California on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Along with the music of the Beach Boys, Brown took surfing from a quirky hobby to a fundamental part of American culture.<\/p>\n

Surfers had largely been portrayed as beach blanket buffoons in the mindless party movies of the early 1960s.<\/p>\n

Then came Brown and \u201cThe Endless Summer\u201d with his beautiful, soulful story of surfers on a quest for fulfilment an image that became emblazoned on the cultural psyche.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for showing us the world as you saw it, Bruce Brown,\u201d Kelly Slater, 11-time world champion surfer, said in an Instagram post Monday. \u201cThere are never enough words to say goodbye properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown, who took up surfing in the early 1950s, had made five other documentaries about the sport before \u201cEndless Summer,\u201d including 1958’s \u201cSlippery When Wet\u201d and 1960’s \u201cBarefoot Adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like all the others it was shot on a tiny budget with Brown performing nearly every duty, from camera man to narrator.<\/p>\n

The film follows two surfers, Robert August and Mike Hynson, as they hop hemispheres to constantly surf wherever it is summer, from Hawaii to Australia to South Africa to Senegal.<\/p>\n

Surfers considered Brown a peer who just happened to carry a camera instead of a board. He shot the film loosely and casually and the style proved infectious when the public saw the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never had formal training in filmmaking, and that probably worked to my advantage,\u201d Brown said in a 2004 interview for his film company’s website.<\/p>\n

The trio’s charisma and the film’s natural beauty made it an unlikely hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beautiful photography he brought home almost makes you wonder if Hollywood hasn’t been trying too hard,\u201d Roger Ebert said in his 1967 review of the film in The Chicago Sun-Times.<\/p>\n

The film inspired many surfers to leave their home beaches, drop out of their sedentary lives, and seek isolated places with bigger waves.<\/p>\n

Some surfers blame Brown’s film for turning their serene spots into forever crowded hotspots.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people try to make me feel guilty about that,\u201d Brown said in the 2004 interview, \u201cand while I’m sure ‘Endless Summer’ hurried it up, the sport was growing by leaps and bounds simply because it’s so much fun. No one could have stopped it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown went on to make many other documentaries, most notably the 1971 film \u201cOn Any Sunday,\u201d which gave the same treatment to motorcycle riding as \u201cEndless Summer\u201d did to surfing. A sequel, \u201cOn Any Sunday II,\u201d was released in 1981.<\/p>\n

In 1994, he revisited his classic and made \u201cThe Endless Summer II\u201d with his filmmaker son Dana Brown.<\/p>\n

In 2009, he narrated a surfing-themed episode of \u201cSpongeBob SquarePants\u201d called \u201cSpongeBob vs. The Big One.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown was born in San Francisco and raised in Long Beach.<\/p>\n

He retired to a ranch near Santa Barbara, putting down the camera to ride motorcycles and surf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES\u2014 Bruce Brown, who moulded the modern image of surfer as seeker and transformed the sport with his 1966 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":138356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[38420,38421],"class_list":["post-138352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-w","tag-endless-summer-surf-film-director-bruce-brown-dies-at-80","tag-bruce-brown","mauthors-andrew-dalton","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}