The Endless Summer 2

Thirty years after making the greatest surfing movie of all time - "Endless Summer", with Mike Hynson and Robert August as two surfers who try to achieve the ultimate dream (an endless Summer of waves, girls, sun, and surf)- Bruce Brown decided to shoot a sequel. He took two more surfers, a shortboarder and a longboarder, and traveled the world again. This time around, the surfing world is much larger than just Hawaii and California, so the guys don't really get to play "surfing ambassador" on this trip like the two other guys did in 1964.

Robert August makes a guest appearance. Since completing his surfing odyssey in 1964, he's now known as one of the greatest surfboard shapers in the business, specializing in longboards. One of the greatest tragedies in the world is the fact that the board he used in "Endless Summer" ended up on a used surfboard rack and was sold, lost forever to a nameless surfer who probably didn't know what he had. However, August has made a living creating duplicates of that board and they continue to sell well. But I'm deviating from the movie.

Again we have Bruce Brown giving narration to the film, although in this movie the cameras recorded sound, so we can hear the surfers reactions to the waves and rides rather than have Brown interpret them for us (though I miss his narration - it was much funnier in his retelling). And we have the familiar tune from The Sandals, but recorded with better guitars. This time the two title surfers go to places not normally associated with water sports, such as Alaska and France. But even here, with the improvement in wetsuit technology in the past 30 years, surfers are riding waves. We also get treated to a brief history of surfing at the beginning of the film, which is a nice tribute to the sport which has done well for Brown.

Interspersed between the surfers' travels are clips from surf competitions, famous moments in surf history, and some fantastic underwater photography. While the trailer to the movie focused on the big action scenes (a la the "X Games" influence of ESPN), the movie itself actually follows a less MTV-heart attack pace, showing us the grace and beauty of moving on a wall of water. The advances in camera technology have really benefitted filmmakers, and it shows in this movie.

So is the sequel as good as the original? Yes, if not better. While I miss the relaxing humor of Bruce Brown's narration that was in the original, the photography of the sequel is much better. I'd suggest watching both.

Bruce Brown's sequel, produced nearly 30 years later, is just as good as the first one. Once again, we join two surfers, professional surfer Pat O'Connell (who still surfs to this day) and his pal, longboard pro 'Wingnut' Weaver, as they travel around of the world to chase the summer, enjoying some intense waves, new cultures, and a whole lot of adventure.

Brown's movie shows just how much surfing has changed since the first Endless Summer. Whereas in the 1960s, Brown showed the sports immense popularity of the sport for Pacific Coast surfers. But, if you'll recall in the first Endless Summer, some of the places that Mike Hynson and Robert August traveled to, they had never seen a surfboard before.

Much has changed since then, as Brown reveals in the sequel. Right from the introduction, we see how crowded the Hawaiian shores are with every kind of surfer imaginable--long boarders, short boarders, males and females both surfing, children surfing, people surfing doubles or triples, people surfing with their dogs, body boarders, and everything else. The sport has come a long way since the first movie in 1966.

In the Endless Summer II, O'Connell and Weaver travel to southeast Asia, France, Australia, South Africa, Hawaii, and Coasta Rica. In fact, they were invited to visit Coasta Rica by the original Endless Summer surfer, board designer Robert August. In France, the pair get to surf with world surf champ Tom Curren. I think it was in the islands of Indonesia that they meet up with Laird Hamilton and Gerry Lopez (remember them from 'North Shore'?). This is where Brown gives some focus to what extreme lengths surfing has been taken to as they gang go 'towing' with Hamilton and Garcia into some of the biggest waves surfers have ever known. And in between that, they get to do a whole lot of other great stuff (particularly with the adventurous prankster, Nat Young of Australia).

The sequel is not quite authentic as the first one because of a few choreographed sequences. But, everything else is cool (despite the omnipresence of those Sunkist sponsors). The photography is great. The surfing is great. The music is great. If you love surfing, or at least watching surfers, this is still a great movie to watch. It's a lot of fun watching surfers living for what they like to do best: surf.

Whether you are a surfing guru or just a grommet, you'll love this film. Following in the footsteps of the friends that travelled the globe in search of the endless summer in Bruce Browns 1966 classic, Pat and Wingnut follow the surf from South America, through Africa, Indonesia and Australia. The photography is exceptional, the people they meet (Laird Hamilton, Jerry Lopez, Robert August to name but a few) fascinating, and the scenery incredible. Bruce Brown brings to the screen like no other can what is essentially an intraverted and elite lifestyle, and for the duration of the film, you feel a part of that life. It will leave you searching frantically on the internet for a longboard and a cheap flight to Fiji.

i carnt say much more than... its the best surf/movie ever! and each time i watch it, it just gets better no other surf movie can beat it! and if there is.. then i wanna see it!

this film lives up the hype of being even better than the legendary original. the style is precisely that of the original, but the leap is the technical quality of the photography. much of the photography is so beautiful and astonishing that it looks like james cameron computer generated it. you watch it, thinking "how the heck did they film that?" now i am a jersey boy, born in nyc, know nothing about surfing. but i know a great film and this is one.