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.
