Great documentary surf music's origins (hint: NOT the Beach Boys)

As "Sound of the Surf" (2022 release; 71 min.) opens, we are introduced to Dick Dale, one of THE founding fathers of surf music. He takes us back in time to Southern California of the mid-50's, and how surfers were listening and jamming out to... jazz, until eventually Dick Dale and a few others started an instrumental rock style that would become the sound of surf. At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: the film makers do an excellent job of looking at the origins of surf music, way before the Beach Boys were around. In fact the Beach Boys are nothing more than a footnote in this film, and not in a positive way ("just a bunch of inlanders" laments one talking head). The vast array of early surf artists and bands as shown in this doc is staggering: Dick Dale and the Del Tones, The Surfaris, The Bel Airs, Kathy Marshall, The Pyramids, Eddie and the Showmen, The Fireballs, and on and on. My only complaint is that, with so much material to explore, the film feels woefully short at just an hour and 10 minutes.

"Sound of the Surf" was released in 2022 when it played at various film festivals, but it wasn't released to streaming until 2025. I thankfully happened to stumble on it on Amazon Prime just the other night. If you are a fan of surf music (the real kind, and not just the Beach Boys latecomers kind), I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

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Over 50 years ago, rock and roll fell in love with the sport of surfing and from that serendipitous moment, surf music was born.

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Sound of the Surf

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