Barefoot Adventure DVD

The grandfather of surf films, Bruce Brown, introduces Barefoot Adventure, his third film, by showing off the microphone he would use on stage while narrating when he screened the films in auditoriums around southern California in the early 1960s. He notes that a tape recording of his original narration couldn't be found in his attic, so he and his son have written a new narration for the film. That seems unfortunate at first, but the necessity of coming up with new commentary allows Brown to speak wistfully of surfing days gone by. Most of the film was shot in Hawaii... in 1960, when the islands were already a magnet for tourists, but visitors were mostly content to take hula lessons and lounge around their hotels. Fanatics seeking the perfect waves of Hawaii were still a relative rarity, and Brown reminisces about travelling the islands, seeking out incredible new surfing spots in rattletrap cars that could be purchased for $45. The film shot by Brown, who would encase his camera in a watertight Plexiglas box, is often gorgeous, though the footage does show some scratches and other minor flaws that speak to its authenticity. While the camera never strays too far from showing surfers riding spectacular waves, there are some quirky comedic bits, generally playing on the dangers of going barefoot or the problems surfers faced living with virtually no money. This is a beautiful document of the earliest days of the surfing craze. --Robert J McNamara, Amazon.com [show more]

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