Big Hoot For Bud Browne
By Corky Carroll

Last week I told you about the event to honor Bud “the barracuda” Browne up in San Louis Obispo. My pal Steve Pezman from The Surfer’s Journal magazine was going to it and was gonna cover it for me. Unfortunately he made a left turn at a secret surf spot and emailed me the story was coming “later.” Thankfully another pal, Dave Reynolds from Kahuna’s Klassics aka “The Surf Trophy Guy” was there and I begged this story out of him. Take it away Dave:

“Thursday March 13th my Portuguese surf buddy Erik and myself packed up our surfboards and headed up north to San Luis Obispo to honor a very special contributor to the surfing lifestyle. This man’s name is Bud Browne. One thing I’ve always thought was cool is that surfings cinematographers and photographers are well known and respected by the average surfer. Ever heard of a famous golf cinematographer? I think not! He was actually the first guy that spliced together surfing footage and thought he might be able to make a buck doing it. At first he did it all. Booked the High School auditoriums. Advertised the showing. Collected the admission price. Set up and ran the projector then narrated the film. I’m sure trying to control a room full of slack jawed surfers wasn’t easy either! His first movie came out in 1953 and was called “Hawaiian Surfing Movies”. Working as a schoolteacher left him all Summer to spend surfing and filming Hawaii’s South Shore. He knew he was onto something!

At the Fremont Theatre in San Luis Obispo surfers came from all over the world to honor Bud. Some even drove out in their woodies. What a crowd! The place was packed to the gills with groms to old timers. People came in from all over the world for this special night. We lucked out and scored a couple of seats just behind Bud Browne aka “The Barracuda”. Surfing legends just kept showing up! Some in attendance were Gerry Lopez, Walter Hoffman, Linda Benson, Fred VanDyke, Peter Cole, Bruce Brown, Joel Tudor, Herbie Fletcher, John Peck and Jack McCoy. Just before the lights dimmed Jack McCoy introduced the guest of honor Bud Browne. The place went nuts! He got a well deserved standing ovation that went on for minutes. Then the movie started. They played “Surfing the ‘50s” which is a compilation of Bud’s footage from that era. After the movie was another round of cheering and hooting! Bud must have been so stoked!

After that round of cheering a lot of the legends went onstage to pay their respects to the “Father of the Surf Movie”. Each had their own stories of Bud and a few got a little choked up. Walter Hoffman told his story of free diving for lobster with Bud. Walter saw this huge lobster under this van sized rock. He couldn’t quite reach under because of his size. At the surface he pointed out the rock and the “Barracuda” came up with a plan. Bud told Walter that he was going to crawl under the rock and grab that lobster. When Bud’s fins started moving Walter was supposed to pull Bud out! They both dove and all Walter could see was Bud’s fins sticking out from under the rock. Bud’s fins were still for the longest time and Walter started freaking. Then all of the sudden Bud’s fins started shaking like crazy. Walter jerked and Bud had a hold of a 16lb bull lobster! The crowd broke out cheers and laughter after that story.

Another cool story was told by surf film legend Bruce Brown. After seeing what Bud was doing, Dale Velzy gave a young Bruce some cash and told him to go buy some camera equipment to start filming. Bruce had a lot of respect for Bud. Bruce went to Bud and asked his permission to make surf films too. Bud gave his OK and the rest is history. Bruce went on to become one of the greatest surf filmmakers in history too!

After the movie there was a little after party with a surf band called the “Dentures”. Stoked old guys playing their hearts out. Erik and myself got to personally meet all the legends in attendance and get autographs. Surfing is cool that way. Try walking up to Kobe Bryant for an autograph. You won’t even get close to him. Surf legends are just regular guys that share the same stoke as every other surfer. It was an honor just to be there to honor Bud. In his own words what kept him going was “I always got a big hoot out of everyone enjoying the films.” Thank you Bud! You will always keep us hooting and stoked!”

Thanks Dave and also many thanks to the Barracuda for so many great moments of surf film and the honor of knowing you. Ride on my friend.

TWISTED MEMORIES
The Wave ~ 3-19-08
By Corky Carroll

O.K. sometimes really ridiculous things happen which make you just wanna stop, rub your chin and go “hmmmmmmmmmmm.” Last night was one of those times when one of those things happened to me.

I was driving south on the 241 toll road. I was on my way to visit my wonder-kids the Amazing Kasey and Tanner the Skateboard Wizard. Not having fast track I had to pull into the toll both area to fork over some hard earned cash to proceed. But there was no human in the booth. I had to put money into the machine. I hate that machine. First off it is not set up so that you can easily put the money into it. You have to twist in a totally weird way that is not natural, especially for an older gentleman such as myself. It is very awkward and close to being impossible for the average person. And you have to have change or small bills.

So there I am all twisted out of shape and feeding in bills that the machine keeps spitting back at me. I have like eight one-dollar bills and the machine would not take any of them. What is up with that? None of them were worn out or torn or anything like that. So I tried my one twenty and it would not take that either. Getting cramps from trying this over and over I decided to back up and get out of the car and try it that way. Still no luck.

Meanwhile a couple of cars had pulled up behind me and I was sort of at a loss of what to do. So I kind of gave a “I have no idea what to do” sort of motion and hoped that those guys would back up and try another lane. But instead the guy in the car right behind me got out and sort of grumpily asked what my problem was. I started to explain that the machine would not take any of my bills and I had no change.

Then all of a sudden his expression changed and he says, “Hey I know you” in a sort of sarcastic kinda way. I’m thinking uh oh, what’s this dude's beef? He proceeds to tell me that back in 1955 he was surfing at Surfside and I dropped in on him and made him loose his board and it hit mine and gave me a ding. I had said something smart to him and he had been pissed off at me ever since.

Now the weird part of this is that I remembered this guy and what really happened. It was more like early sixties, why does everybody who is remembering the “good old days” wanna make ‘em even older than they were in the first place? And what really happened was that he dropped in on me and fell off and his board hit me and put a ding in my board. I remember it because it was the first ding I got in my Crow board which was in 1961. The part about me saying something smart to him was probably true though.

So here we are standing there at the tollbooth and cars building up behind us as we speak. I just wanna get outta there and go see my kids and the whole situation is getting totally embarrassing. So I tell the guy, “Oh yeah dude, I do remember that and I have felt bad about it ever since. I am so glad to get this chance to see you again and say I’m sorry.” Somehow I manage to do this with a look of total sincerity. It was such a struggle not to laugh. To my amazement the dude bought it and we shook hands. Then he stuck a couple of his bills into the machine, which naturally worked fine. I gave him my unacceptable bills and said thanks and happily motored off to my kids house in Foothill Ranch.

Now I sort of feel stupid for doing that because it was not what really happened and my nature is to call the dude out on it and also about the year. But I really needed to get out of there and it seemed the easiest and smoothest way to do it. But it amazes me how twisted some of these dudes memories can get and how they can change things around to something that seems much more glamorous for themselves than they really were.

But what really amazes me the most is that it is totally possible that maybe he had it right and I am the one with the totally twisted memory of how it went down. I don’t think that is the case, but really who knows. Both that dude and myself were little kids back then. I do know that I am right about the year though and I fully concede that I probably mouthed off to him. I did that a few times back then I am told. But, the rest? Just another twisted memory that really needs not be untwisted. My story is it was him dropping in and I am stickin’ to it.