What would you consider the definitive movies for each era (board design and riding style)
Staring with the 50’s and running through to today?
…I’m no expert by any means ,
but here are some of my favourites …
1950s … not sure …any bud / bruce brown ones , I guess ? [was “surfing hollow days , and slippery when wet” 50s or 60s , I forget ?!]
endless summer [early 60s] / children of the sun [mid 60s]
innermost limits of pure fun / evolution [late 60s]/ hot generation
going surfing / morning of the earth / crystal voyager [early 70s]
five summer stories [mid 70s]
many classic moments mid to later 70s?]…‘buttons’ , liddell, bert …‘stingers’
free ride [later 70s]
storm riders / ‘kong’s island’ [channel bottoms !!] / fantasea [early 80s ]
green iguana / bunyip dreaming [early 90s]
kelly slater in black and white / in colour [90s] / the “search” [rip curl] videos
late 90s to new millenium …
searching for tom curren /sprout / quiver / shelter / thicker than water / september sessions / seedling / glass love
I would like to get the original
“performers”
and
“blazing boards”
specific years I would like movies from
early 1950s
early 1960s
1967-1969
1972
1975-1977
1980
1981-3
1985
1987-1989
1991
and ,
movies on bonzers .
Shapers I would like to see movies about …
steve lis ,
bob simmons,
tom blake,
earle pedersen ,
tom peterson
simon anderson
ben aipa
bob mctavish
rusty preisendorfer
dave parmenter
tom weggener [there’s a bit in 'sprout"]
pat curren ['glass love ’ features him , and neal purchase snr]
‘pinliner’ [peter st. pierre]
and ben shipman , too !
if you can get hold of it ,
there is a book out there somewhere called “surf movies” , which details hundreds of good surf movies and videos … [ ?“Alby Thoms” ?? , from memory , did it …it’s a really nice "coffee table " type book …around maybe $90aus , I seem to remember , when I enquired about it , many years ago]
of the 90’s, definitely “green iguana,” “bunyip”… even “sons of fun”
classic occy… and margo is such a good surfer.
…and they DEFINATELY coulda used eno’s music for that indo sequence of Occy in PERFECT glassy lefthanders in iguana , eh ??
I really like watching all the different eras vids , and seeing in slo-mo , how the boards were responding / not responding .
has anyone here seen “oceans” ???
a fairly obscure early 1970s offering by rodney and dave sumpter which features j-bay , hawaii , other places [‘balsa’… france is featured , and guess where they show ??? uh oh]
some surfers featured include …
bk
reno
dora
lopez
rory russell
peers pittard
gavin rudolph
brad mccaul
nuuhiwa
I “think” it might be “bunker” , even ?? [in the j-bay sequence , there’s some guy riding a small , thick board , while everyone else is "styling " on about 8’ pintails .
anyone know if that is buinker ? I have never seen footage of him before …
cheers
ben
The first Free Ride was just a mind blower for me. MR at Honolua… Rabbit on that slow right hander into a dredging barrel… Also the tube sequences at OTW… In the mid/latter 70’s, that was THE movie… Anyone know if you can get it on DVD???
Free Ride. I was a townie kid, just learning to surf, when it came on HBO. I must’ve watched it 40 times that month. It set my direction for the next few years of my life and I ended up having a really good run at Backdoor/OTW in the mid 80’s to early 90’s. Back then, you could surf perfect 6’ Backdoor with only 5 or 6 guys going right all the time. It only got crowded if there were cameras and it was really really perfect. Twink and Hoey, Paul Dunn, Dane, Rabbit, Johnny Boy, Marvin, Davey Miller, Willy Morris, Wes Laine, Dino Andino, Jimmy Hogan, Shaun, The Ho’s, Lonny Brothers, Ronnie Burns, Michael Tomson, Bud McCray and company, etc. etc. I surfed the best waves of my life one day at OTW during that period. I still surf that strecth occasionally, but rarely. It’s really crowded, and I’m getting old for such dangerous fun. But to answer the question, Free Ride.
what about momentum and momentum 2. They were really insane movies. Obviously not as good as todays but for the time it was stupid.
I watch them now days and the stuff they were doing then is still stupid today. It was still only a few years ago but definately
influenced a great deal of surfers.
Morning of the earth also influenced quite a few surfers in their style and the boards they rode.
YES…FREE RIDE
Im with Carve…Ive been searching for VHS or DVD copy for years. Seems like the makers dont want to go that route. There was a special movie screening a couple of years back…the original, played at a theater, with movie goers, twenty five years later…what a concept. Shawn Tompson was there.
There were so many great flicks…but FR had that slow’mo water filming…it was so mesmerizing. Its strange, but I saw that flick way back when it was originally released, never saw it again, and I still remember how epic it was.
A PERSONAL MESSAGE TO THE FREERIDE MAKERS/OWNERS:
PLEASE RELEASE COPIES TO THE MOVIE BUYING PUBLIC!!! NAME YOUR PRICE. IM IN.
PS - Same thing with Pink Floyd’s “PULSE” - no DVD release?
What kind of a world is this?! Holding out isnt cool y’know.
I’ve read some of the early responses and realize that once the “surf movie” experience of going out to see them went away, so did most of my surf “movie” viewing. I’ll take a pass on anything much past 1980.
A great transitional film is MacGillivray-Freeman’s “Waves of Change”, which later was recut as “The Sunshine Sea”. This was the film before “Five Summer Stories”, and one from a different time and place. The rag on it was that it wasn’t very current when it was finally released but it covered the late years of the shortboard transition. “The Sunshine Sea” version (1971) had Lopez in ascendency, and then we had the 70’s.
There were a ton of Bob Evans movies that never made it to the U.S. - love to see them. Probably treasure troves.
The original Free Ride… Yeah! I remember staying at my cousins house across the island in Niu Valley area and going to the Waialae Theatre around 76’ or so when the original was released… Heavy herb smoke filled the air… I was only around 12 and getting a contact high… The lights dimmed to the hoots of the charged up crowd and my life went from surfing is fun, to this is what I’m going to do the rest of my life!!! In that era the Pablo Cruise, Zero to Sixty in Five song with the footage was genius… The water footage at that time was state of the art… Nobody seen such clear documentation of inside the barrel…
Another surf movie that really stands out for me living in Hawaii was called The Performers. I watched that thing over and over then would immediately paddle out on the North Shore and try to surf better. Richard Cram stood out in that one… Man that guy ripped Haleiwa!! Also The Green Iguana has some of the best surf footage with epic Occy on that absolutely perfect, glassy left mentioned earlier… So many good ones thoughout the eras…
Hi everybody,
I think more than chronologicaly put, movies can influence people in different ways. Some shock for the performance, some for the atmosphere, some for the style, some for its human touch, etc. My contribution (without order of importance):
Sprout, Thicker Than Water, Endless Summer, Wave Warriors, The Performers, Bali High, African Expressions, Beyond the Blazing Boards, Focus, What’s really Going Wrong, Storm Riders, Feral Kingdom, Crystal Voyager, Big Wednesday, Follow the Sun, Three Degree,…
Single fin: yellow.
By far one of the best swaylockian movies of all time.
How about surf movies with a plot?
Big Wednesday of course - love it, seen it too many times.
Point Break - good for laughs “Nice board, reminds me of a 57’ Chevy I used to have” “Bodie, you’re goin’ down, it has to be that way!”
North Shore - cheesy to me, but it seems people who were in their teens at the time really like it.
In God’s Hands - ugh
I saw the movie Oceans the other day, I dug the way that Drouyn was jiving at Cape St Francis with Mccaul and co.
I tend to think Free ride is over rated Standing Room Only gives a good alternative view on the period. Micheal Ho was so good to watch on single fins and his tube riding easily kept up with Shaun. Unfortunately thin sensitive boards killed good style for many greats.
Ocean Rhythms was a good Aussie movie from the mid 70s. Bugs D bah on a single honkin.
Super Session same era man i could get enough of Bertleman when i was 13 he was definitely the funkiest cat in town and country, man all those white squares in free ride look very pale indeed.
cheers
Quote:
Single fin: yellow.
By far one of the best swaylockian movies of all time.
Yes!
Pre 1950’s - “califonia surfer” i think its called.
1950s-
Early to mid 60s: Endless Summer
Mid to late 60s: Children of the sun
Late 60s: Innermost Limits of Pure Fun
Early 70s: Morning of The Earth, Crystal Voyeger, Pacific Vibrations
Mid To Late 70s: Free Ride, Fantasea Relised in the 1980s nearly all of the featured surfing was the late 70s.
Early to mid 80s: Storm Riders, Kongs Island, Adventures in Paradise.
Late 80s: Wave Warriors 3, “Nat Youngs, the history of Australian surfing”.
Early to mid 90s: Bunyip Dreaming, Hawaii 9-whatever. Kelly Slater in Black and White.
Late 90s: September Sessions, Thicker than Water.
2000s: Glass Love.
Others: Big Wendsday Corny but you gotta love it!
Sprout: okay longboarding but it seems most people think its fantastic
Lines from a Poem: Good Australian longboarding.
Early: Endless Summer…Fantastic Plastic Machine (I just had to put it in)
Mid: Morning of the earth…A day in the life of Wayne Lynch…Free Ride (third Edition)
Eighties: Blazing boards…Beyond Blazing boards…
Later and today: Seedling…Magnaplasm (loved the creativity and feel)
for sure one of my favorites, “Sprout”, its got many good surfers of today as well as past legends, just came out this last year, also “Singlefin Yellow”
I should add some of the deep tubes those guys were getting in Free ride are really incredable and the surfing is as good as todays standards in those waves in my opinion.
i got my copy yesterday and it has me stoked!
another interesting thing to do is watch:
Storm Riders: Nias Section
Adventures in Paradise: Nias Section
Indo Express: Nias section.
very interesting to see how in all the movies there riding the same waves but in storm riders there on single fins, in adventures in paradise there on twin fins and in indo express there riding thrusters. a nice contrast indeed.
I have a big ole’ santa monica hard case if anyone wants to make a swaylock’s sequel to SFYellow… shipping those suckers cost some $$ though. Maybe hand delivery only, passed off at surf spots (meet me at Rincon kinda thing.) W/ posting of photos & story (episode) here, instead of in a journal.
I know there are a couple travel boards going already but one more couldn’t hurt.
Anyway I have the hard case if anyone wants to get the ball rolling on this, it’s available. I’m not making longboards these days (other than one that’s already spoken for) so don’t have a good board to offer up, but maybe somebody else does, or wants to make one.