And the person who thrust it into the mainstream was Bruce Brown, the Californian surfer, filmmaker and artist who gave the world The Endless Summer.
The documentary, released in 1966, followed two surfers on an epic adventure, chasing one summer throughout the globe in pursuit of the perfect wave.
It took them across the United States, to Polynesia, Africa, and even down under, visiting New Zealand’s treasured left-hand point breaks at Ahipara and Raglan.
The Endless Summer introduced the mainstream to surfing, travel to many emerging surfers, and created a surf culture that endures today.
Brown passed away this week at his Santa Barbara, California home. He was 80.
Brown, who took up surfing at the age of 10 in the early 1950s, made five other documentaries about the sport before The Endless Summer, including Slippery When Wet (1958) and Barefoot Adventure (1960).
“Along with the music of the Beach Boys, Brown took surfing from a quirky hobby to a fundamental part of American culture,” Andrew Dalton of Associated Press wrote in an obituary this week.
“Surfers had largely been portrayed as beach blanket buffoons in the mindless party movies of the early 1960s.
“Then came Brown and The Endless Summer with his beautiful, soulful story of surfers on a quest for fulfilment — an image that became emblazoned on the cultural psyche.”
Legendary big-wave surfer Greg Noll, a friend of Brown’s since they were young and a fellow filmmaker, said the film’s timing was “perfect”.
People were interested in surfing and Brown took it to a new level, Noll told AP.
Some surfers blamed Brown’s film for turning their serene spots into forever-crowded hotspots.
“A lot of people try to make me feel guilty about that,” Brown said in a 2004 interview. “And while I’m sure Endless Summer hurried it up, the sport was growing by leaps and bounds simply because it is so much fun. No one could have stopped it.”
Either way, the film inspired many surfers to leave their home breaks, drop out of their sedentary lives and seek isolated places with bigger waves.
“The Endless Summer has had an extremely strong impact on surfing,” said New York-born writer Peter Dixon, a contemporary of Brown’s who grew up in the Californian surf scene at Malibu and now resides in Gisborne with his wife Sarah.
“It motivated people to go surfing, and on adventures. People were awestruck by those first surf films, the big waves, but Bruce’s films also had humour and humanity.
“Like what Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s film The Silent World did for diving, Bruce Brown did for surfing and that influence has never stopped.”
Brown’s surf films were distinguishable from others for their unique narrative style.
“He was an extremely respected filmmaker, and had genuine humour,” Dixon said. “This humour carried the story. He would always find something funny in the surfing but didn’t put people down.”
Anybody who has seen The Endless Summer will know the bone-dry comments.
Describing a lengthy wave at Raglan, Brown remarks: “This is about the middle part of the ride. Later in the day, here is some more of the middle part of the ride. Once the novelty of the long ride wears off it gets kind of boring and you start talking to yourself, reciting poetry, yodelling, anything to keep your mind occupied. This is the shorebreak. It only lasts for about 15 minutes.”
Brown also adopted “four-walling”, where filmmakers would rent out theatres to promote their films.
“These were known by surfers as ‘a happening’,” Dixon said.
After being turned down by Hollywood to distribute his film, Brown rented the Kips Bay Theatre in New York to prove his film had an audience.
He had wanted to rent the theatre for a couple of weeks but ended up renting it for a year after The Endless Summer sold out most weekends.
It was in limited release in 1964 and released worldwide in 1966, quickly becoming an unlikely success, grossing $5 million domestically and over $20m worldwide.
“The beautiful photography he brought home almost makes you wonder if Hollywood hasn’t been trying too hard,” Roger Ebert said in his 1967 review of the film in The Chicago Sun-Times.
Dixon wrote one of the first surfing books — The Complete Book of Surfing, released in 1965 — the year before The Endless Summer was released nationally.
The book also rode the wave of surfing popularity, selling over 300,000 copies before the decade’s end.
The accomplished writer is the author of four other surfing books, as well as many in other genres, and film and TV scripts, including the series that instilled dolphins in every child’s imagination, Flipper.
Dixon did not know Brown personally although they were both making their marks in their respective fields at the time.
“We were sort of competitors,” Dixon said. “I was more into the literary side while he was a fine artist, filmmaker and a proven surfer, but our paths never crossed.
“When I came out with my first book, Bruce came out with the Endless Summer. Both of those changed our lives.”
