Birth of the Endless Summer

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We invite you to join Wavescape, in collaboration with Bokeh Creative Studios in Sea Point, for a special screening of Birth of the Endless Summer, which chronicles the legendary story of how Cape St Francis was revealed to the world by Californian filmmaker Bruce Brown.

It has been 58 years since The Endless Summer, which came to be the most watched documentary in human history, premiered to tumultuous applause by curious onlookers at Cape Town’s Labia Theatre in 1965. The evening was hosted by surfing pioneer John Whitmore, or The Oom, who had played a pivotal role in producing the film. He later became known as the founder of the South African surf industry, and the person who brought Morey Boogie boards and Hobie Cat to South African shores.

In the film, through archived footage and dog-eared photographs, Emmy nominated director Richard Yelland goes back to where it all started. Grizzled Californian surf bum Dick Metz vagabonded the globe from 1958 to 1961. He lands up in Cape Town around 1960, and meets Whitmore by “happenstance”. This moment, when Metz picks up a decrepit surfboard washed up on the rocks in Sea Point followed by a gruff greeting with the owner (and maker) of the board, changed the global surf story forever.

In 2019, a nostalgic Dick, at the age of 90, returns to meet local surfers and visit places he shared with the Oom and his family. He goes to St Francis, which looks a little different after nearly six decades, where he surfed and told Bruce Brown about the riches of the surf in the area. The film expands on how vital the South African leg of the Endless Summer journey was, featuring Californians Robert August and Mike Hynson with Bruce Brown. The sequence of the discovery of St Francis is a highlight, notwithstanding some inside information about how Brown took certain liberties with the way the fabled waves of Bruces Beauties were 'discovered'.

Trailer

https://vimeo.com/758990105/7198c9cb4e

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