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Era-defining surf movie, first released in 1977, made by husband and wife team Bill and Victoria Delaney; a showcase for pro surfers Shaun Tomson, Mark Richards, and Wayne Bartholomew, as well as water photographer Dan Merkel; often referred to as the "last great surf movie." 

 has long served as the marker for a generational change that saw a young, aggressive group of Australians and South Africans push the sport's performance level ahead of that set by surfers from California and Hawaii.

Bill Delaney, a 27-year-old Brooks Institute of Photography dropout, began working on

 in early 1975. Although largely uncredited at the time, Victoria Delaney, as later reported by writer John Grissim, "worked closely with her husband during all phases of the project." 

 was the first full-length film project for both; over a ten-month period in 1975 and early '76, the Delaneys traveled and filmed in Australia, Bali, and Hawaii.

 North Shore water photography was an early and crucial decision. Although he'd been 

 magazine's top lensman for the previous few years and was known as an obsessively hard worker, Merkel had never before shot 16mm film. He learned quickly. Manhandling a huge 21-pound high-speed camera, capable of shooting at 200 frames per second, Merkel put himself deep inside the tube as surfers rode past, and the footage he produced was crystalline, well-framed, and tighter on the action than anything yet seen in a surf movie.

Delaney, meanwhile, shot from land, and focused on the right surfers: Tomson, Richards, and Bartholomew all went on to win world titles before the decade ended. Special attention was given to Bartholomew, as Delaney showed the frenetic but likable Australian on the soccer field, playing pinball, skateboarding, and relaxing in the squalor of his Hawaiian rental unit between surf sessions. Tomson and Richards, however, are 

's standout surfers: Tomson with his newly developed pump-and-go style of tuberiding, and Richards with his tight-radius turns. The often-fickle Hawaiian surf was big, smooth, and sunny for days at a time during the 

In postproduction throughout 1976, Delaney and Victoria (credited in 

 as Victoria Montague) put together a versatile soundtrack that included Pablo Cruise, Joan Armatrading, and Billy Preston, then hired Hollywood actor Jan-Michael Vincent to do the voice-over—which unfortunately came out terse and humorless and is the film's weakest point. During the Hawaii shoot, Victoria had created a list of possible movie titles, one of which was 

 "Bill took the list," she later recalled, "and said, 'I'm sorry, I don't see anything here.' Then a couple of months later he says, 'Hey, I think I've got it: 

.' I said, 'Boy, that sounds familiar, where's my list?' And there it was."

 cost somewhere between $70,000 and $85,000 (different sources use different numbers), which was expensive for a surf film of the period. It debuted in Honolulu in early 1977. 

 magazine called it "a finely cut and polished diamond," and for the next few months it played to full houses in surf cities worldwide. Revised and updated versions of the film came out in 1978 (

 has never been released on video or DVD (although bootleg copies have long been in circulation), partly because Delaney believes the film should be seen in a theater and not on a small screen. The movie title itself has long been part of the surfing lexicon, as in "the Free Ride era," or "the Free Ride generation."

 the third most influential surf movie ever made (behind 

 at #6 on it's "Greatest 25 Surf Movies of All Time" list.

Free Ride

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