Tahiti Nui - Bud Browne · fall in love; in particular with Tahiti (when Papaete had only two taxis), and Bora Bora (the most beautiful place Tahiti Nui ... (or rather, invent), a

July 25 marked the one year anniversary of Bud Browneʼs death. Sharing this with a fine South Africa gentleman, he thought I might find comfort in some

wisdom from the Zulus; the proud warriors of Africa. It was this...

The Zulus believe that we all come from the spirit world and spend only a short time on earth before we return back to it. When someone passes away, their spirit is trapped on earth for a year, and possesses all the wants and needs of the still living. This is a difficult time for the spirit as it prepares for the return to the spirit world. It is on the one year anniversary of that person s̓ death that their spirit is released back into the other world. The Zu-lus call it “the crossing” and celebrate it with great joy.

I canʼt help thinking that maybe Bud was Zulu. This past year abounded with his presence, and as his year an-niversary approached, I got the feeling that it was to mark a significant time.

When one lives nearly a hundred years, it can be said that youʼve really lived several lives in one. Interestingly, toward the end of his life, we often spoke about his time in the Navy, during World War II, when he spent the du-ration of the war touring the South Pacific; the place that was to greatly influence his path in life.

I thought it such a cruel paradox that while a horrific war was going on, Bud was surrounded by incredible beauty, and experiencing a time that would cause him to fall in love; in particular with Tahiti (when Papaete had only two taxis), and Bora Bora (the most beautiful place

Tahiti NuiAll Photographs ©2009 Bud Browne Trust / Anna Trent Moore

Printed with Permission / All Rights Reserved

on earth). When I asked him to describe Guadalcanal, his only words were...not pretty. His job was to teach the sail-ors to swim if they had to jump ship, when struck with a torpedo.

One would never describe Bud as an impulsive risk taker. In fact, he appeared to be that exact antithesis of it. But at the age of forty, he gave up a secure job of teach-ing to pursue (or rather, invent), a career in making surf films. This gave him reason enough to return yearly to the islands. He loved the tropics, and although he would say he hated the humid Hawaiian weather, he often remi-nisced over the romance of the early Waikiki days, the orange Tropicana salad dressing served at the reasonable Tropicana Inn, and the smell of Pikake flowers.

BY ANNA TRENT MOORE

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He worked in Hawaii, filming for the fourteen surf films he went on to produce, but he went to Tahiti for the pure love of the place. When I asked him what it was about Tahiti that moved him so much, he replied with, everything. The people, the place...it just has a feeling about it. Knowing how much he hated humid weather, I pressed him if Tahiti was hot like Hawaii and he would insist, no...itʼs not. Itʼs different.

Even professional photographers and filmmakers have their hobbies and you could say photographing Tahitian women and children was one of Buds. But this might risk trivializing its importance, because when you explore this part of his work, it becomes apparent that it was much more than a hobby; it was devotion.

He expressed this often through his portraits of the peo-ple there, and a film he made called, Youʼll Dance in Ta-hiti. Iʼm not certain how worthy he felt his Tahitian genre was, because he shared precious little of it. He showed his Tahiti film only twice, and to my knowledge, none of the portraits were ever published. Yet, they are irresist-

ibly intriguing. Most definitely, he captured something that was close to his heart. For a man who never married or had children, he photographed them with such insight and sensitivity, it was as if he had.

In the early days, when you visited his house in Costa Mesa, there werenʼt any surf photos on his walls. Instead, plastered like wall paper, there were large images of Ta-hitian and Hawaiian portraits. Images that he had taken from the forties through sixties, that he personally devel-oped himself. Theyʼre a bit frayed on the edges now, from years of time, and little mouse nibbles. Still, it only adds to their charm, because whenever I look at them, I am instantly transported back to the South Pacific that be-longed to Bud and James Michenerʼs, Return to Paradise; In fact, I can almost smell the pikakis and gardenias.

So, on the one year anniversary of Bud Browneʼs death, we could celebrate his life by sharing his surfing images, but instead, letʼs celebrate his crossing with these. After all, I bet Heaven is more like Tahiti than a thirty-foot wave.

Tahiti, Tahiti, Tahiti