- Robert August: It's goofy people havin' fun, you know, ridin' a wave, no rules. You know, people can relate to that and think, "Oh God, would that be fun, you know, if me and my friends could do that, you know." And a lot of people are doin' it these days, you know. They work like hell and save some money, get a couple of friends, and they go do that.
- Tim Dorsey: Bruce's was the real deal. Some of the Hollywood movies the theme basically was the chick in the bikini wringing her hands as the guy's risking his life at Waimea Bay, you know. Which was all basically bull shit and Bruce's deal was about, you know, four or five guys that travel around the world chasing the sun. It'll continue to be the greatest theme, probably, of any surf movie ever made.
- Hobie Alter: [about his dad, Blake August] He was everybody's hero. He was a good surfer for an older guy and his lifestyle, you know, he had this, you know, that balanced life thing, you know: work like hell so you can make some money so you can play like hell. And all those guys kind of gravitated towards that same lifestyle. You know, if you really pay some dues and get it together and make some money, you can have a lot of fun.
- Hobie Alter: All across America, you know, everybody in all the landlocked states saw this movie and it was as popular in those places as it was around the beaches. Cause it was so new, you know. So different from anything they'd ever thought of.
- Hobie Alter: That's the one thing that they hadn't seen. They hadn't seen a movie that is really a documentary that told you what real surfing was about. It wasn't Hollywood's version of surfing.
- Bruce Brown: When we checked on the tickets to South Africa, to get LA - Capetown - back to LA - was $50 more than going around the world via Capetown.
- R. Paul Allen: Fortunately, for this travel agent suggesting that to Bruce, and coming up with a better price even, that is what made truly, the remarkable movie, "The Endless Summer".
- Bruce Brown: So, that's how it happened - to save the 50 bucks. And then, sort of the summer thing came - came to my little pea brain, like, "Gosh, you know, it's summer in the Southern Hemisphere and it's winter here and, well, if you just went around in a circle long enough you could stay right in the middle of summer for the rest of your life." So, that turned out to be the, you know, the theme of the film.
- Greg MacGillivray: For the first time people in surfing felt that they had a film which told the whole story of surfing.
- Bruce Brown: I envisioned what happened happening. But, had it not happened, I wouldn't have been surprised either.
- Steve Pezman: No one chronicles surfing with quite the same spirit as the Brown family. I mean you can look at surfing any way you want. It's like the Congressional Record - you can find anything you want in it. So, I like what Bruce and Dana find in surfing, you know, to point out, to be interested in, to look and be kind of stoked on who we are as surfers.
- Tim Dorsey: It was the most remarkable film I'd ever seen in my life, because it was adventure. Here, people were living a lifestyle that was beyond the beyond.
- Greg MacGillivray: I'm just so in love with what Bruce had done with "The Endless Summer," that it affected all my thinking. You know, that it - the Beatles, for example, affected all of the music industry, kind of, subconsciously, in some ways. Bruce Brown was our Beatle. He kind of affected all of us in a way that was subconscious and very profound.
- Dale Velzy: The surfing was unbelievable, for the era. The boards were proving their self, the guys were proving their self. He named a beach after me, that's Velsyland. I was proud of that. Still proud of it.
- Dale Velzy: Creative, very creative. You know, in order to be a surfer you gotta live it, breathe it, and he did it, he surfed it, he filmed it, and he was one of us.
- Tim Dorsey: You realize how far ahead of his time he was. I mean, they're treasurers. He was recording a lifestyle that has changed dramatically. Now it's a sport. Now it's a profession. Now it's an industry. Where as at the time it was just a lifestyle.