The Iconic Bruce’s Beauties of ‘Endless Summer’ Fame Went Richter on June 3rd
You likely know the wave called Bruce’s Beauties from that iconic scene in Endless Summer. You remember the one: Mike Hynson and Robert August climbing a dune in coastal South Africa to lay eyes on one of the most perfect right-hand point breaks on Earth. It is, as everyone knows now, Cape St. Francis, and that scene kicked off generations of surfers hell-bent on exploration.
“From all the information we could gather, we figure it’s like this about 300 days of the year,” Bruce Brown said in the film. “The water was seventy degrees. The prevailing wind was straight offshore.”
In reality, though, Bruce’s Beauties is a fickle place. It only shows what it is capable of every once in a blue moon. The wave has become something of an icon for what it can be, rather than what it is. But on June 3, 2024, it decided that it would put on its best dancing shoes, do its hair, and grace the party with its presence.
“Armed with my camera, I stood watching and filming the few watermen who dared to surf one of the biggest swells ever to call upon St. Francis Bay,” wrote Down the Line on YouTube. “No one dared to paddle out as there was no possible entry point, this swell commanded respect, speaking a language of its own, warning of its unfathomable might, almost as if to say, ‘I don’t want to be surfed.'”
While it might not be Jaws or Nazaré sized, St. Francis Bay rarely sees waves over six feet. But on this particular day, it flexed its hidden muscles, and it won’t be a day anyone forgets for a long, long time.
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