To call Bud Browne merely the father of surfing movies just doesn’t do him justice.

Even as grand as that sounds, it won’t define the man who died Monday at the age of 96 after a brief illness. And it doesn’t imply what he helped set in motion.

Browne was a pioneer documentarian, the first to capture postwar surfing in Hawaii and put it to narrative form. He was also renowned as a water photographer and body surfer.
 
Prolific through the 1950s and into the 1960s, Browne’s 1964 film “Locked In” is considered one of the three best surf films ever made next to “The Endless Summer” and “Five Summer Stories.”

The quiet, and extremely humble Browne was one of the godfathers of the modern, multi-billion dollar surf industry, and lived in Costa Mesa for 60 years until moving to San Luis Obispo three years ago. Living in a rest home there allowed him to be near the daughter of one of his best friends, the late Buzzy Trent. Anna Trent Moore visited him nearly every day and said Browne died “Quietly in his sleep, surrounded by his pillows.”

“First and foremost he was a gentleman of the old school. One of the most gracious human beings you’d ever meet,” Moore said. “He wasn’t one to sing his own praises, so we’ll have to do it for him. He was like a second father to me. I’m missing him already.”

Browne’s work started out with no plan. He said in an interview with the Register in 2001, “It just seemed natural to combine surfing with moviemaking and to record my hobby. I didn’t think too much of it at the time — not as a way of making a living.”

Utimately his success seemed to surprise him. “When I started I didn’t consider myself a pioneer,” Browne said. “But I got more awards and praise the last few years than when I was making films.”

Browne was born in Massachusetts in 1912, came to Los Angeles for college where he was captain of the top-ranked USC swim team in 1934. He learned to surf at Venice Beach and was a lifeguard before joining the Navy during World War II.

It was there he developed an affection for the South Pacific and Tahitian women. He returned to Tahiti and Hawaii regularly for decades and though he never married, was said to have romanced several Tahitians. 

After the war, he spent time as a schoolteacher while going to USC film school. In 1953, he edited together the 16-millimeter footage he’d shot during his visits to Waikiki and showed his first film, “Hawaiian Surfing Movies” at a junior high school in Santa Monica.

He came out of retirement in 1971 to work on his last film, “Going Surfin,’” then teamed with Laguna Beach filmmaker Greg MacGillivray to shoot, among other moments, the famous sequence of Gerry Lopez at Pipeline in “Five Summer Stories.” He also contributed to 1977’s “Big Wednesday” before retiring for good.

“I idolized him,” MacGillivray said. “Bruce Brown suggested we team up and I said ‘can we do that?’ I called him up and in 15 minutes he was down at our office. Because he could get out to the surf, he shot some things that were mindblowing.”

“He certainly had a much wider influence than people just watching his films,” MacGillivray said. “His films captured the free spirited nature and they were more reflective of this zany life of surfing. And because he made more films and had a longer career, he was definitely the icon. That led to Quiksilver and Billabong and what people call the industry today, but he would be the last person to say that. He just made films. He didn’t have any larger goals.”

Surfer and friend Mickey Munoz knows what set Browne apart. “When he put together a film, it wasn’t just about the surfing, it was about the lifestyle.”

But Munoz said Browne was able to be fully accepted by the young surfers he filmed, while never joining the party.

“He was totally respected,”Munoz said. “He was a little different, maybe it was because he was older than the people he was dealing with, but he always had a wonderful sense of humor in how he documented that time.”

Browne was a vegetarian and stayed in shape throughout his life, keeping up a daily regimen of sit ups until just six months ago. And even at age 89, he was bungee jumping.

“That is just amazing. No, it’s not amazing, it’s wonderful. The respect meter just goes up big time,” said Munoz.

Moore said Brown recorded “A time that has come and gone. When we look at it now, we realize how precious it was. We try to emulate it now, but it will never be the same.”

According to Browne’s wishes, his ashes will be scattered in Hawaii, at Pipeline, followed by a reception at Waimea Falls State Park on Aug. 25 open to the public. The reception will feature a photo gallery exhibit and speakers, tahitian music and dancing. No California service is currently planned, however, the Surfing Heritage Foundation in San Clemente is considering a possible tribute.

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