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Bud Browne Father of Surf Films Passes

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Surf's Up Bud Browne, a onetime Venice Beach lifeguard who became known as “the father of surf films."
Browne began showing his 16-millimeter surf movies commercially up and down the California coast in the early 1950s. Browne died at the age of 96 in his sleep Friday at his home in San Luis Obispo, said his close friend Anna Trent Moore, daughter of surfing legend Buzzy Trent.

“Bud created the genre of surf films," Steve Pezman, publisher of the Surfer's Journal, told The Times on Monday. “What was unique about Bud and his films was the water footage, and the fact that he lived with the surfers he was filming. “All those surfers actually just loved the guy, and he was a great athlete himself."

A former captain of the USC swim team who learned to surf while working as a lifeguard at Venice Beach in 1938, Browne bought an 8-millimeter movie camera two years later and began making home movies of his fellow surfers.

Several years later -- after working as a middle-school physical education teacher and attending the USC film school -- Browne had enough footage to edit into a 45-minute movie. With handmade posters nailed to telephone poles near local surf spots, he debuted his first film, “Hawaiian Surfing Movies," at John Adams Middle School in Santa Monica in 1953.

Browne, who charged 65 cents admission, introduced his film onstage, then hurried back to the projection booth to narrate it via microphone with taped musical accompaniment. A couple of other successful beach-town showings followed, and Browne gave up teaching to launch his career as a surf filmmaker.

Between 1953 and 1964, he released a new surf film each year, including “Trek to Makaha," “The Big Surf," “Surf Down Under," “Cat on a Hot Foam Board," “Surf Happy" and “Gun Ho!"

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