John Engle

A fourth-generation Californian and UCLA Ph.D., John Engle lives in longboard champion Antoine Delpero's hometown of Marseille, in Southern France. He is a professor of literature and film at the Université de Toulon, where he's written on subjects as diverse as contemporary poetry, 18th century education, the films of Abdellatif Kechiche, and time travel in cinema. He is the author of "Surfing in the Movies: A Critical History" (2015, McFarland). When John was a little kid, his dad took him to Hermosa Beach to see his first surfing movie, "Search for Surf," personally presented by big wave pioneer Greg Noll.