Mike Hinson epitomized the image of a bronzed surf god as the star of the hit 1966 documentary “Endless Summer,” embodying the sport's spirit of rebellion, with his outlaw instincts, and his It took shape along the way. Carl passed away on January 10th in Encinitas, California. He was 82 years old.
His death in the hospital was confirmed by Donna Klaassen Jost, who collaborated with Heinsohn on her 2009 autobiography, “Transcendent Memories of the Surf Rebellion.” She said the cause is not yet known.
Hanson was born in an era when surfing was often marginalized as a strange ritual of West Coast teen culture, thanks to bubbly matinee fare like “Beach Blanket Bingo” (1965) and the swell of the Beach Boys. . He was hailed not only for his wave skills, but also as a prominent builder of the popular Redfin longboards, which he designed for manufacturer Gordon & Smith in 1965.
“One of the greatest surfing lives of all time,” Jake Howard wrote in Surfer magazine after Hinson's death, describing him as a “hot dog performer, shaping genius, and cosmic adventurer.” did. In countless ways. ”
Hanson's life began in 1963 when he was invited by filmmaker Bruce Brown to join him and Robert Augus, a young Southern California surfer, on a trek that led him through Senegal, Ghana, South Africa and Australia. It became a thing of lore when I was invited with him. Tahiti, New Zealand, Hawaii, Bouncing around the equator to avoid the slight winter chill while searching for perfect waves.
Although Heinsohn was only 21 years old, he had already built a reputation as a maverick power surfer on the beaches around San Diego. He could be brash and lonely, a friend recalled, but not without reason. He had already proven himself as one of the first non-Native Hawaiians to surf what is sometimes called the most dangerous wave in the world, on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, in 1961.
He certainly looked camera ready. Caramel tan and sun-white hair swayed in Dracula style. Soon the hairstyle is imitated by surfers all over the world.
Mr. Brown had only $50,000 for his project, so he made his stars pay for their own tickets around the world. To fund his trip, Heinsohn turns to Hobie Artel, the famous board manufacturer he worked for, who offers him $1,400 for airfare. Interview with British newspaper The Guardian.
Unbeknownst to his Strait associates, Hanson brought with him a stash of amphetamines and three months of Tijuana marijuana. “I was young, stupid, and loaded,” he said in a 2009 interview with OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Orange County, California.
The first stop was Senegal, where locals were “using wooden planks to post their bellies in the waves,” Heinsohn told the Guardian.
A bigger game awaited them. Heinsohn finally discovered a quarry at Cape St. Francis on the southern coast of South Africa. This is, as he once described it, “a perfect right-hander with no surfer in sight.”
“On Mike's first ride,” Mr. Brown says in “The First Five Seconds” of the “Endless Summer” voiceover. The waves “looked like they were made by some kind of machine. The rides were so long I couldn't fit them into one movie.”
In his autobiography, Heinsohn recalled the experience. It was electric. The hair on my neck stood straight up. ”
Michael Leah Hinson was born June 28, 1942 in Crescent City, near the Oregon border. He is the elder of two sons of Robert Heinson, an engineer who worked in the Navy and Grace (Wheaton) Hanson. In his early years, the family divided their time between Hawaii and San Diego, finally settling in Southern California when he was 10 years old. As a teenager, he surfed with a crew called the Sultans.
After graduating from San Diego's La Jolla High School, Hanson found himself dodging letters from committees during the early days of the Vietnam conflict. “I avoided them for three years,” he wrote in his book. Traveling around the world for the film, he added, “was the miracle I needed.”
This journey was not short on challenges. During a layover in Mumbai en route from South Africa to Australia, Heinsohn had to tape down five 16mm film canisters containing treasured St. Francis footage beneath his baggy Hawaiian shirt. . And filming to crack down on illegal photos.
Distributors initially showed little interest. Warner Bros., Heinsohn wrote: Mr. Brown ultimately proved them wrong, drawing lines around the block for screenings in Wichita, Kansas, during a snowstorm. “The Endless Summer” earned more than $30 million.
By the late 1960s, Heinsohn competed in another quest. This time he finds enlightenment with the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, a band of mentally ill and drug smugglers from the Laguna Beach area. The Brotherhood fused elements of Eastern religion with a belief in the transformative power of psychedelic drugs. They were dealing in staggering amounts that caused authorities to brand them the “hippie mafia.”
Heinsohn was soon taking LSD regularly, but he evaded arrest long enough to make another film foray. He masterminded “Rainbow Bridge” (1972). Directed by Chuck Wein, a protégé of Andy Warhol, the film evolved into a quasi-sectarian documentary about mysticism, surfing, and drugs, climaxing with a Jimi Hendrix concert at Maui's Haleakalā volcano base. Ta.
In one scene, Hanson enthusiastically smashes a surfboard and produces a hidden bag of hashish (actually ovaltine), mirroring the smuggling tactics employed by the Brotherhood.
Despite the film's troubling portrayal of drug use, Heinsohn's addiction to drugs, particularly cocaine and methamphetamine, eventually led to a steep slide that included time behind bars for drug possession. “I hit rock bottom,” he told OC Weekly. “I stayed there for a while.”
He eventually snapped out of the spiral and started making surfboards again. He credits his ex-wife, Melinda Merryweather, a former model for the Ford Agency, and his longtime partner, Carol Hannigan, as his “angels.”
Mr. Hannigan survives him, as does his son Michael Hinson Jr. from his first marriage.
In a 1986 video interview, Heinsohn reflected on his perfect ride in South Africa and wondered if he and his comrades invented the surfing fantasy, or if it simply reflected something embedded in surfers' consciousness. I did. “What if there wasn't 'Endless Summer,'” he asked. Do you think anyone would care? ”
“I didn’t really care,” he said. “But when I saw it, I knew exactly what I was going to do: pop the bubble and make a dream come true.”