'Free Ride Final Edition'
DateMid 1980s
Object number00029290
NamePoster
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsImage: 318 x 280 mm
Sheet: 474 x 280 mm
Overall: 474 x 280 mm, 1 mm, 0.01 kg
Sheet: 474 x 280 mm
Overall: 474 x 280 mm, 1 mm, 0.01 kg
ClassificationsPosters and postcards
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Dick Hoole
DescriptionThis promotional poster was printed for the surf movie 'Free Ride Final Edition'. The poster features three photographic images of a man surfing.HistoryThe movie 'Free Ride Final Edition' was an updated version of the original surfing classic 'Free Ride' produced by Bill Delaney in 1977. The original movie 'Free Ride' starred the pro surfers Mark Richards, Shaun Thomson and Australian Wayne Bartholomew in Hawaii and featured slow motion footage filmed by Dan Merkel, a photographer from 'Surfing' magazine. The film also featured music by the Australian band Dire Straits. 'Free Ride Final Edition' included new surfing footage of the Australian pro surfers Greg Day, Tommy Carroll, Cheyne Horan and Californian surfers Willie Morris and Tom Current at the 1983 Rip Curl pro.
Hollywood began producing surf films in the late 1950s as the first generation of post-World War II War baby boomers reached adolescence. Surfing and the beach symbolised the idealism of carefree fun and freedom. Surfing films have been a critical ingredient in the popularity of surfing culture and have helped to popularised surfing and beach fashion. In the 1960s surf art moved off the covers of surfing magazines and onto film poster promoting movies featuring surfers riding large waves in exotic locations. By the 1970s surfing films had shifted from 1960s Hollywood beach party musicals produced for the broader community, to the 'soul-surfing' exploration of counterculture lifestyles. During this era films were either created in a documentary style, which targeted the surfing enthusiast, or as a fictional feature film with the focus on the reality of surfing.
Surfing films provides an insight into the surfing lifestyle and have become part of surfing popular culture. They reflect the internationalism of surfing in their content an appeal. Surfing films provide the opportunity to watch talented and often high profile surfers catching waves that every surfer dream about riding.SignificanceThis poster is an example of the types of material used to promote surfing movies during the 1980s.