
Endless Summer surfing star Mike Hynson, 82, died on Jan. 10. An Army brat, Hynson was already a star surfer when filmmaker Bruce Brown recruited him (and Robert August) for the 1966 (filming began in 1963) documentary The Endless Summer, which followed the two around the world. The surfing craze was already at its height, but this film really revved up the late-60s, hippie-cool era of the sport, with Hynson its handsome blond avatar. “He was really sure of himself. He was a go-for-it type of guy,” said his friend and fellow surfer Skip Frye. “So it ruffled feathers once in a while. He knew how good and how great he was.” Surfer Matt Warshaw added that “He was also a gifted, innovative board designer and an immaculate craftsman. And the style sense! Off the charts. Hynson was the best-dressed surfer of the 1960s, hands down.” In later years, Hynson designed surfboards, and became a drug advocate (and dealer). “I would say, don’t go for fame, go for fortune,” he said in 2007. “I was under the illusion that fame was fortune. Right? And so without being a glutton, or a weirdo, I didn’t think anything about money. I still don’t. I got the fame. The fortune went somewhere else.”
