| Columbia Pictures released Gidget in 1959, and by the early 60s, with the help of Frankie and Annette, Hollywood's version of surfing was being steadily fed to the masses. The whole thing was an embarrassment to the surfers. Meanwhile, these three surf filmmakers were doing an excellent job in bringing real beauty, excitement, culture and color of the sport to the big screen. Bruce Brown's early films demonstrated his dry wit and a casual rapport with the best surfers of the late 50s and early 60s. His sixth film, The Endless Summer, showed the rest of the world what the sport was really all about. Greg MacGillivray, along with his partner Jim Freeman, produced a series of films from the mid-60s to the early 70s that set the standard for technical excellence. Their last work, Five Summer Stories, is a period classic. As surfer designer and filmmaker, George Greenough has made tremendous contributions. He was the first to take a camera inside the tube, and his slow motion footage from within is as beautiful and hypnotic today as it was when first seen by a stunned surfing public in 1970. |
