TOP 10 SURFING MOVIES OF ALL TIME!!!

August 10, 2001

Surfing truly is the international sport. Just look at my Nos. 8 and 9. The general view is that if you have surfing in a movie, you don't need acting. As you can see below, that is generally true. So here, finally, after several unreasonable delays that were completely beyond my control, are the Top 10 Surfing Movies of All Time!!

	10.	Apocalypse Now (1979): One of the truly great American movies, just re-released with 45 extra minutes re-edited in by Francis Ford Coppola. So what does it have to do with surfing? Robert Duball ("I love the smell of napalm in the morning") invades an entire village just because of the shore break ["What the hell do you know about surfing? You're from *** New Jersey. "]. One of the most surreal, albeit brief, surfing segments in movie history.
	9.	Blue Juice (1995): The best movie ever made about the thrill of surfing in that torpical paradise -- Great Britain!! Actually, there's only one reason this movie is on video: Catherine Zeta-Jones is in a swimsuit, and Ewan McGregor plays the surfer.
	8.	A Scene at the Sea (1992): Or, as it is more commonly known, Ano natsu, ichiban shizukana umi. Easily the greatest Japanese surfing movies ever made, and one of the best movies about the zen of surfing ever made. The film basically tells the story of a deaf boy and deaf girl and the changes in their lives caused by the boy's love of surfing.
	7.	Beach Party (1963): The first, and still the best, of the Beach Party movies. Frankie Avalon! Annette Funicello (in her traditional one piece swim suit)!! John Ashley!!! And as the villain, Harvey Lembeck!!!! Unfortunately, the surfing scenes aren't that great, but the spirit is.
	6.	Gidget (1959): Gidget, which as anyone knows stands for "Girl Midget, was the first of the California beach surfing movies, and is still cute in an innocent sort of way. Would make a good double feature with
	5.	Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982): Not a lot of surfing scenes, but Sean Penn, as Jeff Spicoli, not only made his career with this role, he set the standard by which all other surfer dudes will forever be measured ["All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine. "So what Jefferson was saying was 'Hey! You know, we left this England place because it was bogus. So if we don't get some cool rules ourselves, pronto, we'll just be bogus too.' Yeah? " ] Also one of the classic high school movies ever made.
	4.	Point Break (1991): One of the classic cheesy surfing movies. Keanu Reeves stars as apprentice FBI agent and former Ohio State quarterback Johnny Utah (get it?) hot on the trail of a group of surfer/bank robbers, lead by Patrick Swayze. Great action scenes. I know it's not a great movie, but I'll watch it whenever it comes on -- and I own the video.
	3.	Ride the Wild Surf (1964): Despite the Jan & Dean theme song, this is actually a pretty good surfing movie, with better than average surf footage. And how can you go wrong with Fabian, Tab Hunter, Shelly Fabares and Barbara Eden?
	2.	Big Wednesday (1978): Not much for plot (a bunch of surfer types -- Jan-Michael Vincent, Gary Busey, William Katt -- try to live through the '60's and '70's. But the surfing footage, particularly at the end, is way awesome dude.
	1.	The Endless Summer (1966): Still number 1. Easily the best surfing documentary ever made, it is just what you need if you've never gotten the salt water out of your hair -- nothing but surfing, all around the world.

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