The best surf films ever

1 Innermost Limits of Pure Fun
George Greenough, 1970
The film that tapped the Endless Summer crowd on the shoulder and called last drinks. Casually documenting the 1968 short board revolution as it unfolded, Greenough showcased a gang of upstarts who unwittingly created history. The action sent a tsunami through the surfing community, but it was Greenough's first person POV photography that blew everyone away. Shot from inside a series of perfect barrels, the famous 'coming of the dawn' sequence endures as the most powerful piece of celluloid in surf movie history. Available at www.switch-foot.com

2 Morning of the Earth
Albie Falzon, 1972
The most revered of all surfing films, Falzon's Morning of the Earth is perhaps surfing's holiest of texts. Made before the advent of real surfing commercialism, the film harnessed surfing's drop-out zeitgeist in a way no one could have anticipated. The vegetarianism, cannabis and hippy lifestyle attracted a broad counter-cultural audience that would carry it far beyond the beach. Images like 16 year old Steve Cooney's first wave at Uluwatu, Chris Brock's idyllic Angourie treehouse and Michael Petersen's impossibly iconic cut-back, soon transcended the film and to this day are hailed timeless motifs of
a soul surfing consciousness. Available at www.morningoftheearth.net

3 Tubular Swells
Hoole/McCoy, 1976
Kicking off with a tumbling succession of exquisite barreling waves this mid 70s classic captures the halfway point in history just before many surfers had to choose between what some called 'soul' and 'sell-out'.
Featuring Peter McCabe, and Tony "Doris" Eltherington, the film showcases (at the time) contemporary surfing's most talented gene pool; a who's who of today's surfing Godfathers. Shot in Australia, South Africa and Hawaii, Tubular Swells became a cult fave by revealing the first seductive images of the then Indonesian secret spots, G-land, Padang Padang and Shipwrecks. Available at www.jackmccoy.com

4 Glass Love
Andrew Kidman 2004
You know those mellow cats sitting next to you at North Bondi RSL the last time you were there?  Those guys know stuff. They know that Glass Love is a trip so backlit, so beautiful and so aesthetically referenced that all anyone has to do is sigh and go with the dream. As a homage to an earlier tradition of filmmaking, Glass Love trades on Morning of the Earth's soul DNA, substituting its naivety for more of an art-directed meditation on family life, surfing and that anti-hero bohemian pursuit of life, liberty and a decent swell. For those that like a little poetry with their surfing, this one is peerless. Available at www.litmus.com.au

5 Riding with Giants
Stacey Peralta 2004
Easily the classiest treatment of surfing's big wave history, Riding with Giants increases the heart rate faster than a near miss with a shark in shallow water. It begins with surfing's earliest days, burns straight past the early Hawaiians, lingers briefly with California's Gidget before grappling with the legacy of Waimea pioneers Greg Knoll and gang, the tragedy of Mark Foo's death at California's Mavericks and the birth of modern tow-in surfing at Maui's Jaws. Besides amazing footage from the water and the air, it's also peppered with star studded interviews from surfers, commentators and everybody else that matters in the sport, the film climaxes with an unbelievable slow-mo look at Laird Hamilton's grace under pressure at crazy big Teahupoo. Available at www.sixounceboardstore.com.au Shop 2/144-148 Glenayr Ave 
Bondi Beach NSW 
2026 Australia

More films, film reviews, film festivals and special screenings in Sydney? Sign up for our weekly newsletter