WHO WORE IT BETTER? MIKE HYNSON, ALWAYS

Mike Hynson is best remembered for his starring turn in Endless Summer, as the regularfooter with the self-satisfied grin, the glossy slicked-back blond hair, and the casual but flawless surf-forward wardrobe. The level of style that Hynson brought to Endless Summer was not a one-off. He would never again reach the kind of popularity he had during the mid-1960s, but that finely-tuned instinct for fashion never left him, and Hynson cut a sharp figure until his death in 2025.

Herbie Fletcher's take on the Hynson style: "Mike recognized that it was all about music. If you merged the cool of jazzmen like Herbie Mann, Dave Brubeck, and Jimmy Smith with the raw sweat of Ray Charles—that's what Hynson was all about."

But Mike himself had another idea. "I was a phenomenal golfer when I was a kid—still am," he told Scott Hulet in 1993. "I was playing on little tours and had sponsors, the whole nine yards. I was coached in golf to be a professional. To cultivate a certain look and attitude. To be cool. I later brought some of that to my surfing."

A brief illustrated review of Mike Hynson's evolving look.