Mike Hynson, Surfing Star of ‘The Endless Summer,’ Dies at 82

Mike Hynson, who portrayed the bronze surf god as the star of the popular 1966 documentary “The Endless Summer” and, with his lawless nature, embodied the rebel ethic of sport on the way to being hailed as the colossus of the curl, died on January 10 in Encinitas, Calif. He is 82 years old.

His death, at the hospital, was confirmed by Donna Klaasen Jost, who collaborated with Hynson on his 2009 biography, “Transcendental Memories of a Surf Rebel.” He said the cause was not yet known.

Hynson emerged in an era when West Coast youth culture was often marginalized as an interesting ritual, thanks to matinee fare like “Beach Blanket Bingo” (1965). and the rise of the Beach Boys. He was celebrated not only for his skills on the waves, but also as a collector of famous boards, especially the famous Red Fin longboard, which he designed for the manufacturer Gordon & Smith in 1965.

His was “one of the greatest surfing lives of all time,” Jake Howard wrote in Surfer magazine after Hynson’s death, describing him as “a hot, talented surfer.” creative, cosmic adventurer” who “changed the sport and culture of surfing. in countless ways”.

Hynson’s life began in 1963, when actor Bruce Brown invited him and Robert August, a young surfer from Southern California, on a trip that would take them through Senegal, Ghana , South Africa, Australia, Tahiti, New Zealand and Hawaii, jetting off to the Equator to escape a bit of the winter chill while searching for the perfect wave.

Hynson is only 21 years old but has already made a name for himself as an extreme surfer on the beaches around San Diego. He could be brash and aloof, friends recalled — but not without reason: He had already proven his mettle as one of the first non-native Hawaiians to ride Pipeline, on the North Shore of the Hawaiian Islands. Oahu, sometimes called the most dangerous waves. the world in 1961.

She certainly looks camera-ready, with her caramel brown and sun-bleached hair popping in Dracula fashion, a hairstyle soon to be emulated by surfers the world over.

Mr. Brown had only $50,000 for his project, allowing his stars to pay for their own tickets around the world. To finance his trip, Hynson turned to the famous office maker Hobie Alter, for whom he worked, to give him $1,400 in airfare, “even though I had stolen nine tablets from him a few years earlier,” he said. he in 2017. interview with the British newspaper The Guardian.

Unbeknownst to his close friends, Hynson had been transporting amphetamines and marijuana to Tijuana for three months. “I was young, crazy and loaded,” he said in a 2009 interview with OC Weekly, another Orange County, Calif., newspaper.

The first stop was Senegal, where “the locals were using surfboards to get around in the waves,” Hynson told The Guardian, “so when they saw me and Robert surfing, he was overwhelmed.” those.”

A bigger game awaited them. Hynson finally found his mine at Cape St. Francis, on the south coast of South Africa — “a perfect rolling right-hander, no surfer,” as Surfer magazine once described him.

“On Mike’s first trip,” Mr. Brown said in his account of “The Endless Summer,” “the first five seconds he knew he had found that perfect wave.” The waves, he added, “look like they were made by some kind of machine. Their journey took so long that I couldn’t fit them into one film.”

In his autobiography, Hynson recalled the experience: “I’ve never had such an adrenaline rush in my life, such a pure, natural phenomenon. It was an electrician. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.”

Michael Lear Hynson was born on June 28, 1942 in Crescent City, Calif., near the Oregon border, the eldest son of Robert Hynson, an engineer who served in the Navy, and Grace ( Wheaton) Hynson. Early on, the family split their time between Hawaii and San Diego, settling in Southern California at the age of 10. As a teenager, he participated in surfing with a team called the Sultans.

After graduating from La Jolla High School in San Diego, Hynson found himself writing letters from the draft board in the early years of the Vietnam War. “I left them for three years,” he wrote in his book. Traveling around the world for the film, he added, “was the miracle I needed.”

The trip was not without problems. During a stopover in Mumbai en route from South Africa to Australia, Hynson had to film five 16mm films of Cape St. Francis precious under a Hawaiian sack shirt, to prevent it in front of the Indian customs officials who took a camera. and film by compressing images without permission.

Distributors showed little interest at first. Warner Bros., Hynson wrote, “He predicted it wouldn’t be more than 10 miles from the beach.” Mr. Brown eventually proved them wrong, drawing a line around the test block in Wichita, Kan., during a snowstorm. “The Endless Summer” grossed over $30 million.

In the late 1960s, Hynson went on another quest, this time to find enlightenment with the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, a group of psychonauts and drug dealers in the area. Laguna Beach. The Brotherhood combined elements of Eastern religions with a belief in the transformative power of psychedelic drugs, which they processed in such large quantities that authorities dubbed them the “hippie mafia.” ” they.

Hynson soon started taking LSD regularly, but he soon evaded arrest to make another film: He directed “Rainbow Bridge” (1972), which he thought was a surf film. The film, directed by Chuck Wein, a protégé of Andy Warhol, evolved into a documentary about mysticism, surfing and drugs, and ended with Jimi Hendrix performing at the base of a volcano. Haleakala on Maui.

In one scene, Hynson frantically reads a blackboard and produces a secret bag of hashish (actually Ovaltine), mirroring the smuggling scheme he used with the Brotherhood.

Despite the film’s depiction of drug use, Hynson’s addiction to drugs, particularly cocaine and methamphetamine, led to a number of excesses, including time in prison for drug possession. “I hit rock bottom,” he told OC Weekly, “and stayed there for a while.”

He finally pulled out of his spiral and started building the board again. He credits his ex-wife, Melinda Merryweather, a former model for the Ford Agency, and longtime colleague Carol Hannigan as his “angels.”

Mrs. Hannigan survives him, as does Michael Hynson Jr., a son from his first marriage.

In a 1986 video interview, Hynson looked back on his perfect trip to South Africa and wondered if he and his traveling companions were creating a surfing fantasy with him or reflecting one already embedded in his memory. -just a surfer’s body. “If we didn’t have ‘Endless Summer,'” he said, “do you think this pursuit of the perfect wave would still exist?” Do you think anyone will care?

“I didn’t really care,” he said. “But when I saw it, I knew right then that we had popped a bubble and we were dreaming.”