Hawaiian Safari
Date1977
Object number00031870
NamePoster
MediumColour lithograph on paper
DimensionsOverall: 760 x 345 mm
ClassificationsPosters and postcards
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionThis poster advertises Hawaiian Safari, a film produced by English surfer Rodney Sumpter. The film presents Montgomery 'Buttons' Kaluhiokalani, Larry Bertlemann, Gerry Lopez and others surfing the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii in the winter months of 1976/77. Also included is surfing on the tidal bore waves of the Severn River, England and surfing in France.
Sumpter filmed and produced seven surf movies between 1967 and 1979. He gained notoriety in 1967 for riding a tidal bore wave up the Severn River, west of London for more than 3 km.
Surfing films idealise the surfing lifestyle, promote the talents of individual surfers and present the varied and often exotic locations favoured by surfers. They are edited to make the most of the dramatic action on the water.HistoryRodney Sumpter was born in 1947 in Watford, England, and moved as a child with his family to Australia. He began surfing in 1961 aged 14 and two years later won the Juniors Division of the Australian Invitational Surfing Championships. He divided his time between Sydney and Southern California pursuing his interest in competitive surfing. He won the Juniors title in the United States Surfing Championships in 1964 and the following year competed with the American team at the World Surfing Championships in Peru. He won the inaugural Great Britain National Championship held on Jersey in the Channel Islands and moved back to England in 1966.
Sumpter shaped signature Union jack boards for Bilbo Surfboards in Cornwall and finished fifth in the 1966 World Championships in California and won the Irish National Championships in 1968. He retired from competitive surfing after finishing third in the 1971 Mahaka International Surfing Championships.
Hollywood began producing surf films in the late 1950s as the first generation of post-Second World War baby boomers reached adolescence. From this point on surfing films have grown in popularity and become part of popular surf culture. Surfing and the beach symbolised the idealism of carefree fun and freedom.SignificanceSurfing films provide an insight into aspects of the surfing lifestyle and have themselves become part of popular surfing culture.This poster is represenative of surfing films made in the late 1970s and documents the surfers who dominated the sport and the filmakers who recorded them. 
17 March 1962
17 March 1962
17 March 1962
17 March 1962
