Surf films generally fall into three distinct genres: surfing documentaries, beach party films, and fictional films with surfing used as their backdrop. The first known documentation of surfing in film was in Robert Kates Bonine’s filmHawaiian Islandsin 1906, made for inventor Thomas Edison,who sought to use new camera technologyto document every corner of America by exploring its culture. These early Polynesian pioneers helped spread the gospel of surfing, and ushered in a new cadre of documentary films about the practice, which developed simultaneously to the sport’s quantum leaps from new concepts and fiberglass development.
It wasn’t long before the mainland surfing craze of the 1950s made it into narrative films, as well, withGidgetbecoming so popular it brought with it a new genre of California beach party film. Seven years later, surfdocumentaries took a quantum leap forward, as well, with Bruce Brown’sThe Endless Summerfollowing three surfers around the world to avoid the changing seasons and find the ultimate wave.
Surfing had anotherrenaissance in the 80s and 90s, and Hollywood took notice, setting films likeNorth ShoreandPoint Breakaround plots that centered on surfing and tried to present a more modern, documentary-style photography of actors and their doubles getting barreled. Throughout this history, surfing’s “soul” has remained a constant thesis of these films, regardless of the genre.
The following are 10 surf films that inspired generations to strap on wetsuits and paddle into the lineup.
11North Shore
North Shorewas a film made at the peak of surfing’s 80s popularity, with Matt Adler playing Rick Hall, an ambitious, land-locked surfer who goes to the North Shore of O’ahu to pursue his dreams of going pro. Along the way he falls in love with a local girl from the “Hui” clan, a group of Hawaiians wary ofhaoles(tourists) who come to Hawaii for its incredible waves. The film is most memorable for great surfing cinematography and stunts by the likes of surf legends Gerry Lopez and Laird Hamilton.While it definitely has some very outdated ’80s aspects,North Shorewas one of the most earnest attempts at diagramming the lifestyles of surfers and the politics of locals-only mentalities that can sometimes be a hindrance to up-and-coming surfers trying to break into the scene.
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10The Endless Summer II
The sequel to surfing’s most important documentary,The Endless SummerIImaintained the levity of the original, this time pitting two surfers, Pat O’Connell (a shortboarder) and Robert “Wingnut” Weaver (a longboarder), together on a journey across continents, surfing everywhere from the blood-warm waters of Costa Rica to the frigid shores of Alaska. The film features cameos from surfing legends like tour standout Tom Curren, to television personalities like Steve Irwin, later ofThe Crocodile Hunterfame. The surfing odd couple created a modern companion to the original, and the film maintained Bruce Brown’s soothing narrative voice.
9Step Into Liquid
Following in his father Bruce’s footsteps, Dana Brown made his foray into surf films with 2003’sStep Into Liquid, a more contemporary look at surfing throughout the world, this time showing modern innovations like tow-in surfing, which enabled surfers to drop into waves far too big to paddle into. The film featured luminaries from his father’s films, as well as a new generation of surfers like Kelly Slater and Laird Hamilton, known for pushing the boundaries and dangers of the sport. Brown shows how much the sport has progressed since his father’s films, utilizing much better camera technology to get up-close-and-personal with the action with underwater photography and helicopter shots.
8Five Summer Stories
Five Summer Storiesis the last film of surf documentarians Jim Freeman and Greg MacGillivray, who went out with a bang by exploring the lives of surfers like Gerry Lopez and Eddie Aikau, Waimea Beach’s first lifeguard, who saved over 500 lives. The film also featured the incredible animation work of John Lamb, one of the first to animate surfing and skateboarding using a bright, popping watercolor technique. The film is the first to contextualize surfing within society-at-large, showing where itdovetails with the psychedelic times in 1972and incorporating a technicolor
7Big Wednesday
Gary Busey has been featured in two of surfing’s most important narrative films,Point BreakandBig Wednesday. The latter saw the actor acting in a big-wave epic written and directed by John Milius, and based on the director’s own experiences growing up in Malibu. The characters have one goal in mind, to dodge the Vietnam draft, so they can maintain their lives of surf, travel and awesome beach parties as their friends get shipped off to battle. Milius has had a lifelong love affair with surfing, even incorporating it into his famous script forApocalypse Now. Busey was actually a talented surfer in real life, being one of the rare cases an actor didn’t need extensive surf training to play this sort of role.
6North of the Sun
Surfing has grown such a following, its no longer practiced only in sunny places like California and Hawaii, but has spread to land locked locales and even a remote island in Norway in the documentaryNorth of the Sun. There, Inge Wegge and Jorn Nyseth Ranum find a break so irresistible that they are willing to battle the extreme climate and hypothermia-inducing ocean waters. The film demonstrates the lengths to which surfers will go to realize their dreams of getting pitted, even if it means battling extreme elements and danger.
5Riding Giants
Known more for skateboarding documentaries likeDogtown and Z-Boys, Stacey Peralta turned his attention to one of his other passions, surfing, for his filmRiding Giants, which traced the origins and evolution of big wave surfing. The film focusses first on Greg Noll, who pioneered big wave surfing in the 1950s and 60s and surfed Waimea Bay at 25 feet, then thought to be impossible even by local Hawaiians. The film then turns to Jeff Clark, who discovered the infamous Mavericks reef break in Northern California’s Half Moon Bay, for a time surfing the deadly break alone. Laird Hamilton is shown as big wave surfing’s greatest innovator, as the brawny surfer was the first to tow into enormous waves on Hawaii and California’s outer breaks.
4Point Break
Kathryn Bigelow has established herself as one of the great action directors in film history, and withPoint Break, Bigelow caught Patrick Swayze at the peak of his powers. Swayze plays Bodhi, a soul surfer and bank robber who takes Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) under his wing, not realizing that Utah is an FBI agent tasked at hunting him down. Swayze, Reeves and Lori Petty all needed extensive surf training for the film, but still required extensive stunt-doubling for the surfing sequences, a testament to just how difficult the sport is. Swayze still attempted to do his own stunt work, getting in a few shots for the film before breaking four ribs. Ouch!
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The beach party movie that started it all,Gidgetwas a 1959 adaptation of a pulp fiction novel that capitalized on the recent surfing craze, casting Sandra Dee in the title role and featuring the first surf scenes in a major motion picture. The film was a hit, inspiring a run of movies and a television series starring Sally Field. Considering how light-hearted a picture it was, it inspired many a young surfer to emulate the glamourous Malibu lifestyle of Moondoggie and his band of surfing cronies.
2Stephanie in the Water
Stephanie Gilmore is an 8-time champion on the WSL circuit and arguably one of the greatest surfers of all time, but faced her biggest challenged after being attacked in front of her home in Australia.Stephanie in the Waterchronicles her battle the overcome the attack and get back to her winning ways on tour, a harrowing ordeal that was as much a psychological challenge as a physical one. The film has its greatest moments with photography of theincredibly graceful Gilmore in the water battling waves, using her tremendous physical gifts and athleticism to innovate the sport for women.
