Surfin’ Shorts is exactly that - short, very short - and I’m not talking about the tight little red ones with giant Hawaiian flowers all over them. I’m talking about a single layered disc with only 56 minutes of total footage. If it’s any consolation this disc actually contains three features – but when two of these features can’t even top the 15 minute mark you really start to question the value on this disc. These individual mini-features can be played of their own accord (via selection from the main menus) or you can select to run through each of the different shorts one after the other (which it will try to do anyway), but even when played one after another these little features are still so disjointed and so short that you really must wonder why this was released at all.

The three shorts include The Wet Set, which is basically a fourteen minute feature advertising the surfing lifestyle and more obviously the surfing fashion. Brought to us by Hobie-MacGregor Sportswear, this little mini-feature is blatantly and obviously a short advertising shorts, and this time I do mean the tight little red ones with giant Hawaiian flowers all over them. America’s Newest Sport is a whopping 11 minutes about what was a brand new sport in those days – skateboarding. This little show quickly highlights the similarities between skateboarding and surfing and features demonstrations with a bunch of very young little twerps riding backwards and forwards, occasionally going down a hill just for a challenge (please remember this is before the days of half-pipes and professional demonstration skateboarding). The final feature really lives without an appropriate title and is just a bunch of left-over footage from The Endless Summer in Japan among other even more meaningless snippets. Unfortunately you should expect to be disappointed.

The video quality is pretty ordinary, the transfer itself is clean but the source material is littered with constant and large film artefacts. I know one has to keep the age of the material in mind when discussing film artefacts, but this source material hasn’t been looked after too well at all. The artefacts aren't too bad and tend to appear about as often as should be expected, but you’ve been warned to expect them - lots of them. As mentioned, the feature is only 56 minutes in length all up, so compression glitches really couldn’t have been a problem. The colours are all well rendered but still have that old '60s washed look about them (oddly enough).

The audio is a bit disappointing, with no work going in to improving its quality. Presented in its original mono format, the features feel like they are coming straight out of an old wood-finished '60s TV set. There are a few clicks and pops and voices get a real muffled sound on more than just a couple occasions. On the most part, however, the dialogue is clear and easy to understand with any minor distractions being the fault of the source material which wouldn’t have been worth the cost to remaster.

Extras??? Sorry ‘dudes’, no luck on this disc either – although we do have a nicer menu structure to deal with the different features. We also have Spanish, German, and French subtitles – but absolutely nothing to get excited about (unless of course you're Spanish, German or French).

It's tough to compare the different Bruce Brown titles, but I think I could clearly say this was not my favourite of the three I’ve reviewed thus far. Its short 56 minutes in combined length really lacks anything worthy of notice and even during this short length there is still no material which is worthy of great praise. If you're completing the Bruce Brown Golden Years of Surfing Collection then this disc is an interesting addition, but if you’re a surf buff chasing down some classic footage then this will leave you with nothing but a salty and disappointing taste in your mouth.