Chasseurs de vagues

Bruce Brown's sequel, produced nearly 30 years later, is just as good as the first one. Once again, we join two surfers, professional surfer Pat O'Connell (who still surfs to this day) and his pal, longboard pro 'Wingnut' Weaver, as they travel around of the world to chase the summer, enjoying some intense waves, new cultures, and a whole lot of adventure.

Brown's movie shows just how much surfing has changed since the first Endless Summer. Whereas in the 1960s, Brown showed the sports immense popularity of the sport for Pacific Coast surfers. But, if you'll recall in the first Endless Summer, some of the places that Mike Hynson and Robert August traveled to, they had never seen a surfboard before.

Much has changed since then, as Brown reveals in the sequel. Right from the introduction, we see how crowded the Hawaiian shores are with every kind of surfer imaginable--long boarders, short boarders, males and females both surfing, children surfing, people surfing doubles or triples, people surfing with their dogs, body boarders, and everything else. The sport has come a long way since the first movie in 1966.

In the Endless Summer II, O'Connell and Weaver travel to southeast Asia, France, Australia, South Africa, Hawaii, and Coasta Rica. In fact, they were invited to visit Coasta Rica by the original Endless Summer surfer, board designer Robert August. In France, the pair get to surf with world surf champ Tom Curren. I think it was in the islands of Indonesia that they meet up with Laird Hamilton and Gerry Lopez (remember them from 'North Shore'?). This is where Brown gives some focus to what extreme lengths surfing has been taken to as they gang go 'towing' with Hamilton and Garcia into some of the biggest waves surfers have ever known. And in between that, they get to do a whole lot of other great stuff (particularly with the adventurous prankster, Nat Young of Australia).

The sequel is not quite authentic as the first one because of a few choreographed sequences. But, everything else is cool (despite the omnipresence of those Sunkist sponsors). The photography is great. The surfing is great. The music is great. If you love surfing, or at least watching surfers, this is still a great movie to watch. It's a lot of fun watching surfers living for what they like to do best: surf.

ENDLESS SUMMER II was written, directed and edited by surfer-filmmaker Bruce Brown with his son Dana 30 years after Bruce created the original.

ES2 has much the same "feel" as the original but the technical quality is on a higher level with a much bigger budget, bigger production staff and a studio and sponsors behind it from the get-go. Problem is NEW LINE CINEMA was in a state of transition when the ES2 was coming to market and it never got the promotion that any film needs. Although it was made in 1994, like many people, I never even knew it existed until I was surfing the internet in 2006.

This "sequel" is quite comparable to the original and if you enjoyed that, you will definitely want to see this.

The photography is absolutely spectacular – much of it actually better than the original - and many of the shots literally take the viewer right INSIDE and UNDER the waves.

Fantastic surfing, great action, beautiful scenery, magnificent waves, gorgeous color, good soundtrack – what a treat – like a 2 hour mini-vacation.

The original seems more authentic but this film is excellent as well.

Pulling off all the necessary logistics and photographing this round-the-world adventure and including some of the best surfers on Earth was a major achievement and an entertaining one at that.

There's a little too much real-life risk-taking the film - much of it OUT of the water "playing" with lions and clowning around at the top of a precipice near a waterfall.

Nevertheless, the film makes a great armchair adventure for those of us who no longer surf. It also serves as a beautiful inspiration to those who do enjoy surfing or might want to try it. Just don't be as daring as these guys. They've been at it a long time and even with that, they come up with some nasty wounds along the way.

Interesting too that one featured champion surfer is smart enough to wear a helmet surfing the big waves over coral reefs. I think there's a good lesson in that.

This movie is one of the best surfing movies that I have seen. The scenery is awesome. Not to mention the lives and personalities of the surfers in it.

i carnt say much more than... its the best surf/movie ever! and each time i watch it, it just gets better no other surf movie can beat it! and if there is.. then i wanna see it!

This is another shaggy, low-key Bruce Brown surf docu. Endless Summer 2 has a tone very much in keeping with the chill surf culture, giving you some interesting history and wrapping it all together with some well- choreographed surfing scenes. It is endlessly enjoyable.

I remember this picture screening at a discount second-run house, and walking into the run-down downtown theatre simply to get out of the rain and kill some time before meeting some friends. Little did I know when I sat down that, by the end of this movie, I would totally flip for the sport and that this movie would be the impetus to get me surfing too.

Endless Summer 2 is just a slight, breezy little picture, a DIY travelogue with great scenery, big waves and daring surfers, Most of all, it just made surfing look like it would be a whole lot of fun - like anyone could do it. And I am here to tell you, it really is fun... and you really CAN do it.

There's plenty of other pictures that have dramatized the sport - Blue Crush, Point Break, In God's Hands, Chasing Mavericks etc - but this film is just a simple, pleasant 90 minutes that has a reverence for the sport, the power of nature and those who discover the world while in search of the next big pipeline.

Be warned: this movie will encourage any landlocked viewer to ditch work and catch a wave, too.