THE FANTASTIC PLASTIC VOYAGE

The author was hired as script writer for a movie that was to combine the best elements of The Endless Summer and A Hard Day's Night. It was to be creatively composed on the beaches of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tahiti as the sturdy little band of surfers (ranging from nine-year-old Kenny to fifty-three-year-old Pete Peterson and including such heroes as ""The Mongoose"" and Skip Frye) cavorted splendidly on each accommodating wave. That was the plan. Unfortunately disasters set in early--the producer and the spokesman for the kids viewed each other with mutual hate; underwater filming was wiped out when the camerman got hit by a board; the American experts were decimated when competing with the Australians; the food was generally rotten, the weather usually terrible and the landlocked production crew found themselves hoping for sharks. Mr. St. Pierre himself seemed superfluous (the non-actors couldn't speak the non-dialogue) as is this book which you can look for in the lobby of the (unnamed) film. . . . The Friendless Summer perhaps?