Endless Quest : Local Men Retrace Search for the Perfect Waves of Classic Movie’s Surfing Safari

Pat O’Connell had dreamed of pulling his surfboard down that strand of white beach that went for miles without a footprint.

Robert (Wingnut) Weaver envisioned riding that perfect wave at Cape St. Francis, South Africa, the one that kept going and going and going . . .

They had watched Huntington Beach’s Robert August and Mike Hynson ride that surf break before, in Bruce Brown’s 1964 surfing documentary “The Endless Summer.” They couldn’t wait to get their shot.

Thirty years after Brown and August visited Cape St. Francis, pro surfers O’Connell and Weaver returned with the filmmaker for “The Endless Summer II.”

And they discovered that the perfect wave--and the world around it--has imperfections.

They flew halfway around the world, drove over miles of highway and dirt roads and hiked across the hot sand only to find . . . Mission Viejo?

Hundreds of condominiums covered the shore, vegetation had grown over sand that in the past had blown out to the ocean to create a smooth, breaking wave that offered rides up to 45 seconds long.

“I saw that,” Weaver said, “and the first thing I said was ‘Oh nooooo.’ ”

It was a familiar sight for Weaver, who grew up in Newport Beach before moving to Santa Cruz in the late 1980s. It reminded O’Connell a little of Dana Point, where he has lived for 10 years.

“What happened at Cape St. Francis is a classic example of what happens when population spreads uncontrollably,” Weaver said. “There were still waves there, but they weren’t as good as the first movie.”

Weaver and O’Connell found great waves during two years of filming at prime surf breaks in South Africa, Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Hawaii and the Fiji Islands.

But the trip offered them more than a chance to see how many floater maneuvers O’Connell, 22, could do while riding a shortboard, or how smooth Weaver, 28, could be riding a longboard.

They picked up a little perspective along the way.

“Growing up in Orange County isn’t like growing up in the real world,” O’Connell said. “You look at life so much differently once you have traveled around the world.

“Sure, I had traveled before on the pro surf tour, but your perspective is limited because you’re concentrating on that quarter-mile of beach where you’re competing. This was different. I learned that the world stretches far beyond the beach.”

It stretched all the way to South Africa, where the waves were great but the politics lousy, last spring. The elections were still nearly a year away, and protesters lined some of the streets the surfers and film crew passed.

O’Connell and producer Roger Riddell were driving down a winding coastal road near Cape Town when radio reports warned that protesters were rolling boulders off freeway overpasses onto cars below.

Those overpasses were just a few exits away.

“They told us if we were coming through,” O’Connell said, “that we should come through late, late at night, after everyone had gone home, or in broad daylight.

“We went through at dusk, the worst time. We looked ahead and saw people standing on the bridge, and I thought, ‘No, this can’t be.’

“When we got closer, we saw soldiers and a tank sitting on the bridge. They had everything under control.”

A few months after returning to California, O’Connell read about Amy Biehl, a Newport Beach college student who was pulled from her car in Cape Town and was stabbed and beaten to death. He wondered, could that have been us?

“There were so many militant uprisings when we were there,” Weaver said, “that we didn’t know if we would ever get to go back.

“Now, it’s just extraordinary to see how everything worked out so well. The elections are over and transfer of power (to President Nelson Mandela) has gone through. Pat gets to go back in July with the world tour. What a great place to have an opportunity to go back to.”

Brown discovered much has changed since he made the first picture. Filmed on a $50,000 budget, the first movie grossed an estimated $30 million worldwide. It was shot on a wind-up 16-millimeter camera by Brown, who worked alone.

The new version was shot with multiple state-of-the-art 35-millimeter cameras and includes underwater scenes. Brown, who directs the movie and co-wrote the script with son, Dana, had a budget of $3.3 million and an eight-member crew to capture the adventures of O’Connell and Weaver.

Brown considered dozens of surfers for the starring roles. Former world-champions Kelly Slater and Tom Curren, considered the Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson of surfing, were rumored to be the favorites.

But Brown wanted to create a visual difference--the ballet steps of the longboard ride along with the break dancing moves of a shortboard surfer.

Mutual friends put Brown in touch with Weaver and O’Connell in 1991. The surfers met for the first time during auditions at Brown’s ranch north of Santa Barbara.

Brown saw potential in O’Connell, a blond-mopped kid who can match the energy level of 20 kindergartners on a sugar rush. And Brown saw potential in Weaver, the clean-cut, well-spoken surfer with an economics degree from UC Santa Cruz.

“I didn’t want some guy with tattoos on his forehead and saying, ‘Yeah, dude, groovy, trendy,’ ” Brown said. “When I met Pat, we talked for about 10 minutes and I thought, ‘He’s perfect.’ He epitomized my perception of surfing. He’s enthusiastic and doesn’t look at the dark side of things.”

Neither O’Connell nor Weaver are native Californians. O’Connell was born in Chicago and moved to Laguna Niguel with his parents when he was 12. Weaver was born in Germany and moved to Newport Beach when he was 4.

Weaver learned to bodysurf from a 65-year-old woman who was a regular at Corona del Mar beaches. He didn’t start riding a board until 1982, his junior year at Newport Harbor High.

He always rode a longboard, refusing to try the shorter, faster version, even for Brown’s cameras. He considers himself a surfing purist, a link from the legends who rode the longboard before him to the kids he hopes will ride it in the future.

“The whole style of longboarding appealed to me,” Wingnut said. “It was a different approach to surfing, and I had always been into the 1950s and ‘60s. And surfing just captured that era so well.”

He was one of the founding members of the Blackie’s Longboard Contest in Newport Beach, and has won several contests, including the Malibu Club Invitational and the Coastline Cup.

“Wingnut was the first of the young guys to really dedicate himself to riding the longboard,” said August, who shaped 25 boards that Weaver used in the movie.

“Before him, it was mainly older guys like me riding longboards. Now, younger kids are finding that you can have fun on them when the waves are three feet and mushy.”

O’Connell started surfing in his early teens, sharpening his skills on breaks such as Upper and Lower Trestles and Salt Creek State Beach.

He graduated from Dana Hills High in 1989 and a year later won the first pro contest he entered, a U.S. tour event at Imperial Beach.

By 1991, O’Connell was in surfing’s major leagues--competing in a few world-tour events and qualifying contests. He upset former world champions Damien Hardman and Tom Carroll on his way to a fifth-place finish at Huntington Beach’s Op Pro, but struggled on the European leg of the world tour.

“I surfed OK here or there in a contest,” he said. “But I was not a complete surfer. I took these two years off to focus just on surfing, not the contests. Now, I feel a lot more confident coming into contests.”

It has been more than a year since the film crew called it a wrap, and O’Connell and Weaver are eagerly awaiting the movie’s June 3 premiere.

They’re traveling the country with Brown to promote the movie. A photo spread in GQ magazine is scheduled for next month. Reporters from New York to Santa Cruz are calling for interviews.

O’Connell hasn’t seen the finished product, only a preview showing before “Major League II” at a Dana Point theater.

He paid a matinee price for the movie, watched the preview and left. He hopes people leaving the theater will have the same feeling he did making it.

“There’s so much violence in all the movies around now, that I hope people will see this film and give a second thought to what the world can be like,” he said. “There’s still a way to get away, out of the concrete jungle. You just have to get off your butt and go find them.”

Endless Summer II Travelogue

Dana Point’s Pat O’Connell and former Newport Beach resident Robert (Wingnut) Weaver logged nearly 70 hours on airplanes in search of the perfect wave. Filming for Bruce Brown’s surfing movie “Endless Summer II” took O’Connell and Weaver to seven countries, including Australia and South Africa. Location: Costa Rica Dates: April 20-May 6, 1992 Breaks Surfed: Ollie’s Point, Tamarindo, Witch’s Rock

*Location: Southern California Dates: July, 1992 Breaks Surfed: Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach

*Location: France Dates: Sept. 19-Sept. 28, 1992 Breaks Surfed: Anglet, Biarritz

*Location: Mexico Dates: October 1992 Breaks Surfed: Natividad Island

*Location: Hawaii Dates: November 1992-January 1993 Breaks Surfed: Makala, Pipeline, Waimea Bay

*Location: Australia Dates: Feb. 23-March 15, 1993 Breaks Surfed: Brisbane, Noosa Heads, Gold Coast

*Location: South Africa Dates: April 19-May 10, 1993 Breaks Surfed: Cape St. Francis, Cape Town, Elands Bay, Jeffreys Bay

*Location: Fiji Dates: May 22-June 8, 1993 Breaks Surfed: Tavarua

*Location: Southern California Dates: September 1993 Breaks Surfed: Malibu