My last post about peak experiences and surfing and sex reminded me that inspiration is where you find it. And when you find it, you hold on and don’t let go. From BruceBrownFilms.com

Bruce Brown’s sixth film, “The Endless Summer,” is the archetypal tale of two California surfers, blond Mike Hynson and dark Robert August, hitting the road to follow summer and surf around the world…

 There are bigger, better, scarier and more exciting waves in lots of other surf flicks, but none pay off quite as satisfyingly as “Bruce’s Beauties.” There, in that sequence, was magic indeed. When the film was finished, Brown knew he had something good in the can.

The Endless Summer was a big success on the circuit — so big that [they] thought they might be able to attract a national distributor. [They] decided a test run in the U.S. heartland would be convincing, [s]o they booked a theater in Wichita, Kansas, and the film broke house records there for two solid weeks.

When that didn’t work, they took the film to Manhattan and booked it into the Kuyps Bay Theatre…

The Endless Summer played the Kuyps Bay for a year. Meanwhile, it was picked up by Cinema 5 for national (and then worldwide) distribution. The reaction of Kansans and New Yorkers was echoed by audiences around the country when the film finally went into distribution in 1966. It was similar to the reaction of the people crowding the beaches in Senegal and Ghana when Hynson and August paddled out and rode waves right in front of their villages — they were stoked! Brown, too, was stoked; his $50,000 investment brought him millions.

Bruce Brown’s “Endless Summer” was released the year I was born, and has been an inspiration to me; first as a surfer, then as a filmmaker. And in both instances, the wonderful Cape St. Francis sequence is the key.

I still remember the first time I saw Endless Summer, and what I remember most was Cape St Francis completely capturing my imagination. And more than forty years after the film was released, that sequence is the cinematic encapsulation of the “perfect day”. Not the biggest day, not the scariest day; but beautiful waves, warm water, and friends to share it with. When non-surfing friends come to visit us, I make them watch Endless Summer, and without fail, the Cape St. Francis segment gets them stoked to got out and surfing a try!

As a filmmaker, the story of Bruce Brown’s belief in the film, his belief he had made a surf film that non-surfers would enjoy and embrace is inspiring. He financed the film himself. He rented the movie theater as far away from the ocean as he could. When the sell-out crowds in Kansas weren’t enough to convince the doubters, he rented a theater in New York City, where the film played continuously for the next year.

As an independent filmmaker myself, how can I not be inspired when I read that story? How can I not be stoked?

 ”Endless Summer” captured surfing in away was captivating to both surfers and non-surfers alike. Somehow Brown, by focusing on the details and specifics of surfing, captured something that went beyond the details and specifics, and in that he created a film that anyone could relate to.

“Endless Summer” simultaneously about surfing and about something more. Yes, that Cape St. Francis sequence is about a perfect day of surfing; but it’s as much about a perfect day of skiing; or a perfect day with your children; or a perfect day with a lover. It’s about those rare, wonderful days we capture in our hearts and hold on to them forever.