There are tons of great events that I wish I could go to, but very rarely do because I locate myself off in distant tropical locations that are too far to travel from to make these said occasions.
I am the opposite of former world surfing champion Peter “PT” Townend. PT shows up at every event on the planet. It’s sort of an unsaid thing that an event these days is not “official” unless PT is there.
But, low and behold, I was able to attend a screening of “The Birth of the Endless Summer” the other night at the Rivian Theater in Laguna Beach. It was an amazing evening. When I got the information for it, I had no idea the Rivian Theater was actually the old South Coast Theater in the center of downtown Laguna Beach.
I knew this theater very well, it was the “go to” movie place when I was younger and living in South Orange County. I saw zillions of great movies there. Also spent many romantic date nights while in high school. Not to mention all the great midnight concerts by the great Honk band.
So, I was stoked to go back to a fav spot and see how it had held up.
Well, it has more than held up. The new Rivian version is fantastic. It’s set up to show movies, but also is a beautiful meeting hall for all sorts of events and presentations. Very cool place. Just being in there kinda made me feel like I was at something special.
The film, “Birth of the Endless Summer,” is a documentary of legendary surf dude Dick Metz and his epic trek around the world, in particular Africa, where he discovered never-before-seen surf spots and was very involved in the birth of surfing and the manufacture of surfboards in that part of the world. His journey involved freighters, hitchhiking and about any means of transportation available that was not an airplane or rental car.
This all took place in the 1950s and very early 1960s. When he was back to California, he laid the story of his adventures on his pal and surf film producer Bruce Brown. Bruce loved the whole thing, and the concept of the “Endless Summer” was born. Chasing the “perfect wave” around the world in a fashion that it could always be summer where you were.
Dick had found a wave in Africa that was about as perfect as you could imagine. The highlight of Bruce’s movie was finding that wave. The “Endless Summer” became a huge hit movie. It came out in the summer of 1964.
I knew the basic story of the Dick Metz travels through Tahiti and Africa. I have known him since the summer of 1963 when he owned the Hobie Shop in Hawaii, so I have heard him tell a lot of it. Getting stuck in some remote native village for 36 days while hitching rides. He got there and it was that long until the next car came by. He had to lay down in the road to make sure it would stop and give him a ride. Those kinds of adventures. But the movie tells tons of tales I had never heard before. Really interesting and historically epic stuff.
The movie was not the entire focus of the night though. There was also a cool short film on the development of both HOBIE surfboards and the Surfing Heritage and Cultural Center. Both of which Dick has been a major part of.
There are a whole lot of memories in all of this for me. I was in the “Endless Summer” movie and on the premier tour down the East Coast in 1964. I also worked for Hobie for 10 years back then and have been involved with the company and family on and off my entire life. So, there were some real warm and fuzzy moments during that night that I sincerely enjoyed.
There were also really a lot of people who I recognized and was stoked to see. The bummer was even though I knew I knew them, my old brain could not put a name to the face. This is part of my age group.
As my doctor told me, “Don’t worry, people your age forget stuff.”
One highlight of the evening was when a guy came up and somebody said, “Hey, do you remember … (I don’t want to say his name)? My hearing is not what it used to be and I thought the guy said the name “Juan.” (I will divulge the first name only). And of course I did remember him, he was a great pal back in the ’60s. And I had some really cool stories about him, which I happily told to the group of people standing with us.
The whole time, my old pal “Juan” wasn’t saying much. Finally, when I finished and we all kinda moved on, the guy who had originally asked me if I knew “Juan” asked me. “So, what was all that stuff you were telling about “Don?” Uh Oh. “Don?” Turns out it wasn’t the guy I knew and thought it was all along. Could have been, he kinda looked like him. But I had not seen him in like 55 years. Oops.
Other than that one really embarrassing thing, it was a fantastic night.