Week 4: The End of Endless Summer

My favorite reading from this week was Chapter 1: The End of Endless Summer in the excerpt from Transcendental Memories of a Surf Rebel by Mike Hynson.  After watching the film last week, I researched a little about it and found out how significant and iconic it has become since it was released in 1966.  Chapter 1 caught my attention because of how close Bruce Brown came to losing his footage in India because of the customs policy regarding cameras and filming.  It made me wonder what would have happened if the footage had been lost; would the relatively unknown break off of Cape St. Francis in South Africa have been discovered and become as famous as it is today?  Or would Brown, Hynson, and Robert August still have spread the word about it?

The other chapter that was interesting to me was Chapter 34: No Turning Back.  A the beginning it talked about Hynson's first experiences smuggling drugs in surfboards.  Despite his worries, Hynson was able to successfully smuggle hash back to the states.  I thought it was unusual to hear how concerned and stressed out he was about smuggling the drugs yet he still went through with it (despite the risk).  I feel like if he and his friends had gotten caught, he would have thrown away what some would call the perfect, ideal life...he had so many opportunities to travel and surf in places with some of the best waves, which is what many surfers are only able to think about and hope for.