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[WAVE CRASHING]
YOUNG BRUCE: ...and already they'd been into some good waves.
They'd be into some more good waves the next morning,
but they couldn't help but...
[PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
[CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY]
[MUSIC CONTINUES]
DANA: He was a barefoot adventurer.
An icon in surfing
and motorcycling.
Married the love of this life,
and together, they helped create dreams...
for millions.
He was one of a kind...
but friends, too many.
He was a straight shooter and a rough neck poet.
His name was Bruce Brown.
To some, a legend...
But for me,
he was simply...
Dad.
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
MAN 1: Your dad's kind of an institution. He's, uh...
you know, created lifetime memories.
Not only for people your age and mine, but,
harking back to the days of old.
MAN 2: At one time, there was just basically these guys
that were trying to make some money,
you know, being surfers.
INTERVIEWER: Bruce, how do you feel about this question?
I think a lot of impression people have gotten about surfers
that isn't really true is from Hollywood movies
which are based, like most Hollywood movies on,
not on fact, but on fabrication.
MAN 3: Nobody was doing documentaries like that. I mean, Bruce really
opened up the door for
a flood of filmmakers to copy what he did.
MAN 4: I don't think seriously I'll be doing today what I'm doing today
without seeing that movie.
I mean, I love motorcycles, but I really got my head into it
and saw so many different genres, and...
You know, it showed the heart and soul of motorcycle racers.
MAN 5: The big story about all of them is
that they were the foundation of the sport of surfing
that's grown into this gigantic
mega-million dollar industry now.
[PEOPLE CHEERING]
MAN 6: I think that whole crew, it's...
I don't think you'll ever see a group of
men like that again.
You know, they fished, they dove, they surfed,
they rode motorcycles, they built things, they designed things,
they changed sports.
They, you know, they did a lot
to that action sports industry that we grew up with,
and now, you know, I'm sure a lot of the young kids don't even recognize
what those guys did.
MAN 7: It's just...
Just an amazing group of people. I mean, just...
No egos, just let's have a good time.
I feel like it was just a group of people
that were trying to get the most out of life, you know.
[MUSIC CONTINUES]
DANA: My dad and his friends are called pioneers of a lifestyle.
A word he truly hated.
He was about life, and not about legend.
INTERVIEWER: So, how... How does that happen?
How do you become...
Like, how does somebody turn into some legend?
Just get old.
You get old enough, you may become a legend.
DANA: Despite downplaying it, Dad's impact on pop culture is undeniable.
Just theEndless Summer image alone seems to be everywhere.
It's a towel rack.
DANA: His movies still sell,
and the world over, his work is renowned.
BRUCE: Or something like that.. I think it's a towel rack.
It's a little bit embarrassing, I'd say.
WOMAN: Why embarrassing?
I don't know, you know, it's just...
embarrassing.
WOMAN: I feel like you should be proud.
Well, you know... I'm, you know, grateful of course, but,
I think I get too much credit.
-MAN: I agree. -[LAUGHS]
No, totally kidding.
It's funny, 'cause when you're a kid,
you know, your parents are like...
furniture. They came with the house.
I feel like your dad grew up but never grew up.
There was like this 12-year-old kid
stuck in a... in a 70-year-old man, like...
He's always amazed me, because
all of a sudden, you know, we couldn't even...
I couldn't even get a date or anything,
and he shows up with this beautiful woman,
that ended up foolishly marrying him, and that's your mother.
[LAUGHTER]
If Bruce was the loud mouth, obnoxious, rambunctious,
you know, full of everything, knew it all,
your mom was just chilling. Goes, "Yeah, yeah, he's full of it."
She was just super chill.
I told her one day. I said, "Pat, you really screwed my life over."
She said, "Why, what's wrong?" I said, "Well,
"you've become a role model for every girl I meet,
"and none of them come up to your standards."
GRUBBY: And I'm going, "How did he pull this one off?
"He's just a broke little nothing screw up."
[LAUGHTER]
That's what I am still wondering 40 years.
That was... How'd he do this anyway?
He's always... He's always been that way.
DANA: Dad's wife, my mom,
Patricia Lee Hunter Brown, passed away in 2006.
Dad was alone in their house.
His three kids visited a lot,
as did the eight grandkids,
and friends, and on occasion,
a film crew.
Of my wife and I...
this is one of my favorite pictures. Makes me look tall, that's why.
Anyway, it's one of my favorite photos.
I didn't wanna show it too much, or I'll start crying.
[SNIFFLES]
[SHUTTERS OPENING]
This is a, uh... It's actually a '93
Subaru Impreza.
My wife and I, we rallied I think for...
Um...
You know, probably five years, and...
they put your blood type on there in case you get hurt.
So they know what you are.
The first rally we ran, my wife wasn't a motorsports person at all.
So I talked her into doing the co-driver, and
I couldn't tell, you know, if she was liking it or not.
When it's over with, I went, "Oh...
"Do you wanna do this again?" She goes,
"Well, first I have to go get a sport bra."
[LAUGHTER]
And most people trailer their race cars to the rally,
and we just drove it on the street. [CHUCKLES]
My wife, who was a great navigator,
she'd always, you know...
You run these stages and she'd go,
"Don't forget, we gotta drive this car home."
It's got those big giant lights,
'cause some of those days are at night.
And... But...
And then, after she passed away, I was just like nah.
Didn't wanna do it anymore.
DANA: After Mom passed, Dad didn't leave his ranch much.
So my brother, sister and I decided to take him on a trip,
and I'd make a film of the odyssey.
He reluctantly agreed, as long as he could bring his dog, Rusty.
Rusty's a good dog, he's just a little...
off.
[RUSTY BARKING]
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
So we piled into the motorhome,
my brother Wade, consummate craftsman and musician,
sister Nancy, cowgirl, mama bear, and force of nature.
Cameraman extraordinaire Steve Matzinger,
Dad's grandson, camera assistant John Tipich,
first time sound man, producer Chris Husband
and over qualified driver, Syd Cole.
Off we went, as Dad said, to visit his heroes.
The trip began in February 2012,
Dad was 75.
[CAMERA REEL ROLLING]
Bruce Brown was born in Oakland in 1937,
moved to Long Beach, California in 1945.
Soon after the move, he borrowed a neighbor's paddle board
and caught his first wave.
Ran into the house, "Mom! Mom! You won't believe what I did!"
My mom was kinda, "Eh..." you know, "Big deal."
Dad was hooked and spent his high school years trying to surf all the time.
He made friends up and down the California coast,
with a small but enthusiastic group of young surfers.
who shared his same passion.
Many of these friendships would shape surfing
and be bonds that would last forever.
At the top of that list was Hobie Alter.
Hobie wasn't just one of Dad's oldest friends,
but at one time he was an in-law.
Married to my mom's sister, Nancy.
He was Uncle Hobie.
Hobie's kids were literally cousins to us,
good friends.
His youngest son Jeff, and my brother Wade are best friends.
Despite Hobie having terminal cancer,
he welcomed us and the cameras to reminisce.
Well... as I was saying,
we're travelling around with the family and meeting all my heroes,
and you're top of the list.
Hobie was that fantastic combination of
athlete businessman...
and, you know, future seer if you want to go that far.
He really knew where this was gonna end up.
He'd just get something on his mind and, you know, wanted to take it...
It wasn't about money. It wasn't like taking it to sell it.
It was more about taking it to build it, then we'll see if it sells.
Whatever he's get into, he would like just...
He'd go,
"Oh, there's gotta be a better way to do that."
Hobie always found a better way,
from making his surfboards to pioneering the foam blank with Gordan "Grubby" Clark.
It was that foam that revolutionized the surf industry.
At the time when they did it, everybody thought, "What a joke!
"That stuff's never gonna work."
HOBIE: We were starting to make foam boards.
At that time it was just magic that you could have a board
-that's resin wood, it was hard... -BRUCE: Yeah. Right.
YOUNG BRUCE: Surfing has gone though a radical change.
It's a far cry from the solid red wood planks
to the modern lightweight polyurethane foam and fiber glass surfboard of today.
DANA: Hobie not only revolutionized surfing,
he also championed the new sport of skateboarding.
YOUNG BRUCE: Famous surfboard manufacturer Hobie Alter
designed the Hobie skateboard and organized a team to demonstrate.
Actually what he used to say a lot was, "Lookie here."
And when he said, "Lookie here,"you knew that something was going on in there.
You know, that he's gonna make something better,
or invent something, or do something.
DANA: And boy, did he invent stuff.
He made catamarans, sailboats, powerboats,
fishing floats, radio controlled gliders,
and a 60 foot luxury catamaran.
I guess you sit out there with nothing to do and you start thinking,
"I can make one better than that," and...
So I wanted to make a model of it.
So I made a model, and that would get it out of my system, and I...
kinda liked the model and thought maybe would really like a real one.
So two and a half years later, and
a couple of bucks, um...
here we are.
BRUCE: None of us were worth shit at building stuff,
so we'd always go to Hobie's, you know, and he'd go,
"Oh, here. Let me do this and that."
DANA: Hobie often fixed Dad's toys,
and together, they played a lot.
Surfing, going out to the desert to race motorcycles,
trips to Baja, often with their families together.
Hobie Alter was one of a kind.
JEFF: He was a...
A really...
good, caring guy that
wasn't really in any kind of controversy.
The friends that were around him were kind of into what he was building,
so a lot of his whole life was about, sort of,
what was going on there, and the friends kind of were
part of his creations in many cases.
You invented so many things, so I'm wondering
now, going through all this cancer treatment,
have you invented any medical things?
-No. [LAUGHS] -No? Oh, Jesus.
-You're slipping. -I don't wanna get into that stuff.
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATION]
[MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING]
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATION CONTINUES]
DANA: Our visit was a few short hours,
and when these two lions in winter said goodbye,
it would be the last time.
-Okay, Jeffery. -WOMAN: Okay.
Safe trip home.
I hope so.
WOMAN: You guys might hit some traffic.
[WOMAN ANNOUNCING OVER PA]
DANA: Our trip with Dad wasn't just in the motorhome.
We also took him by jet to the Hawaiian Islands.
For Dad, Hawaii was a special place.
He'd been there countless times.
The first time was in 1956, after graduating high school.
You see, he forged a plan to get to the islands by joining the Navy.
All he had to do was sign up to the Submarine Corps,
go to Connecticut, finish first in his class at Sub School,
and then he'd get to pick the port he was stationed.
Incredibly, he did just that.
When the Admiral presented him with the option to serve on the first US Nuclear Sub,
Dad turned it down for a sub in Dry Dock in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
This was his dream.
He served two years,
much of it on a sub spending months at sea.
But he also spent months in Hawaii,
surfing and on the beach with his 8mm camera.
After two years, he came back to San Clemente, California,
and got an offer to do a surf film.
Dale Vulzi, surf shop owner, put up the money.
He went back to Hawaii, and it was there,
filming his first movie, he would reconnect with my mother,
who was going to the University of Hawaii.
They'd meet, and it became a love story for the ages.
Their first date was in December of 1958.
They got married in June of 1959,
and by December of 1959, they had a child...
me.
I remember sitting in their room, they were both on the couch,
smooching and watching TV,
and I'm in there watching TV with them, you know...
It was just like a family affair.
I mean, from... from what I got to see,
they had the perfect partnership and relationship,
'cause Bruce always knew everything was gonna be okay at home.
DANA: Dad was 22 and had a family to support,
so he threw himself into filmmaking.
YOUNG BRUCE: The dream for most Californian surfers was go to the islands to surf.
North Shore of the island of Oahu was the ultimate place.
DANA: Every year, he would film for four months,
edit for four months, and then show the finished film for four months.
Then start all over again.
Surf Crazy, Barefoot Adventure,
Surfing Hollow Days,
Water-Logged.
PAT: That was pretty adventurous. I mean,
people were living in vans and vacant lots.
It was a frontier like for California surfers.
DANA: They were surfers and lived pretty barebones,
but Dad had a wife and a kid,
so making a living was important,
and it would turn out, a family affair.
And by the way, that's how they work, Bruce and Pat.
Pat would run the projector, Bruce would narrate.
YOUNG BRUCE: These waves have a tremendous amount of power.
When you get wiped out and held under the white water,
you sometimes stay down, two... three weeks.
Now understand, he's in the dark, up there on stage,
narrating this movie, live.
No script...
It's pure entertainment.
It was Kailua, in 1962,
and it was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen.
Bruce was funny.
What I was seeing was larger than life, all over the place.
YOUNG BRUCE: When it's big at sunset, you see surfers paddling madly
for the horizon, trying to get over the advancing wave.
Forty pound boards tossed around like match sticks.
Ricky Grigg body surfing Waimea.
Joey Cabell...
This is Bruce Brown, thank you for watching.
I hope you enjoyed my film.
JACK: I didn't want the evening to end.
I was mesmerized by the sky.
And as I went home that night,
I couldn't help but think,
what an incredible experience I'd had.
And I figured out later, many years later,
what it was and that was... Here was someone who was actually,
really, really in love with what he was doing.
But he enjoyed more than anything, of sharing the stoke of surfing.
Early on, usually, you know...
five or six or more guys,
rent a home.
Back then, almost nothing was in advance.
Half the houses were vacant.
So you just go knock on the door and go,
"This place for rent? Oh, that one down there."
Fifty bucks, sixty bucks.
MAN: So that's what you do when you first got off the plane?
-You'd come out here, and knock on doors... -Yeah.
Yep. Stop by a goodwill,
and get, you know, mattress,
and pots and pans and stuff.
And then, you know, buy a $50 car
and head out here.
But you know, you could come over here with $100 and
stay for a month.
And then, the North Shore was like paradise.
[PLEASANT MUSIC PLAYING]
DANA: Today, the North Shore has become
the epicenter of the surfing world.
Its famous stretch of coastline known as the Seven Mile Miracle,
is home to some of the best waves on the planet.
Professional surfers from across the globe
come here every winter, to prove their worth
amongst these world class waves.
BRUCE: Yeah, back in the late '50s, early '60s,
this was like a ghost town.
Last time I was here, was '92 or something.
And it's even changed a lot since then.
I mean, who would have thought you'd have to
have a hard time find a parking place
on Kamehameha Highway on the North Shore.
[LAUGHING]
It's amazing.
DANA: One thing that hasn't changed is the waves.
Many of these breaks have the same names they had when Dad was here.
In fact, he named a few.
North Shore resident and old friend, Mike Slattery,
took us to one of those breaks, Velzyland.
YOUNG BRUCE: Once the weather cleared up,
a couple of surfers got together,
heading out toward Velzyland, a place they discovered earlier.
Here's friendly surfer Kemp Aaberg,
friendly surfer Dewey Weber.
Think they've got a signed-on agreement
that some competition between the two is in order.
So that view that you're talking about,
it's kind of where the...
Right about where the people are standing on the beach just down here...
BRUCE: And Dewey Weber takes off on the first wave at Velzyland.
Uh, well, it was like nobody surfed this place before.
So, you know, we got pictures of it...
You know, on a movie like in '58 or something.
And, you know, I just named it Velzyland because
Velzy sponsored my first movie.
And for some reason, Velzyland stuck.
And Pipeline, so.
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
DANA: That's right. Dad named Pipeline.
Pipeline, and no matter where you go in the world,
that is the event.
That's the one that you want to come to. That's where you want to be.
DANA: This is the Super Bowl.
This is the wave that launched a million dreams.
[UPBEAT MUSIC CONTINUES]
BRUCE: There's hardly any waves that go on a route.
-I think I saw two... -[ALL LAUGHING]
...in three days.
DANA: Dad was there at the beginning.
In the winter of 1961, he filmed Phil Edwards,
ride a wave considered unrideable.
DANA: You guys must have looked at it.
BRUCE: Oh, yeah. Looked at it all the time.
You know, 'cause like, you could die.
[WAVES THUNDERING]
DANA: Now you take a long look before you think about going out
and riding a wave that looked like that,
anywhere.
Take into consideration what was on the bottom,
and that it had never been done before.
Took a lot of nerve and lot of skill.
Phil decided to paddle out and take a closer look at one of these waves.
He paddled out, turned around,
and took off on the first wave that came through.
Watch this phenomenal ride. Phil Edwards gets the Pipeline in Hawaii.
[POP MUSIC PLAYING]
BRUCE: [CLEARS THROAT] Phil went out, caught one wave,
came in, said, "That's enough."
[all laughing]
Like what often happens with a new spot,
when one person tries it, other surfers will go out and also try it.
Dave Willingham paddled out the Pipeline later in the afternoon...
Mike Hynson from La Jolla taking off,
couldn't believe his eyes on this wave when he looked down.
Not long after, yeah, whole bunch of guys come in
and going over the falls.
And they were caught in a horrible wave, like you can imagine.
Nobody got hurt. It was kinda like, "Oh, okay, well..."
DANA: And for generations, they followed,
coming to test themselves at Pipeline.
Some on boards, others, with cameras.
Like Don King, arguably the most sought-after
and successful water cinematographer in the world,
who worked with Dad early in his career on The Endless Summer 2.
Yeah, just seeing you again is kind of reminding me of
when we were filming Endless Summer,
and at the time, you know,
you were a legend to me, because when I was growing up,
your films were on the big screen then.
As a family, we we'd go to the drive-in theater.
We watched The Endless Summer, and we watched On Any Sunday,
and those films made a big impression on me.
And I just loved watching those films.
I didn't know at that pointthat I wanted to be a filmmaker,
but the way you showed it made it really fun and interesting.
I wanna say thank you for all the inspiration,
and for the great opportunity that you gave me
at such a pivotal time for me,
and, you know, you really helped my career,
and helped make my whole life a better thing.
-Well, thank you. -Yeah, yeah.
-You're very, very kind. -[ALL LAUGHING]
[INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]
DANA: Dad had many friends from many walks of life.
And everyone came by for a visit.
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATION]
[LAUGHING]
-[INDISTINCT CONVERSATION] -[PEOPLE LAUGHING]
DANA: Mark Martinson is a surf legend.
One of the best of the '60s, and in the '70s,
he worked on Dad's sword fishing boat,
slept in Wade and I's bedroom, right between the beds.
We called him Shrimpenstein Brown our long-lost older brother
[MO LAUGHING]
I got this guy laughing finally.I've been trying all evening.
DANA: Mo Angel is the widow of surf legend Jose Angel,
who drowned in 1976.
Dad and Jose had been friends since his days in the Navy.
Still, when Mo and Dad get together, they act like teenagers.
There you go. Now we'll start all over.
[ALL LAUGHING]
These family legacies continue.
Jose's son Johnny Angel is a North Shore life guard.
A true water man and a truly funny man.
Long board legend Joel Tudor also came by to share a few laughs.
Joel brought his friend and prodigy Harrison Roach.
Harrison is barely in his 20's, but a huge fan of Dad's.
[ALL LAUGHING]
[INDISTINCT CHATTERING]
DANA: One more. One more. Here we go. One, two, three.
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING]
DANA: In Hawaii, we stayed in one place and people came to us.
Our trip on the West Coast, we travelled to them.
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
Over 1,000 miles in the motorhome.
With Wade, Nancy...
Fine dining.
Smoke breaks every 15 miles. And Rusty.
Shedding, peeing, and humping.
DANA: Next road trip, the dog's staying home.
We were visiting friends.
Some, Dad had known for over half a century.
Like Gordon Grubby Clark.
BRUCE: Hey, old fart. GRUBBY: Hey.
God, you look just like I remember you.
Come here.
No. You're trying to steal... Trying to scare me.
I'm staying with my people.
[LAUGHTER]
DANA: Gordon "Grubby" Clark, the Henry Ford of surfing.
Grubby invented the foam that all surfboards are made from.
Grubby is a true titan in surfing, but very private,
and often portrayed in the media as a barefoot robber baron.
[DANA SPEAKING]
Everything.
That's a good answer.
Can we go to a another line of questioning?
[GRUBBY LAUGHING]
He has this public image that...
really isn't anything like the real person.
Very few people know that, but...
We go along with the public image
-to encourage it as much as possible. -[ALL LAUGHING]
But there's a real sweet, warm,
real person under it all.
Like, Grubby would donate a bunch of money to different surfing things,
but he never let them say where it came from.
'Cause, you know, so everybody would say,
"God, Grubby is really a bad guy
"and never putting anything back in the sport."
Which wasn't true.
But he would not... He wouldn't defend himself.
He'd just makes some comment, you know, some rash comment.
[BLUES MUSIC PLAYING]
But he can also drive you nuts.
You know, I mean?
GRUBBY: Here he is.
The old man with the bad teeth.
[WADE LAUGHING]
BRUCE: Bad teeth?
Hey, my man. How are you?
Good to see you.
[SPEAKING]
Yeah.
[ALL LAUGHING]
What are you doing here?
How did they get you... How did they get you out?
Huh?
WOMAN: How's it going?
BRUCE: Good. WOMAN: Nice to see you.
Uh-Oh! Hey, Hey, Hey.
Oh, God!
Your dog just pissed on my couch.
It's okay.
I'm gonna give you a paper towel.
You can go clean it up right away.
I was trying to get him to wee-wee earlier.
Right there. My couch. My couch, go clean it up.
-Where is it? -GRUBBY: Right in the corner of the couch.
-Where? -GRUBBY: Your dog reflects its master.
[ALL LAUGHING]
Right here. Right in that corner. Right there.
-Right there. -Oh!
No, no, no, no. Come on.
Can you believe that?
Already you've done something wrong.
[ALL LAUGHING]
-WOMAN: Absolutely not. -[DOG BARKING]
DANA: Beyond being old friends,
we'd been neighbors of Grubby in the early '60s.
How long you been living here?
Little over a year. Did you see the picture?
-BRUCE: What picture? -Come here.
I saved this on my wall just to show it to you.
You can see how nice I was looking and how shitty you were.
[ALL LAUGHING]
-There's how I lived. That was my house. -No, that...
Bullshit. That's it. Look, right there, look at there.
-Oh, that there? Yeah. -Yeah, see, there it is.
-Didn't look like that when you lived there at all. -Yes, it did.
-Bullshit. -Even better, it was new.
-No. -Yes, it did. This room was all just exactly like how it is.
There was all gym socks...
No, that's how it looked, and that's how it looks now.
No, no. No, not even is.
Look how much they're selling it for. $10.10 million.
That's not it. That's not it. That's not even it.
-That's not even your house. -That is. Right there.
-No! -That's the upstairs bedroom.
It was just like a one little thing.
No, there was an upstairs, and we slept up here and down here.
-You can't remember. -[DOG WHIMPERING]
Gosh, damn it. That's terrible when you can't remem...
No, they remodeled the thing.
It's terrible when you're old like this.
-That is it. -That is it.
DANA: It's too small. That is too small.
Oh, you can read still? Oh, that's good. You haven't lost it completely.
DANA: Grubby, when you lived there, was the floor...
there was like slat in the floor so the carpet or the...
-No, no, no, no. -What do you mean "no"?
You'd come and sleep in our house with the window broke...
Below that window...
Scared the carp out of me.
Remember the time I vanished? Was shaking so bad.
DANA: Grubby and Dad have always had this relationship.
An odd couple.
Dating back to before either one of them was a filmmaker, or a board maker,
back when Dad was a lifeguard in San Clemente, California.
BRUCE: I was lifeguard in San Clemente,
and Wayne Schafer and I were on duty.
We were then the only two lifeguards.
And we had a truck.
And we get a call. There's, you know, an emergency drowning
in Poche.
So we jump in the truck.
You know, we both jump in the passenger side... [LAUGHING]
Anyway, I end up driving.
Get half through the pier and the sand gets in my eye
and I crush the fender of the truck into the pier.
We turn the sirens on, hauling ass down to Poche
you know, to save the poor soul.
We get there, and it's Grubby with a stopwatch going,
"God! The poor guy would have drowned if there wasn't anybody here."
I mean... [LAUGHING]
-I was timing you. -[PEOPLE LAUGHING]
Filing a full grounding report?
No way, we protected you.
You never even thanked me. So, thank me now.
[PEOPLE LAUGHING]
Statute of limitations is over, screw you.
[PEOPLE LAUGHING]
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
WADE: That's beautiful. Is he grinding away?
[MAN 1 SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
[MEN LAUGHING]
WADE: Did you see that shot? DANA: What the...
-Rusty! Rusty! Rusty! -[MEN LAUGHING]
-WADE: Jesus Christ! -[MEN CONTINUE LAUGHING]
DANA: Did you watch all that? [IMITATES DOG BARK]
GRUBBY: We got big things for you to do.
BRUCE: What? GRUBBY: I said, we got big things for you to do.
Are you ready? Can you walk? Can you still walk?
Walking's not my favorite thing.
DANA: Despite Grubby trying to scare us, we were happy not to walk.
His ranch is over 80 square miles.
It's a funny story, how Gordon got this place.
He was on a trip in Oregon with surfing legend Gerry Lopez.
When they came across a ranch in foreclosure,
and Grubby made what he thought was a token offer.
A month later he calls me up, we're back in Hawaii.
He goes, "We gotta go back there." I go, "Why?"
He goes "Because they accepted my bid,
"I haven't even seen the place."
So, we came over, and here we are.
BRUCE: We're all so proud of him, 'cause when he first bought the place,
you know, I'm sure he thought, "I'll get somebody to run it or sell it, or...
But then when he got into it...
Like all these guys, they get in something,
and then they really get deep into it.
BRUCE: He started calling me asking cattle advice.
[LAUGHS] So, you know...
So, you know he's in trouble. He had no experience with that at all.
And now he's like last year's "Cattleman of the Year" in Oregon.
You know, and they use motorcycles to round up cattle and...
You know, stuff like that.
You know, look at what he's done to this place. It's amazing.
You know, for a... Like a dumb shit from Laguna Beach... [CHUCKLES]
Here's the shepherd's crooks.
WADE: Everything has a reason.
Get a picture of Grandpa smokingunder the no smoking sign.
GRUBBY: Under the no smoking sign. Yeah, yeah. Like fucking Castro.
WADE: I hope no one who's around here is a real rancher or farmer
ever sees this movie because...
You guys are really lost.
[ALL LAUGHING]
BRUCE: We shouldn't be proud of you?
WADE: No.[CLEARS THROAT] I'm... I'm ahead of you but...
But there's an awful lot of people way ahead of me.
BRUCE: Well, of course.
WADE: So...
This whole ranch is a Bruce Brown ranch.
I mean, he... He's the one that did it all.
One day, he said, uh...
"Hey, I'm gonna have a preview of my new movie."
And I think in my whole life, that was the biggest shock that I've ever had.
We went over to his house next door.
And he was narrating it, it's before he had a sound track.
And it was still 16 and he played The Endless Summer.
And my God... It just... It was...
Where did this come from? What planet?
And... And I mean...
It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life.
This guy that was, in my judgement, just screwing around.
And he comes up with this thing.
BRUCE: I'll never forget the very first showing...
Endless Summer ended our premiere showing,
and it was dead silent. And I'm going, "Oh, no.
"They hate it!" You know, after all this work.
And then all suddenlythey started clapping... "Whew!"
The first year, we sold out every single showing.
Every... Santa Monica Civic, understand this,
holds 3,500 people.
I book it for seven nights.
Sold out every single night.
I was out there with a megaphoneon the last show saying,
"We're holding over for one more day."
I was on the... Calling the radio stations...
DANA: The Endless Summer pushed surfing
to another level of popularity, and cultural significance.
Surfing was hip. Grubby benefited,
Hobie benefited, the whole surf industry benefited.
And countless started to surf and chase their perfect wave.
As I came in, they're almost in tears.
"'Cause this movie changed my life."
Changed my life, I mean, I've been so impacted so beautifully by this movie.
GRUBBY: It was an incredible introduction of surfing to the world.
I still think he's a screw up,I don't know where it came from.
Sometimes, I thought your mother did it, I don't know.
I don't know... It's impossible that he could have done it.
[BRUCE LAUGHS]
DANA: ButThe Endless Summer was not an overnight success.
Dad toured the film for two years narrating live
hoping to get mainstream distribution.
After those two years, he got a bank loan for $50,000,
and sent Paul Allen to Wichita, Kansas, in the middle of winter.
PAUL ALLEN: The day I opened...
One of the worst snowstorms hit Wichita, Kansas.
We got about a foot of snow on the ground,
icicles hanging off this marquee that says The Endless Summer,
and I see people lined up around the block,
stomping in the snow, kinda keeping warm, you know?
And filled it up. Filled it up.
Holy mackerel. I ended up holding it over for another week.
The theatre owners were blown away.
Well, of course, that was it.
Finally, the establishment came calling.
DANA: And in 1966,
Dad's five-year Odyssey was an overnight sensation.
But Dad was done with surfing as a subject matter for his movies,
and he turned his attention elsewhere.
BRUCE: People kept bugging me, "What are you going to do next?"
I'm a surfer.
If I make as much money as I say, why would I do anything?
Anyway so.
I think I was in Japan, and...
they have those little Honda step throughs, 50cc things.
And when I got home, you know, I brought one of those...
when they first imported them
I started, you know, puttin' around and...
put my wife in the back and we go up the hills and stuff and...
I go, you know, "This is kind of, this is fun."
Before On Any Sunday
everything else was, uh...
choppers and bike gangs and stuff like that.
And that's really...
the only thing the public had
to gage motorcycles on was that lifestyle.
Then I got to know some of the people.
And it was so much different than what, you know,
the public perception of the people were.
So, I thought, you know, it might be really fun to
do a movie about motorcycling.
DANA: To make a movie you need funding
and the person my father thought of
was motorcycle and film legend, Steve McQueen.
BRUCE: I knew Steve was a motorcycle guy.
So I went up to a solo production, and met with Steve,
and said, "Hey, here's what I want to do" and he goes,
"Oh, cool, that'd be great." You know?
"What do you want me to do?" I go, "well, pay for it."
And he goes, "Hey man," he says, you know,
"I'm in movies, I don't finance movies."
You know, "Well, you can't be in my movie then, can you?"
And he started laughing. He said,
"I'll call you tomorrow." He called me up and said,
"Let's go for it."
[MOTORCYCLE REVVING]
YOUNG BRUCE: Four million people ride motorcycles in the US.
They come in all shapes, sizes and ages.
To some people a motorcycle is work...
...for a way to get to work.
Or a way to get away from it all to the solitude of the open country.
A motorcycle is whatever you want to make it.
Turn it on, you can give yourself a real thrill.
You know, we just shot a ton of film.
you know, without knowing exactly,
you know, where it's gonna end up.
We started to take, like, a point of view, like,
the moto cross is the young gameplay guys,
and flat trackers are the professionals,
and the Malcolm Smiths are the Sunday
you know, Sportsman riders
and trials guys are the violin players
and desert racers are the... You know, nobody's watching,
One hand clapping.
You know, that kind of film.
You know, I had certain things I wanted to do,
but you sort of have to see what develops.
YOUNG BRUCE: A group of businessmen during their rush hour,
a young man with a garment bag over his shoulder is Mert Lawwill,
29 years old, 5'6", 143 pounds.
[BELL DINGING]
He's not a banker or an accountant or a salesman.
But he is a professional man like the rest.
His profession, motorcycle racer.
MERT: Everybody asked me earlier on if I want to be a part of the filming
I was like, "Sure, okay." I mean, I didn't know
what it's gonna be at all.
Yeah, but then you find out he was gonna pay for the motel room
-and that was great. -Yeah, that was swell.
-He that was wonderful, and gas.-Yeah.
"God," he said, "this is really cool."
And he said he was really funny and fun.
MERT: Well, I was so naive that I didn't have any clue of who he was
until he actually started doing the filming.
I didn't know that he's done any other surf films
because I had tunnel vision,
I was only looking at my stuff, motor racing.
BRUCE: Mert makes his living in one of the most dangerous sports
in which man participates.
CHAD McQUEEN: My dad had us racing very young,
at nine years old, and I remember
having to ride with a sprained ankle.
[MIMICS GRUNTING AND PANTING]
And fucking Mert, Malcolm,
these guys were, you know, broken tibias and shit, you know?
Man, they were the elite of their sport.
YOUNG BRUCE: Their skill on the race track has earned them the right to carry
the American Motorcycle Association
number one professional plate.
BRUCE: Since Mert was number one.
I thought, well, that's probably
a good story, you know?
You're either gonna be number one again
or not be number one.
So, there's probably a story there one way or the other, so.
When we first took off with Mert,
I mean, he didn't know me from Adam.
I didn't know what the hell those guys were doing.
-And, uh... -We had quite a trip.
MERT: You know, we spent so much time together on the road,
uh, during the filming that we just became friends
and Bruce is... I mean, he's easy to be a friend with, I mean.
His personality as such, and he's always funny.
So, we really get along well.
DANA: Mert is more than a legendary motorcycle racer.
He's also a renowned inventor and designer
of motorcycles, mountain bikes
and mechanical appendages for amputees.
-Hey, June! -Hi, sweetie.
How are you my dear?
-I'm good as can be expected. -Expecting that.
DANA: Mert and June were among my parents' closest friends
and we'd spend every Thanksgiving together.
MERT: We used to rent a motorhome and go down there for Thanksgiving
and we really had a great time. We loved it down there.
All the kids, you know,
relatives, and all of you kept growing and getting mates, children
and got bigger and bigger,
and finally Pat and I looked at each other and said,
"There's 50 people here.
"It's getting kind a big for the two of us."
But it was fun. It was great fun and everybody...
My kids' Finest thing is when Bruce stood up in front of 50 people,
mother-in-laws, every age
and mooned the whole crowd.
My kids think that's the greatest thing that ever happened
so far in their lives.
TIM LAWWILL: There was probably 20 people at that big long
Thanksgiving table at your house,
and it came time to say the blessing,
and he stood up on his chair
-turned around, and he yippy yayed everybody. -[MAN LAUGHS]
And if anybody else did that,
they'd never get away with it.
And for some reason, it was really smooth.
It was like, it kind of really is hard to start eating,
but, I mean, with that memory
but he pulled it off.
And no one else could everat all... I'll ever forget that.
No one else could've done that and got away with it.
[DANA SPEAKING]
JUNE: [GASPS] No kidding.
[DANA SPEAKING]
[ALL LAUGHING]
Head to the table, nuts hanging down.
I almost fainted.
I looked over at Pat. She's just, like, she's so immune.
So, anything Bruce ever did, she didn't blink.
Heh, hmm.
Well, Pat was so special to us.
You know, just kind of like a second mom.
I mean, we all fit in. Kind of like we're all family.
Not mom. She was like a sister.
[BOTH CHUCKLE]
-Uh... -We were in the same age.
You know, we had kids and...
Yeah, it was...
-It was hard on us. -It was a hard time.
Yeah, we're not doing good yet. [CHUCKLES]
But it's just been forty something years.
It sounded real.
And it's been mostly good.
[INDISTINCT CHATTERING]
BRUCE: What's funny about the motorcycle crowd,
I mean,
almost everybody that, you know, I ran across making the movie...
Now, you know, they've become lifelong friends.
I mean, it's amazing.
You know, and they're such humble people in a lot of ways.
DANA: I think that's why On Any Sunday
transcends all these generations.
I don't think anybody's trying to look at something that's retro.
I think, it's just, the spirit of it hasn't changed.
CHAD: You know, uh,
my dad didn't like a lot of people but something attracted...
There was something...
...about your dad and my dad
that was on a similar wavelength, you know?
and it wasn't just motorcycles, you know?
STEVE: Every time I start thinking the world is all bad
then I start seeing some people out there
having a good time with motorcycles that makes me take another look.
BRUCE: I remember, riding the other races years ago.
I haven't ridden one in a long time.
It's the same. But...
It's a little box canyon and everybody's jammed up,
and you're running into somebody,
knock them over and they go,
you know, "I'm really sorry." "Are you having fun?"
-[CHUCKLES] -You go, "Yeah, sorry."
"Ah, don't worry about it."
You know, that's typical motorsports people.
And even more with the motorcycle folks.
DANA: The motorcycle community brought Dad many lifelong friendships.
And when it came to those friends,
it didn't matter how much time had gone by.
He knew he'd always be greeted with a kind word
and a gentle welcome.
[MAN SPEAKING LOUDLY]
The last time I talked to somebody, they said,
-"In a couple of days he'll be dead." -[LAUGHS]
Well, that's why we're doing this.
Oh, this is the goodwill church?
DAN: This is for insurance purposes.
This is the "Be with the hero" tour.
And you're a hero. You're in the wrong fucking place.
You're not...
DANA: Kenny Roberts is unquestionably
the greatest motorcycle racer of the 20th century.
Kenny was the A.M.A. Grand National Champion
on the dirt track three times.
Then he went to Europe
where he became the first American to win a Moto GP Championship.
And then followed that up with two more.
I'm surprised you're here actually. I'm really...
-WOMAN: Really? -Yeah.
You say I was...
I tried to get so far away no one would find me
but he found me.
[ALL CHUCKLING]
DANA: His nickname is "The King".
And if anybody earned that nickname,
it's Kenny Roberts.
-WOMAN: It's not working. -That's what I'm talking about.
[ALL LAUGHING]
DANA: After Kenny retired from racing
he became a team owner on the Moto GP circuit,
guiding six more world champions.
The last was his son, Kenny Roberts Jr.
His youngest son, Kurtis, was also a Superbike champion.
It's safe to say the Roberts have quite the DNA.
TROY LEE: He took it to a whole 'nother level. He brought...
You know, he was the heavy hitter
that went to Europe and pulled it off and beat the best in the world.
He was able to do it on all different levels
from dirt to pavement. I mean, he is my idol.
DANA: For my dad and Kenny,
their friendship wasn't a matter of mutual admiration
or what they had accomplished
it was a much deeper connection.
Right away we sort of hit it off.
And from then on it was,
every time we were together we were in trouble
of some sort.
I don't know, you know, I admire the guy
you know, for all the accomplishments and...
He's good at everything he does.
DANA: You guys have a similar sense of humor, too.
Yeah, very similar. [CHUCKLES]
I guess that's why we got to like each other.
Every time I hit a hole,
my head would fly out the T-top
and my foot would get off the gas. So, it would go... [IMITATES ENGINE WHINE]
And I'd land on the seat again, [IMITATES ENGINE REVVING]
And then you'd see it.
My head would come up again and gas would go off...
JOHN TIPICH: The way that I'd describe them is,
you know, they're just like...
They're, like, so tough on the outside.
But then once you crack that little surface
they're just mushy.
And, you know, they have the most,
uh, I hate... You know, such a...
stereotypical, like, macho guy attitude.
And then, you know, you scratch that tiny little rough surface
and you just get, like, a little fluffy teddy bear underneath.
Like a burnt marshmallow or something.
KENNY: Well, you go through your life, I think as much as
you know, it's just hard to find through your life
buds that have everything that...
That have everything that Bruce has.
BRUCE: And, you know...
When Dad was sick, he'd call about once a week
and checking in, you know.
See how he was doing.
KENNY: Bruce you need to do something with your dog.
[CHUCKLES] I don't know what to do.
That dog is fucked up.
[ALL LAUGHING]
And it's just like you.
That dog is so you.
DANA: In a person's life you have some friends that you keep in touch with
that you see all the time.
But some you knew very well long ago,
yet they'll always still be your friends.
That would describe my dad and Jack O'Neill.
-Hey! -Hey!
-BRUCE: Hey! -Hey!
Wow!
BRUCE: You're in your jammies.
Looks like everybody's here.
-Pretty good. -Huh?
Pretty good.
-You're still up, right? -It's been a long time.
-No shit. -[CHUCKLES]
-No jelly bean. -Come on. Come on in.
DANA: Jack and Dad has been friends for over half a century,
yet they don't see each other much.
But they're still like little kids when they're together.
And sometimes they even own the same kind of toys.
[SPEAKING]
-Right. -To shoot that.
Yeah.
DANA: A potato launcher is a cannon
that shoots potato sized objects.
I've got one I put lemons in.
Oh, you put lemons?
God, it shoots it like half a mile. It's too big.
And what do you make the barrel out of?
PAT O'NEILL: He's still a kid. WOMAN: Yeah.
He's got more projects going than anybody I know.
And I get sucked into all of them.
-You do? -[BOTH CHUCKLING]
-We all do. -We all do.
-But it's interesting. -But... yeah.
He's gonna make this one out of copper.
-Oh, yeah. -That PVC goes, boom!
CATHI O'NEILL: I think they're very humble people.
And they come from a time
when they really worked hard for what they have.
They followed their passion, is what they did.
Where now people get a little more locked up
having to follow
the focus of, you know, where others think they should be.
I don't think Jack and Bruce ever had that.
DANA: Jack O'Neill has never followed others.
Among his passions had been surfer, sailor,
sand sailor, trampoline aficionado,
hot air balloonist,
super suit pioneer,
house designer and business tycoon.
But it all started as a surf shop owner
who, on one occasion helped his buddy show his surf fellows.
JACK: I remember we took Barefoot Adventure...
Okay, yeah, I remember.
Took 'em downtown with your posters
withBarefoot...
And we went to the stock exchange.
We're handing 'em out there.
"Can we have people
"show up for a coast to see the surf movie?"
That worked out well, Bruce, I appreciate your...
...giving me that opportunity.
I was selling suits on the side.
Selling what?
-Selling wetsuits on the side. -Yeah.
DANA: Jack O'Neill's name is synonymous with the wetsuit.
He invented the neoprene wetsuit
which revolutionized surfing
allowing surfers to ride waves anywhere in the world.
The O'Neill brand has grown into one of the most respected
and profitable in the world of surfing.
Jack would ultimately turn the day-to-day running of his company
over to his children.
And focus his attention to conservational efforts
like the Sea Odyssey.
A 65-foot catamaran, and organization
and educate the youth about the ocean and its conservation.
The Sea Odyssey is Jack's biggest passion.
The O'Neill Sea Odyssey is just something
that is so important to him over anything else now.
[JACK SPEAKING]
[BOTH LAUGHING]
CATHI: Jack always says, "I never knew that this company would become what it is."
And I think, Bruce, you know, they get a focus and they stick with it.
PAT: Well, we both think outside the box.
They're definitely their own breed of people.
I think it's probably the same mold.
They don't listen to anybody but themselves and do exactly what they want.
-I'm sure you know that as well. -Oh, yeah.
-You know when I think... -[DRUM BEATING]
He likes to play the drums. It's really good for him.
[ALL LAUGHING]
DANA: Jack O'Neill and Dad
are unique individuals.
They blaze their own trails.
These trails their families followed.
Pat runs O'Neills Sport
and my father somehow got me into filmmaking.
My dad retired from filmmaking afterOn Any Sunday.
He went sword fishing,
he collected old cars,
did the occasional TV commentary,
surfed and rode his toys.
I was 29,
when he asked me to restore his old surf films for a home video release.
That took me a year.
Then Dad unretired
to makeThe Endless Summer II.
WINGNUT WEAVER: January 16th, 1:15 in the afternoon and the phone rings,
and you hear this voice...
"This is Bruce Brown, is Wingnut there?"
Yeah.
"Well, I was thinking about doing a sequel toThe Endless Summer,
I wanted to know if you wanted to be one of the two guys?"
I was literally washing the dishes.
I'm like, "I got to finish the dishes,
"but, you know, I'm ready. I'm in!"
[CHUCKLES] And he's like, "No, no, we're, like, months away."
PAT: You got to think back then, like,
there was, I had an answering machine
that I never checked.
And so, the things that we used to do
is we used to call people and pretend we were someone else.
So, when your dad first called I was, like, "Bullshit."
Like, "Who is this?" You know? [CHUCKLES]
I think I may have hung up the first time.
And then your dad was like,
"Hey, you just hung up on me." [LAUGHS]
When we showed up for the first trip
going to Costa Rica, it was like, I mean,
1,000 pounds of luggage.
And I was looking just going, "Holy cow."
And that's when I finally realized, wow, this is really happening.
You know? I looked at the tickets, saw my name, I'm like, "That's right.
"That's right."[LAUGHS]
The main reason I did it was because I could work with him.
And the other reason was that
Mike Hoover was gonna be the director of photography.
So, I could, theoretically,
just sit back on my chair like a fat man and just point.
It didn't work out that way, but...
We had a great group of people.
PAT: Outside of, obviously, doing the film and all that stuff,
the very best was spending time with your dad and everyone.
WINGNUT: I mean, it wasn't always about the waves.
I mean, Bruce taught you to turn around
and look where you are,
and enjoy the experience of where you are.
PAT: That's what surf trips are all about, you know?
And so, sitting there after a day and laughing
whether it'd be the lions eating Wingnut's wetsuits
or, um, you know, just whatever it was
the crazy nut young days, you know,
every day was sort of an adventure,
and, you know, just laughing at the end of the day
about, you know, "What did we do today?"
Yeah, I remember like, you know, those guys would go,
"Hey, we're gonna go have a few beers after we're through shooting,"
and I'd go, "Uh-huh." I just stayed by myself
and with my little laptop'cause I'm trying to figure out,
"Okay, tomorrow, what can we do..." blah, blah, blah, blah.
So, that's one reason why
I haven't made that many movies lately.
I just get burned out, you know?
I mean, if you wanna talk to me about some other subject while I'm making a movie,
I don't wanna talk to ya.
-Like, "Leave me alone, I'm thinking." -Yeah.
-[CHUCKLES] -Yeah.
Which is hard when you have a low IQ.
-[LAUGHS] -To be thinking.
DANA: The Endless Summer II was completed in 1994.
Dad immediately retired again.
No more films.
Though he helped me on mine,
always reminded me he was retired.
He was happy.
He had Mom,
the kids were grown, the house was to himself.
There would be eight grandkids he could build on,
and time to spend with his favorite person in the world,
Patricia Lee Hunter Brown.
They did everything together.
Traveled together, gardened together,
fishing together,
even rally car race together.
I'd bump into him at the fucking gas Chevron station in Malibu.
Your dad's driving a fucking Subaru WRX, you know?
I said, "Bruce, what are you doing?"
"I go rallying, I rally this thing."
"Bruce, you're what, 70-something years old and you're going..."
"Fuck yeah, I love it."
So, I mean, that's the way Bruce was,
I mean, you know, 70-years-old, he's out there fucking hanging his ass out
in Subarus.
DANA: It was truly their golden years.
Dad was experiencing a second childhood
with his favorite sidekick, his true love.
In 2001, Mom got cancer and beat it.
But late in 2005, it came back.
This time, there'd be no victory.
On February 18th, 2006, Mom passed.
The family lost its center,
and Dad lost "the" person in his life.
Well, everybody thought it was end of Bruce, to be honest.
I didn't think he was gonna make it.
That first year, I thought it was over.
He did... He had no interest
in trying to make it work.
I mean, you just watched it drain out of him.
DANA: The aftermath of Mom's death was tough.
We tried to get Dad out of the house,
and slowly but surely he'd come.
But never agreeing on a trip.
Finally, we got him to go on this one.
And, as typical family trips go,
you run into unexpected weather.
And then, enough people, everyone kept coming by,
you know, "We're still here.
"We still need you."
And that's where that group of friends came back
and made sure...
And he said, "Shit." [LAUGHS]
You know, and he had to. He had to stick around.
DANA: It's been...
when Kenny talked about Mom a little more...
When we were talking in this kitchen,
you know, I mentioned what you said
-about him calling. -BRUCE: Yeah.
He kinda, in a good way,
he said, "Yeah, we weren't so sure
"your dad was gonna make it," you know,
"after your mom passed."
But you know, you have.
I know. [SNIFFLES]
DANA: I mean, you know,
-it ain't easy, but you make us laugh... -[CHUCKLES]
Yeah.
DANA: You know what I mean?
I mean, you're still...
I mean, except for your fucking dog...
We should...
It's not the same.
DANA: No.
It was... It was tough. [SNIFFLING]
I couldn't even sleep in the...
[SNIFFLES]
DANA: Yeah.
I couldn't even sleep in the bedroom for like six months.
I slept down the hall.
[CHUCKLES]
Ah!
This is kinda like 60 Minutes.
[BRUCE AND DANA LAUGHING]
It's too bad there's no Barbara Walters here...
"Get the guy crying..."
DANA: That's good. He looks like hell.
I'm sorry.
BRUCE: I actually, no... DANA: I was talking about Mom earlier...
-BRUCE: Sometimes I handle it better than others. -Yeah.
♪ You're far away
♪ From me my love
♪ But just as sure
♪ As there are stars above
♪ I know, darling
♪ Someday
♪ We'll be together
♪ Someday
♪ We'll be together
-♪ Long time ago -[IMPERCEPTIBLE]
♪ I made a big mistake
♪ Why
♪ I said goodbye
♪ But, oh, my darling
♪ Ever
♪ Ever since that day, babe
♪ All I
♪ All I do is cry
♪ I just wanna tell you That I
♪ I long for you
♪ Every night
♪ To kiss your lips
♪ To hold you tight
♪ I know, darling
♪ Someday
♪ We'll be together
♪ Someday
♪ We'll be together
♪ Just when the moon is gonna rise
♪ Someday
♪ We'll be together
♪ As long as stars Are in the sky
♪ Someday
♪ We'll be together
♪ I could love you all the time
♪ Someday...
DANA: Dad never stopped missing Mom.
But he still loves seeing old friends,
and meeting new ones.
In Hawaii, he became a veritable social butterfly.
[PEOPLE SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
WOMEN: Hi!
DANA: Dad's reclusiveness dissolved entirely
and he was the first in the car when we went to Makaha
to see Buffalo, and Momi Keaulana...
at Buffalo's Longboard contest.
Their's was a friendship that spans six decades.
You know, your father has many, many, many friends.
and, I says, "You know what? We don't see him very often,
but when we see him, it's just like yesterday.
[WOMAN LAUGHS]
So, I'd like to introduce the man himself,
please come up and join me, Mr. Bruce Brown.
DANA: He even accepted an invitation to speak at the Turtle Bay Hilton,
telling stories about the good old days.
Some of my best friends go, "That movie was a piece of crap."
-[AUDIENCE LAUGHS] -You know...
I don't know how to argue with them.
"It was a whole movie, what do you expect?"
[LAUGHS]
DANA: One of our last stops in Oahu
was at the birthplace of modern surfing, Waikiki.
Dad wanted to say "hi" to two old friends.
Fred Hemmings, former Lieutenant governor of Hawaii,
and Joey Cabell, founder of the Chart House restaurant.
The three of them had known each other as surfers long before they had real jobs.
ANNOUNCER: [OVER SPEAKERS] You know, I have to interrupt Jeff for a minute because...
How many of you remember
back in the '60s,
all the surfing films? By applause.
[AUDIENCE APPLAUDING]
I don't wanna embarrass him,
but one of my favorite films is a film called The Endless Summer.
Please welcome to our gathering today,
the cinematographer and creator of some great surf films, Mr. Bruce Brown.
[ALL APPLAUDING]
Wow.
Hey, Bruce,Aloha!
I have a signed poster ofThe Endless Summer.
Yeah...[EXCLAIMS] Terrific.
-[MEN LAUGH] -MAN 1: Haven't tried...
[BRUCE SPEAKING]
MAN 2: Get 'em
[PEOPLE LAUGH]
[SPEAKING]
[BRUCE SPEAKING]
[SPEAKING]
[BRUCE SPEAKING]
[DANA SPEAKING]
[SPEAKING]
BRUCE: Yeah. DANA: Yeah. [CHUCKLING]
See a little... That's what it's called.
[SPEAKING]
Yeah, I know, right?
[JOEY SPEAKING]
BRUCE: I think so. [CHUCKLING]
[SPEAKING]
BRUCE: That's right.
[SPEAKING]
-[BRUCE SPEAKING] -Right?
[SPEAKING]
[PEOPLE LAUGH]
[SPEAKING]
[BRUCE SPEAKING]
[SPEAKING]
[BRUCE SPEAKS]
[SPEAKING]
BRUCE: I gotta say, my number one,
uh...
surf hero of all time is Henry Preece,
-and... -[AUDIENCE APPLAUDING]
You know, when I first came here,
we'd go up to, you know, North Shore, it was like, "God!" It was unbelievable.
You go to..., it's like 25 feet,
but it's only like four feet to in Hawaiian.
[AUDIENCE LAUGHING]
Here's Henry. Big strapping guy. And he was, you know, quite...
Unlike some of us.
YOUNG BRUCE: In the mid-50s, when we first went to the islands,
some of the locals weren't too friendly.
Henry Preece, who was the unofficial mayor of Haleiwa,
befriended us and kept us alive on the North Shore.
One of my most vivid recollections
of Haleiwa was seeing Henry Preece
surfing a wave well over his head
and right in the critical spot...
Riding it, he turns back...
Blesses the wave,
and I'm thinking, "God, that's so cool."
YOUNG BRUCE: I'll never forget that.
Yeah, so, he's number one. We're gonna go see him in a couple of days.
FEMALE INTERVIEWER: That's fantastic.
That's great to be able to do that even after all these years
and have Henry Preece to still check in with.
-Hi. -Hey.
[WOMAN LAUGHS]
[SPEAKING]
Hey, how you doing?
Good, good to see you.
Good seeing ya.
Yeah, it's been a long time, huh, man?
[SPEAKING]
Yeah, exactly. That's what I thought.
Five, ten? No, '92.
-You've done it. -Yeah.
Yeah, couldn't believe when I called you, you'd go,
"Hey, Bruce!" Like I called you every day.
Come on, sit down.
[SPEAKING]
Oh, just fucking off.
[SPEAKING]
[LAUGHS]
[BRUCE SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY]
Dana's doing a, like a film where he's travelling around, I'm seeing all my old heroes,
-surfing and motorcycle racing. -Okay.
And of course,you were at the top of the list.
[SPEAKING]
-Yeah. -[LAUGHS]
I know.
Yeah...
Yeah, I remember we'd go to like a party or something,
and some Hawaiian who didn't like my looks
would come over towards me and you'd kinda go,
-and you'd... -[LAUGHS]
"Thanks, Henry, saved again."
[SPEAKING]
He saved my life.
-[ALL LAUGHING] -BRUCE: Yeah, me too.
More than once.
[SPEAKING]
Yeah.
-So, you got the big C, I heard?-Huh?
-You got the big C? -What is that?
-The cancer? -Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, my...
[SPEAKING]
Still look pretty good though...
-Yeah. -...for an old fart.
[SPEAKING]
Yeah.
Yeah, my wife, we went through all the fucking treatments
and for five years, you know, it kept,
"Oh, it's gone, whoops, it came back,"
and you know, she finally passed away, so...
[SPEAKING]
Yeah?
[SPEAKING]
Yeah?
Yeah.
So, you aren't doing any treatments or anything, though?
Uh-huh. Huh?
No treatments or anything?
[SPEAKING]
Not any chemo or anything?
[SPEAKING]
Yeah.
[SPEAKING]
Yeah.
-We spent a lot of happy times here, huh? -Oh, yeah.
[HENRY SPEAKING]
MAN 1: You know, I always look at it as,
you know, one of the biggest privileges of my life
to get to know these guys.
And, everybody looks from the outside,
like he said, these guys were...
screw ups, you know?
But they're not.
They're really not.
MAN 2: You know, you look at those people and, uh...
they managed to have families
and grandchildren,
and travel through life,
but, you know, still take a moment
to laugh and share a story
and not forget about it, make it important, make it a part.
KENNY: You know, everything that me and your dad
has always done has just been pleasure,
nothing... You know, even work to us is pleasure
because, you know, he's gonna say something
or I'm gonna say something,
and we're all gonna start laughing.
MAN 1: I got to see
and do a lot of really neat stuff
with him.
You know, it's...
I mean, I'll treasure all those experiences forever.
DANA: Henry has passed,
Hobie has passed,
Jack O'Neill,
and June Lawwill have passed.
[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
It doesn't last forever.
But a life well lived goes on and on.
Like a pebble dropped in the water,
the pebble stops
long before the ripples are done rolling.
My dad's gone now, too.
But his legacy lives on...
And so do the laughs...
[LAUGHING]
...the smiles,
and the lessons we learned,
like, "Get your ass off the couch, and go have an adventure."
Hold your friends very close
because they provide help through life's hardships.
We need to make the most of our limited time here,
and most of all,
have fun,
and be good,
the best good you can.
YOUNG BRUCE: If you're willing to take a leap of faith,
get off your butt,
who knows how many great things are waiting in the world out there.
♪ It's off to the races
♪ And onto greener pastures
♪ Tip-toe along through the disaster
♪ And I'm all right
♪ It's what I tell myself
♪ This whole world keeps pushing faster
[PEOPLE SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
This here is Bruce Brown,
he is one of the greatest
cinematographers of that era.
-What do you mean, "of that era"? -[AUDIENCE LAUGHING]
[LAUGHING]
I can't agree with all this nice stuff about him.
BRUCE: Oh, typical Gordon, you know,
he's led me down the garden pathway too many times.
-A shithole. -[LAUGHS]
BRUCE: It's cold!
Let's go back to the house and tell jokes.
[ALL LAUGHING]
-Tell old Grubby stories. -No.
-NANCY: Later. Later. -This is your story right here.
[LAUGHING]
Yeah, exactly.
Some of the critics for both Endless Summer and On Any Sunday,
the reviewers hated my narration.
-Said it sounded like Howdy Doody. -[LAUGHS]
And so... So, Dana had a couple of reviews.
They said he sounded like Kermit the Frog.
So, it's like, we call each other on the phone,
and go, "Kermit! Howdy Doody here!"
Yeah.
♪ Children growin' up without rules
♪ It's easy to give up It's easy to give in
♪ Brother, you gotta take a stand
♪ Shine a light
♪ Wherever you can
♪ Not another robot working for the man
♪ Shine a light
♪ Wherever you can
♪ Not another robot working for the man ♪