Is the Film "The Endless Summer" Jewish?

My favorite movie is Bruce Brown's, The Endless Summer. No, it wasn't Jewish at all that is, until I made it into a metaphor for my quest for perfect Jewish spirituality and the inspiration for my book cover (see below). I haven't found any other Jewish connections to the film or the poster.

Vanity Fair has a story about the famous iconic Endless Summer movie poster. "One Summer, Forever: The Endless Summer poster is 50 years old, and it hasn't aged a minute. Kitchen-table project turned pop-culture phenomenon, the Day-Glo movie promo created by John Van Hamersveld for his friend Bruce Brown’s 1964 documentary is still selling the dream—on T-shirts, TV shows, beer bottles, and dorm walls. Lili Anolik looks back at the moment an iconic image was born, the social upheaval it presaged, and the surfer-dude-slash-designer whose life it changed."

In 1966 I saw a film that documented two boys seeking simple perfection in a quasi-mystical sport. IMDB sums up, "Brown follows two young surfers around the world in search of the perfect wave, and ends up finding quite a few in addition to some colorful local characters."

The film spoke to me, as it did to many others of a more idealistic age. The essence of surfing of course is the wave. And the lover of surfing no doubt wants to embark on the quest for the best wave. To experience the performance of the essence is to find the perfect wave.

Brown's two surfer dudes found one in South Africa, see the video clip below.

Is Surfing Kosher?

Yes Surfing is kosher. There's no reason for anyone to argue that it isn't.

And yet, the Times is genuinely surprised that a rabbi can surf, perhaps based on the artificial assumption that surfing is not a kosher sport, and a rabbi would not engage in it. It's a contrived bias and it also shows how narrow the conception of rabbis and rabbinical lifestyles has become.

The article is "A Rabbi’s ‘Spiritual Playground’ Extends to the Surf - NYTimes.com" and the author is astonished that a rabbi could be interested in or participate in surfing. [Hat tip to Yitz!]

There is no basis for the assumption. See my surfing posts on this blog.

I've been interested in surfing since I was sixteen. I use surfing as a metaphor in my book, "God's Favorite Prayers" where I speak about the "perfect wave of prayer" that I sought in my travels around the world.

My cover design for that book is based on the iconic Endless Summer poster.

Talmudic analysis: A slow news day at the end of the summer resulted in a silly straw man story about a rabbi who breaks the imagined mold and engages in a cool activity.

Surfing Video: A truly awesome numinous religious experience

If he saw this, Rudolph Otto might say that this epitomizes the "Mysterium tremendum et fascinans." [repost]

Before Blogging Was Invented Tzvee Liked Just Plain Surfing

Talmudic surfing koan: Does a wave exist?

Times Travel Section Discovers Tel Aviv

A really touching article in the Times Travel Section about Tel Aviv -- especially since I love surfing and my son got married there!

Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times A surfer and a wedding party present contrasting images in Neve Tzedek, a quiet corner of the city.

Seizing the Day in Tel Aviv
By HENRY ALFORD

THERE’S room for everyone in Tel Aviv.

Tel Aviv Travel Guide

Where to Stay

Where to Eat

What to Do

Go to the Tel Aviv Travel Guide »

Multimedia

Slide Show

The Capital of Mediterranean Cool

Map

Tel Aviv

I’m riding bikes along the beach with my friend James. James is 12, and moved to Tel Aviv from New York with his Israeli mother two years ago.

“That’s the separated beach,” James tells me matter-of-factly, pointing at a group of some 30 Orthodox men on the edge of a placid, gorgeous Mediterranean not far from the Hilton. I read a sign that states: “The Separated Beach. Bathing days for women: Sun, Tues, Thurs. Bathing days for men: Mon, Wed, Fri.” Then, pointing at a different group of men just 50 yards down the sand, James adds, “And that’s the gay beach.”

A couple of hours later, eager to see what other strange bedfellows I’ll find huddled on the edges of the water, I conduct an informal census: I walk the two miles or so of beach from the Orthodox section all the way down to Jaffa, the old Arab port of Tel Aviv. Just south of the gay section I find a stretch of sand-and-sun worshipers that I instantly dub the Ambiguous Male Friendship beach; just south of that I find the I Hate What I’m Wearing beach. I walk farther, and proceed to find concentrations of, variously, surfers, young families, volleyball players, Ethiopians, hippie drummers and irritable girlfriends.... more

Music Video: A Surfing Style Shalom Aleichem

Why not? From Meshugga Beach Party, the world's premier Jewish surf music band.