Watch: Remember This Perfect Point From the Original “Endless Summer”?

Originally posted on SURFER | By Zander Morton | Last updated 3/28/24

The penultimate scene in "The Endless Summer" is when Mike Hynson and Robert August climb over the top of a sand dune in South Africa to find a perfect reeling righthander, without a surfer in sight.

At the time, Cape St Francis, a.k.a "Bruce's Beauties" as it was called in the film, was considered the perfect wave, and it sent surfers into a frenzy.

In the decades that followed — as boards, wetsuits, surfers and surfing evolved — so did the definition of the perfect wave. Cape St Francis, while still a dreamy setup, has been replaced in South African surfing lore by bigger and more intense waves like J-Bay and Skeleton. With development also contributing to a change in the quality of the wave, it's been somewhat forgotten.

Still, it has its days.

In the clip below from Surfline, Mikey February and friends score St Francis on a dreamy, head high day. While the surfing looks much different than it did 60 years ago, February's eye-pleasing approach (see :20) is timeless, and would certainly make Hynson, August, and Bruce Brown proud.