LA Times - ‘Birth of The Endless Summer’ brings surfing community together

Laguna Beach attracts visitors for a wide array of activities, but it was a local legend that had the residents out in force earlier this month.

A Coast Film Festival showcase of “Birth of The Endless Summer: Discovery of Cape St. Francis,” starring Laguna Beach surfing icon Dick Metz, drew a sellout crowd to the downtown area inside Hobie Surf Shop.

Standing over a stack of posters that he would eventually sign for the audience was the 92-year-old Metz, undoubtedly reminiscing as he watched the film documenting his world travels that would help make surfing a global phenomenon.

The film tells the story of how Metz began a three-year journey abroad by hitchhiking in front of the Sandpiper, a bar known to locals as the Dirty Bird, in 1959.

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