surfer.com - The Mysterious, Enigmatic Surf Life Of Mike Hynson
From his early days in San Diego, to traveling the world with Bruce Brown, to heady days with the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, nobody ever did it like Hynson.
When I first moved down to Southern California after college I landed in the quiet hamlet of Seal Beach. Working in the lifeguard department, the old chief, Tim Dorsey, was a fixture at the headquarters and in the water. The word around the department was that back in the day Dorsey had been offered a role by Bruce Brown for what was to become “The Endless Summer.” The catch was that Dorsey was also offered the job as the lifeguard chief at the same time. He passed on being Robert August’s co-star and opted for a career at the beach.
Robert’s father, Blackie, lived on the south side of the Seal Beach pier in the early ’60s and the whole story seemed very plausible. I’ve never been able to one-hundred percent verify it and have no idea how accurate it actually is. Dorsey had appeared in Brown’s earlier film work, and at the time, the spot on the North Shore known as Dorsey’s Rockpile (today it is simply called Rockpiles and is a preferred haunt of three-time world champ John John Florence). If there is a thread of truth to it, Dorsey passing on a spot in “The Endless Summer” cast would have been what opened the door for Mike Hynson to waltz into the production.