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The Endless Summer, the beloved documentary about two California surfers who travel the world in search of the perfect wave, inspired an entire generation to take up surfing. It’s a hard act to follow, but director Bruce Brown (father of Step into Liquid director Dana Brown) came out of retirement 30 years later to make this surprisingly satisfying sequel to his cult classic. Like its predecessor, The Endless Summer II: The Journey Continues chronicles the adventures of two young California surfers -- short-board champ Pat O’Connell and long-boarder Robert "Wingnut" Weaver -- as they globe-hop from one incredible surf spot to another. Brown provides the same goofy, laid-back narration that made The Endless Summer so distinctive, and the sight gags and slapstick humor are just as juvenile. What’s impossible to recapture, of course, is the freshness and innocent charm of the low-tech 1966 original, but the new film makes up for that with awe-inspiring, state-of-the-art cinematography that puts the viewer inside the waves with the surfers. The guys travel to Costa Rica, France, South Africa, Fiji, Australia, and Indonesia, hooking up and hanging ten in each spectacular location with some of the world’s finest surfers, including Tom Curren, Gerry Lopez, Laird Hamilton, and Kelly Slater. They also revisit characters from The Endless Summer, such as Robert August, one of the travelers from the first film; Australian Nat Young; and South African maverick John Whitmore. One of the best sequences in The Endless Summer II comes when O’Connell and Wingnut make their way across the dunes to the beach on Cape St. Francis, where August and fellow traveler Mike Hynson discovered the "perfect" wave, only to find the once-deserted strip of coast now covered with condos and the legendary break undermined by shoreline development. But rather than dwell in nostalgia, the film just moves breezily along in search of the next jaw-dropping set of waves. The result is an upbeat, infectious celebration of surfing that will prove almost as thrilling to a new generation of surfers as the original was to their parents. Kryssa Schemmerling

All Movie Guide

Surfin' round the world is the focus of this documentary by Bruce Brown, the director famed for publicizing the sport in the 1960s. The documentary focuses upon two world-class California surfers: Patrick O'Connell, short board expert, and Robert "Wingnut" Weaver, long board surfer. The film follows them as they travel to Costa Rica, Hawaii, France, South Africa, Australia, Fiji, Bali, Java and Alaska in search of the perfect wave. Also included are twenty minutes of acrobatic surfing using singles, pairs, trios, and dogs. Sandra Brennan

Product Details

• UPC: 012233134926
• Source: MONTEREY VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Sound: stereo
• Time: 1:40:00
• Sales Rank: 15,612

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Endless Summer Collection

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