Corky Carroll: ‘Surf Safari,’ ‘Endless Summer’ — those were the good old days of surf films

There was a time when going to see a surf movie was an “event.” They were filmed in 16 mm and pieced together by the guy who was making them.

Then he would rent a high school auditorium, or some other sort of hall, sell tickets, stick up a screen, and show up with a projector, a home tape recorder with a bootlegged soundtrack he put together, and a microphone to narrate the movie himself.

Everybody would show up and it was as much a social evening as it was a movie screening.

I loved going to the surf movies. The next day I would always be out in the water early to see if I could practice some of the moves I had seen the guys in the movie do. The Dewey Weber cutback, the Phil Edwards head bobble, the Mike Doyle nose tweak, the Mickey Munoz “El Mysterioso,” the Mickey Dora nose wiggle, on and on.

For some strange reason it seemed like every morning after a surf movie the surf would be horrible — I have no idea why this was, but it just was.

I will never forget my first surf movie — 1958, the movie was “Surf Safari” by John Severson.

The DeCheverous brothers’ mom, Ruth, packed us up in her station wagon and drove us to Hollywood where the film was playing in a tiny art theater, I think it was the Encore. I was in surf gremmie heaven.

The highlight of the movie, and something that has stuck with me since, was when the big wave sequence came on.

John’s narration went like, “On December 15th the biggest swell to hit the Hawaiian Islands in over 50 years came marching out of the North Pacific … and only a handful were there to meet the challenge.” At that moment, the theme to “Peter Gunn” by Henry Mancini came blaring out of the loudspeakers and these guys were taking off on waves so big that I was scared just watching from the safety of my seat. Epic stuff, breathtaking.

The golden years of surf movies lasted until the early 1970s, pretty much the same as the golden years of California surfing. There were some classics in that time.

Severson came back after “Surf Safari,” the next year, with “Surf Fever.” He put together what he thought was going to be a program to go along with the movie, but it actually became the first issue of Surfer magazine. Of course, Surfer became the bible of surfing and is still on the stands today, even though John is riding waves with the angels.

His next release was titled “Big Wednesday,” and it became the idea for the big Hollywood version staring Jan-Michael Vincent, Gary Busey and Billy Katt. His last, and best, surf film was “Pacific Vibrations,” which ran into a snag over the use of the song “Wooden Ships,” by Crosby, Stills and Nash. The era of bootleg soundtracks was over. It was one of the best surf movies ever, though.

There were also some really fun releases from Grant Rohloff, Dale Davis, Greg Noll, Gordie Duane, Hal Jepsen, Jamie Budge and Walt Phillips. Probably the best known were Severson, Bruce Brown, Bud Brown and later Greg MacGillivray and Jim Freeman (MacGillivray/Freeman Films).

Bruce Brown hit the big time with his epic “Endless Summer,” the most well-known and successful of the lot. Bud Brown had better footage than Bruce, but Bruce could steal a crowd with his amazingly smooth narration. It wasn’t until Bud’s last film in the early 1970s, “Going Surfing,” that he got some really good people to narrate.

I think most surfers of that era would agree, though, that the greatest surf film ever made, just for sheer being good, would be the Laguna Beach-based MacGillivray/Freeman classic “Five Summer Stories.” This included the historic original soundtrack done by the Honk band, and it was the first time that the surfers in the film actually got paid. We were all in shock, happy shock.

MacGillivray has gone on to win numerous awards and acclaim for his IMAX releases, including “Everest” and “The Living Sea.” Go to MacGillivrayFreeman.com to see the long list of hits.

Yes, there were some really good films to come after this, and I probably should do a story on the “second phase” soon. But the fact is that there was nothing really like going to Newport Harbor High School or Laguna High School or Pier Avenue or the Santa Monica Civic to see the latest surf film. If you survived the bottle cap flipping it was always a great night.

Ask the expert

Q. I was watching the live feed of the World Championship Tour event at Bells Beach in Australia this past week. It was obvious that the surfer who got lucky and got the best waves would win every time. It was almost like it didn’t matter which one was better because the higher scores were determined by the quality of the wave more than the skill level. Will there ever be a time in surfing where it is more equal and skill determines the winner and not who got the better waves?

Tim Freeman, Laguna Beach

A. Yeah, I was watching that event too and saw the exact same thing.

There are two ways to look at this question. One is that part of the skill of surfing is knowing how to position yourself to get the best waves, and this, trust me, is an art in itself.  Knowing the frequency of the best sets and where they will line up takes knowledge, plus you have to factor in what the tide is doing, the wind and if the swell is on the rise or decline.  That is a skill. On the other hand, skill or no skill, knowledge or no knowledge, a lot of the time it still comes down to a bit of luck.

And the solution to the problem would be using wave pools for competition. Everybody gets exactly the same wave, no luck involved. Yes, this eliminates the factor of positioning and ocean knowledge, but it evens the playing field. There are pros and cons on this subject and I am sure in the coming years we are going to see a lot of this come to light. For now it is what it is and always has been.

The fact is that if you win consistently you have the skills and talent. Yes, any person that is good enough to be on the tour can “luck out” and win an event, but the ones that win over and over rise above the luck level.