Surf’s Up: The 10 Greatest Surf Contributions to Pop Culture
The Shamus was out waxing his board and almost missed the latest crest of the surfing wave in pop culture. This weekend begins a two-pronged assault, with the animated flick Surf’s Up and the HBO show about a surfing family, John From Cincinnati. Then next weekend comes a long rider from deepest space. Time for a Shamus list:
The 10 Greatest Surf Contributions to Pop Culture:
10. The curling wave in the opening credits of Hawaii Five-0. Everybody’s mental image of the pipeline.
9. “Two girls for every boy.†The real reason everybody wanted to be a surfer: An endless summer of bitchin’ Betties. From Jan and Dean’s Surf City.
8. Surf slang. Surfing has enriched the English language. Without waves, would we have ever used these words and phrases: Baggys, gnarly, goofy-footer, hodad, gremmie, hang five, longboard, shoot the curl, wipe out and, of course, stoked. And let’s not forget: Cowabunga! According to Wikipedia, it evolved from the word “kawabonga,†used by Chief Thunderthud on the ‘50s puppet show, Howdy Doody. “What time is it, boys and girls?†“It’s surf time!â€Â
7. Kem Nunn’s surfing novels. Nunn, co-writer of the new HBO show John From Cincinnati, is the only serious surf novelist, in my opinion, working the sport into his gritty thriller and detective novels. His best book is The Dogs of Winter, but Tapping The Source and Tijuana Straits are also recommended.
6. Big Wednesday. The best surfing feature film. John Milius’ memories of his early ‘60s surf rat pals. Starring Jan Michael-Vincent and Gary Busey before their personal waves turned bad. Plus a cameo by Gerry Lopez!
5. “Charlie don’t surf!†Col. Kilgore. Apocalypse Now. Written by Milius, it’s the greatest surf-related moment in feature films. (Runner-up: “I caught my first tube today…sir!†Whoa! Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah, FBI agent turned surf stud, in Point Break.)
4. The ferocious opening chords of Dick Dale’s Miserilou. The song that defines surf guitar now and forever. Just ask Quentin Tarantino.
3. Bruce Brown’s surf documentaries. The Endless Summer, with its clean-cut surf dudes, exotic locales and innocent voice-overs, made surfing romantic for even the most hopelessly land-locked. It helped stoke a never-ending surfing documentary craze, from the little films shown in surf shops and hangouts in the ‘60s and ‘70s to polished productions today like Riding Giants, Step Into Liquid, Dogtown and Z-Boys, etc.
2. The Silver Surfer. The saddest, most potent and mythic character in all of comics: Exiled from his homeland by the evil Galactus and forced to serve as a space-riding herald helping to consume planets until he is “saved†by the Fantastic Four and exiled on Earth. They better not mess this movie up; Silver Surfer fans are fiercer than those Transformers geeks.
And…
1. Three brothers named Wilson and a cousin named Love. One day in the early ‘60s, they gathered in a garage in Hawthorne, Calif. and started plunking out a song called Surfin’. The rest is history. They didn’t start the surf music craze but they immortalized it. You could almost argue that Brian Wilson, more than Frankie, Annette or Gidget, helped popularize the idea of summer in pop culture. Surfing and the Beach Boys go hand in hand, even if Paul LeMat did make a good point about the primacy of their car songs in American Graffitti.
So, did The Shamus forget anything?
(Cross-posted at Bad For The Glass: badfortheglass.blogspot.com)
Add New Comment
Viewing 19 Comments
Thanks. Your comment is awaiting approval by a moderator.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Add New Comment
Trackbacks
(Trackback URL)