Bud Browne Presents

Firecrackers exploded in the aisles. Bottlecaps zipped through the air. High-decibel beer-belches rang out. A motorcyclist might blow in through the side door, ride up one aisle and down the other, then gun back out the way he came. Friday night at the surf movies.

Service in the Sun came out in early 1957 and gave the Australians just the smallest onscreen taste of modern surfing. A second and far more generous dose of surf cinema arrived later in the year, when California’s Bud Browne sailed over with not one but two of his signature feature-length films: The Big Surf and Surfing in Hawaii. These were the first movies of their kind to be shown in Australia...

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