I’m sorry to see him go…
Lifeguard, athlete, film maker, historian, and a role model for aging with a zest for living.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-browne29-2008jul29,0,6817994.story?track=ntothtml
Me ke’aloha puma hana Bud
Gil
SLOIFF Presents: Bud Browne Tribute - March 13th, 2008
by Wendy Eidson
(San Luis Obispo)
Bud Browne
San Luis Obispo, CA (January 21, 2007) — The San Luis Obispo International Film Festival is delighted to present an historic and exciting night honoring the world’s first surf filmmaker, 95-year old Bud Browne. Now a local resident of the Central Coast, Bud will be honored here by many surfing greats, including surfers Gerry Lopez, Peter Cole, Ricky Grigg, Fred Van Dyke, Walter Hoffman, surf cinematographer Jack McCoy, and surfer/shaper, Dick Brewer. Buzzy Trent’s daughter, Anna Moore is helping to coordinate the event.
On Thursday, March 13, 2008, this group of legendary surfers from around the world, will take the stage at the grand Fremont Theatre in downtown San Luis Obispo to pay tribute to the man who inspired modern surf culture by creating the first commercial surf films ever. Surfing the 50’s will be the featured film, and the evening will also include a raffle, Q & A session and a post-screening Surf Party in the old Pier One building on Monterey St. (generously donated by Copeland Properties) with live music, surf films and the opportunity to meet the surf celebrities in attendance.
There are few that would deny that Bud Browne single handedly documented the birth of big wave surfing as a sport in and of itself. Known and revered as the father of the surf film, Bud’s contribution toward the documentation of surf history is immeasurable. Receiving his film degree at USC, and documenting surfing from Malibu to Australia and Hawaii from the early forties through the nineties, his film career spans a period of over sixty years where his contribution to the sport is unrivaled.
The surf movies he produced during the fifties and sixties defined a generation of its time. Having filmed surfing from the birth of big wave riding through the short board evolution, Bud Browne was long regarded as the first. He was not only recognized in his time as the best, but is also revered in the industry as a surfing National Treasure. His work continues to shed light not only on a unique time, but also on its key players, some of who will be attending the tribute to Bud Browne at the upcoming SLOIFF. The huge body of work that Bud Browne produced will continue to inspire and move others by the daring and adventure of its time.
In 1994, Bud edited and re-released the best material from the eight surf films produced between 1953-60, taking a year and a half to assemble Surfing the 50’s, narrated by John Kelly and Peter Cole. Many great surfers and surf spots are featured in this 70-minute color film that will be featured at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival in honor of Bud Browne.
Sorry about this…
Life is a short trip…
I hope he had enjoyed life as we had enjoyed his movies…
R.I.P.
R.I.P.
It’s probably difficult for the young guys here on Sways to fully comprehend the nature of surfing “back in the day” and probably bores them to continually hear about it. Seeing those movies back then in those small high school auditoriums was a thrill equal to doday’s mega rock concerts with 70,000 people. In an age of no color tvs, no cell phones, no automated anything, only big vinyl disks from which to hear music from a record player, no FM radio stations, no battery operated anything (pre transistor radios), and watching a Saturday afternoon movie at a fancy downtown theater for 25c, going to a Bud Brown surf movie with all your buds was as big a deal as it got in the world. Surf magazines were brand new. There were no videos when Bud started out, and with only black/white photos (occasionally a dull blurry suto color faded photo) you never really got to see shots of surfing except in those movies. The only thing you knew about surfing was what you experienced at your own local break. Only the adventurous nomads actually traveled as far as Malibu all the way up from a place like Windansea. It was a big once per year road drip for gulf coast surfers to travel from Galveston all the way down to Brownsville on Padre Island. The world was very huge. Everyone spoke of dreams of someday being able to fly on a Pan Am propeller flight to Hawaii to see those waves, but no one I knew back then ever really expected he would actually be able to do so in his lfetime.
Those movies brought the magic of surfing to a hungry crowd that just ate it up. They made the world seem smaller. Those movies, and others of the time up through the mid 60s actually did change lives. For the first time in a guys life, those movies gave some glimmer of hope that it was actually possible to visit somewhere far away and do those kind of things.
Besides the death of the Duke and the beginning of things like leashes, fins (fin boxes) instead of skegs, and the introduction of modern shortboards, the late 60s was indeed the end of an era like no other since. An era that Bud Browne help start.
Aloha,
Richard
The vibe at the San Luis Obispo event was very upbeat. I think anybody who was there would agree it was fantastic that the organizers managed to put it together and honor him while he was still alive.
The celebrities onstage paid their tribute one at a time and everybody in the audience applauded in agreement.
He could not have missed the fact that everybody appreciated his contributions to the sport.
They don’t make em like they used too.
I’m younger but recall going to see Storm riders at the Sydney Opera house no less. What a brilliant atmosphere.
Shame about the lost innocence.
The spark of travel adventure was lit in me that took me around the world and changed my life and the way I looked at the world.
Thanks Bud Browne and all those early surf film makers.
Sad Day! Funny how so many of those old guys ended up in my former youthful haunts, trying to stay on the edge of civilization I guess. I think it was “Fly” who was quoted as saying that ‘we are all circling the drain’. I believe Bud was one of the first to build a housing and take water shots. Lowel
Bud was Killer !
He treated everyone as an equal too !
He’s keepin’ the bonfire going w/ Nancy,Walter,and the mass of others that have gone before us…yes,there’s a spot in the line up for us too…just keep the faith ,my brother.
Like many of his generation he showed you can be talented , a gentleman , gracious and a surfer . What a life he had .
RIP
I spoke to a long time surfing companion, Mr. Jim Fisher, who was part of the 1953 group from California that helped launch big wave riding, along with the established hawaiian riders of that period. Jim lived with Buzzy Trent, Walt Hoffman, and Bob Simmons, in the islands, and all were friends with Bud. Jim did not know of Buds passing, and was of course saddened by it. In those days Bud was a constant companion with them, filming their exploits, which were always the highlights of the annual surf movie circuit. Woody Brown was also prominant in that period, as was George Downing. All those guys knew, and respected each other. We (the surfing community) are witness to the passing of an era. Those guys were truely ‘‘iron men, on wooden boards’’ that opened up a previously unridden relm of surfing. I did not know Bud, but his work/passion touched and influenced my life, as he did so many. Aloha, Bud. Thank you.
Bill . . . Some time in the early 90’s, I asked Phil Edwards if there was a way to get prints of the pictures that Bud had taken of him at Makaha. He told me to give Bud Browne a call. I had never met him but I did what Phil suggested. Bud was very gracious . . . said something like " . . . no problem," took my address and said he would have the negatives in the mail to me! They arrived a few days later. I got them printed and sent the negatives right back to him. I called him to thank him again and suggested that I ought to pay him something but he wouldn’t even consider it. Pretty neat, don’t you think?
Hope you are well . . . Barry (Formerly, “The Velzy Guy”)
Your experience, with Bud, is consistant with the comments about him made to me by Buzzy Trent, and Jim Fisher. He was well respected for who he was, as a person, as well as a photographer. I never met him, but I was in a few clips in his films in the late 1950’s, when he did his Calif. shots. Big thrill then.