Bud Browne, Millennium Hall of Fame

Upon the riveting vibrations of watching Bud Browne’s surf films,

many, the next day, couldn’t wait to catch waves at their favorite break.

A surfing culture icon, Browne influenced generations as an

independent filmmaker, shooting, directing, editing and producing such

films as “Going Surfing” and, in the 1990s, has created videos by

combining his best old surfing footage. “Surfing the 50s” and “Gun Ho!”

are two of the videos.

In the days of wood-paneled Jeeps and a new wave of music called

rock-and-roll, Browne’s surf movie posters would hang on walls throughout

Southern California’s hippest beachcomber boundaries, and teenagers would

form long lines to watch his films.

It provided Browne with a sense of accomplishment to see surfers

“stoked” in the theater, but actually capturing the moments on film was

an act of living dangerously.

“The most exciting times of my life, as far as danger is involved,

would be the wipeouts I’ve taken in big surf on Oahu’s north shore while

filming surfers there,” Browne said last week. “In 1977, I went through

the falls at Sunset Beach (Hawaii) and the white water wouldn’t let me up

almost all the way to shore, and it resulted in an irregular heartbeat

that lasted four years before it went back to normal.”

Browne, an 87-year-old Costa Mesa resident, was inducted into the

Huntington Beach Walk of Fame in 1996 during the U.S. Open of Surfing.

But Browne, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame

(celebrating the millennium), hasn’t slowed much in his daredevil ways.

While in New Zealand, Browne has gone bungee jumping, flown a tandem

hang glider and ripped down river rapids on his surf mat -- all this

decade in his golden years.

Whether future generations will enjoy the ocean’s surf as much as

Browne remains to be seen -- pending imagination.

“I always thought surfing was a great sport, and people were missing

the boat if they didn’t get into it,” Browne once said. “It’s so much fun

and has improved over the years. You always think nothing more can be

done on a surfboard that hasn’t already been done, but each succeeding

generation proves that (theory) wrong.

“There are better boards and more skillful, acrobatic surfers with

better equipment now. They can do a lot. I’m just wondering if the next

generation can improve it. I don’t know. A lot of people don’t think it

can be.”

In his filmmaking prime, Browne filled places like the Santa Monica

Civic Auditorium and the Pier Avenue School in Hermosa Beach. His movies

were shown on the silver screen in San Francisco and San Diego.

Browne, who attended USC Cinema School, started surfing in 1938. He

was a school teacher from 1937 to ‘52, excluding three years of service

in the U.S. Navy during World War II, when he fought in the South

Pacific.

Eventually, he left teaching and combined his two loves -- surfing and

filming. “I got a late start, because I was 41 when I had my first

commercial surfing film,” said Browne, whose movie premiere came in 1953.

Browne, considered the world’s original surf filmmaker, called his

early films, “Hawaiian Surfing Movies” because he “couldn’t think of any

other title for it.”

For four years, Browne had no competitors, but after packing

recreation halls and theaters, others started making surf films.

A former USC swimmer who competed in the sprint freestyles, Browne

barely earned enough money on his first films to produce subsequent

movies. But in 1973 he struck gold with “Going Surfing” and upgraded the

picture four years later.

“Later on, it got bigger and bigger,” said Browne, who made no more

surf films after that one, deciding instead to retire on top.

“It’s very gratifying to be a part of the history of surfing,” said

Browne, who helped create a subculture in California that has withstood

time.