We know that there are many that have been mentioned many times, but when it comes to good surfing films and books, there are always unmissable classics that must be repeated.
We start with a classic surfing film, a real gem that you can’t miss if you are a true fan of surfing, or if you are just starting your first steps on this exciting path of waves.
- The Endless Summer (1966)
We couldn’t start with any other. Bruce Brown’s iconic docu takes us on a trip around the world in search of the best waves. Brown tells the story of his journey in a very real, witty and funny way, revealing the essence of surfing: pure adventure, joy and good company.
- Surfwise (2007)
Another fascinating documentary! An unconventional family: couple + 9 children living on the roads, searching for the best surfing as a philosophy of life.
It will undoubtedly fill you with questions and issues about this alternative lifestyle, putting physical and mental health first and giving more importance to the emotions of living this passion than to leading a conventional life as we are used to.
Definitely a surf film for the cinema forum!
- Five Summer Stories (1972)
This is a good recipe: mix surf icons, an impeccable soundtrack and a hint of political controversy, and what do you get? Another must-see surf film.
Produced by Jim Freeman and Greg MacGillivray, caring with great detail the quality and magic of each wave.
- Soul Surfer (2011)
If you want to cry a little and go on an emotional rollercoaster, this could be the surf film for you. Based on true events, it tells the story of the famous Bethany Hamilton, who was attacked by a shark and, despite losing an arm, manages to overcome it and continue surfing and even win multiple championships. A real gem: a strong, true and undoubtedly inspiring story.
- Barbarian Days | Books
Barbarian Days tells the memoirs of William Finnegan, a bookish boy and then an excessively adventurous young man, who went on to become a distinguished writer and war reporter.
Barbarian Days describes surfing through the author’s honest, transparent and almost raw eyes. For Finnegan, surfing is not a sport, but something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, a demanding career, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life.
Raised in California and Hawaii, Finnegan began surfing as a child. He has chased waves all over the world, roaming for years in the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa. In Barbarian Days Finnegan takes us into unfamiliar worlds, sharing stories of life in an all-white gang in a tough Honolulu school, even when his closest friend was a Hawaiian surfer. He shows us a world turned upside down for both children and adults by the social upheaval of the 1960s. He details the ins and outs of famous waves and his own learning of them. Giant waves at Honolua on Maui, backpacking trips full of reef maps across Polynesia. Campsites on an uninhabited Fijian island, where he discovers one of the best waves in the world; he discovers the quaint simplicity of a Samoan fishing village, dissects the sexual politics of Tongan interactions with Americans and Japanese, navigates Indonesia’s black market while nearly succumbing to malaria. As Finnegan’s travels take him further afield, he becomes an unlikely anthropologist. All the while he surfs, taking readers with him on rides of heartbreaking and unprecedented lucidity.
Barbarian Days is an old-school adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, a literary road trip, and an extraordinary exploration of the gradual mastery of a demanding and little-understood art.
Maybe is not a surf film, but it should be!
