The Endless Summer (1966)

If you love the seashore and if you're fond of surfing you will definitely like Bruce Brown's documentary, one of the first ever shot on surf culture. Still if you don't like surfing or even the seashore its very likely you'll love it. It's not just the ultimate surfer movie, actually I didn't select one single shot in which there's actually someone riding the waves. This is one of these documentaries that covers so much more than just the main-subject; it's about unknown cultures, a cool lifestyle, traveling, beautiful sceneries, silly and good humor but most of all about some cool dudes that know how to enjoy life. And of course the endless shots of some guys and girls floating on the waves are breathtaking, wave after wave.

From Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, South-Africa, Australia, New-Zeeland, Tahiti to Hawai the two surfers, Michael Hynson and Robert August, are searching for the best spots to practice their skills and to discover the surroundings. Persol sunglasses, fisherman knits, slick haircuts, khaki chino's, waterproof watches, Vans sneakers, Fiat 500's, Volkswagen Beetles, suits and naturally the oldskool surfboards are all present. Bruce Brown really knows how to cover a certain subculture.

If you liked 'The Endless Summer' you should make sure you get to see 'On Any Sunday' real soon too. The second documentary by Brown covers motorcycling and dirt-bike riding and features Steve McQueen (as a professional driver) among others and has the typical Bruce Brown elements added to it.