The 50th Anniversary of the The ENDLESS SUMMER and my own Surfing Lifestyle that started the summer of 1964.

I wanted to post this image above to show you all that I spent every summer at the beach when I was a kid. From Nahant to Maine. We were on the sands and salt water of the Atlantic ocean. This is me with my uncle Ralph and my sister Donna. It was taken by my dad
on the beach at Nahant, and I'm guessing it was somewhere around 1955...but it's just a guess.

But I KNOW for sure, that during those early years on those beaches, I had to have encountered waves of significance, some time during those early years. There had to have been a ground swell or two, or some front blowing through that would of produced some kind of waves.

Just the shear numbers alone of my family spending time on the beaches, we had to have been there when there was good surf. I just don't have any photographic proof.

I don't remember what show it was, or program that I saw on TV the summer of 1963, I only remember the subject matter. On a black and white TV. It was a hot muggy summer night. I saw it for the first time in my life. Surfing. I saw Surfing and it caught my attention.

Guys surfing on longboards. Having a blast. Probably in California.

I remember it so well. "Hey look at that!" I yelled to anyone who might be listening or watching. My parents or any of my brothers or sisters who were somewhere in the house. But I don't recall any of them responding except my dad. "That's surfing. I did that in Hawaii before we shipped out to the South Pacific." He was referring to the second world war. "Surfing?" I asked. My eyes still glued to the fuzzy black and white images flickering across the screen. I could not believe what I was seeing.

My dad adjusted the rabbit ears (antenna) but only made it worse.

"Dad stop you're making it worse!" I yelled impatiently. "Stop!"
And then, just as fast as it was on, it was gone. "Is it over?" I asked. "Surfing? Dad you did that in Hawaii?" I asked still fixated on the TV. "Yeah me and some of my buddies tried it. It was fun." I looked at him and then back to the TV. "Hawaii..." I mumbled staring at the screen. My dad was still fumbling with the antennas. "Yep, Hawaii."

I looked up at him and said . "We have to go to Hawaii!" He looked down at me and laughed. But I was serious. Everything changed for me in that moment. To this day I'm not sure what it was that I saw. I only knew it was called surfing and that I needed to go to Hawaii and try it. That was the summer of 1963. And I would not give up on trying to go to Hawaii or California that whole year.

I needed to go surfing. Yet I would not get the chance to actually try surfing until the summer of 1964. 50 years ago this summer.

Little did I know at that time, that a few months later, halfway around the world, three young men were on a trip that would change the world forever. Bruce Brown, Robert August, and Mike Hynson. From October of 1963 to April of 1964 they embarked on a surf journey that would be called the ENDLESS SUMMER.



Last Saturday night at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, the star of Endless Summer I and Endless Summer II were on stage narrating the classic film. During that narration and the very next day, I learned so much about the behind the scenes making of that classic surf movie. I especially learned that when Bruce Brown got back in April of 1964 he showed the movie with NO soundtrack that summer in VFW halls in California and community centers. And he did it with his own folksy style of narrating. The same with the following year, 1965.



It wasn't until 1966 that the big guys blew it up to 35mm and it was being shown all across the country. That's when I saw it. The summer of 1966. Though, I had already been surfing since the summer of 1964, that movie changed my life (again). And like a lot of young surfers of the day, my dad took me to see it at the North Shore Shopping Center cinema. I remember leaving the theater completely blown away. I mean, my little brain was blown!




This is me (above) in 1965. The year before I saw the ENDLESS SUMMER and the year after I started surfing . Yes those are cut-off jeans. Yes, I was a kook. We all started out as kooks.

After seeing the movie in 1966 I knew right then and there that I would be seeking my own "perfect wave" somewhere on the planet. But first I had to wait until my little sojourn in the Marine Corps was done. From The spring of 1968 to January of 1971 my ass belonged to the US Government. But that summer of 1971?. Well that was when we went on our own ENDLESS SUMMER. June 1971.



My old surf gang from the mid 60's. Left to right Mike Normand, Peter Hilton, Jeff Crawford, me, and Bruz Bowden. Mike and Peter did not go on that trip just the three on the right. This photo was taken months after we got back.

We went north and found perfect waves and even got to name a few of the perfect points. I told Robert August all about the trip. He was smiling from ear to ear. Nodding his head, he had heard this many times before. He and Hynson, and especially Bruce Brown, inspired a whole generation of surfers to go out and find the perfect wave.

I'm so stoked and happy to say, that I lived that dream. I had my own ENDLESS SUMMER and it was all because of this movie.



"Surfing "perfect waves" Heals All Wounds"