BajaNomad

Pacific Vibrations RIP John Severson

tiotomasbcs - 5-28-2017 at 09:15 AM

My first surf trips to Baja were fueled by Surfer Magazine and Surf Movies. In the late sixties Baja was our surf destination and our minds were full of excitement to see new waves in a foreign place. We found much more! Thanks Amigo. Tio ps check out stories on Surfline.com

[Edited on 5-28-2017 by tiotomasbcs]

[Edited on 5-28-2017 by tiotomasbcs]

Terry28 - 5-28-2017 at 09:23 AM

WORD!!

chippy - 5-28-2017 at 09:34 AM

DEP Sevo. Damn rough weekend.

willardguy - 5-28-2017 at 09:54 AM

RIP our bi-monthly friend :cool:

Lee - 5-28-2017 at 10:12 AM

BornFisher - 5-28-2017 at 10:19 AM

Damn!! But what a ride he had!!

surfhat - 5-28-2017 at 10:51 AM

That Rick Griffin poster is such a classic. I still have an original print of that on my wall that I couldn't resist grabbing from a local movie theater in the late 60's in my North Carolina college town.

Somehow I had missed the date of its short run, and I never had a chance to see it until years later out here in Socal when a surf shop had an Australian video copy of Pacific Vibrations.

Music rights prevented it from being distributed in States for decades. This was understandable considering the musicians on the soundtrack.

His vision for our planet set an example few could comprehend at the time.

I have to believe he was just as disappointed in the direction certain leaders are taking us to that show such shortsighted ambitions. Mother Earth is our savior and should be protected at all costs, even against the power of $$$$$$$.

Thank you John, for the example of a life lived for not just yourself, but for future generations to come. Peace out and thanks to all here.



El Jefe - 5-28-2017 at 11:29 AM

Our icons and legends are falling one by one. We can't help but feel a sadness, but oh how fortunate we are to have known them and to have been influenced by their passion. And what a great era we grew up in! We may not be the greatest generation, but boy did we have some fun!

Our parents were pretty much horrified by rock and roll. And that surfer lifestyle, well that was for bums and hoodlums. Almost as bad as motorcycle riders. And yet here we are nearing the end of our generation and the changes are coming faster and faster. We made it through to the other side and for some of us fortunate ones life has turned out all right. My 94 year old mom was down to visit at our Baja surfer pad just this month. She couldn't have loved it more.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that folks like Severson and Allman steered our culture in a profound way. And I'm feeling grateful for that.

SUPPORT THE ARTS

8knots - 5-28-2017 at 01:43 PM

What an influence he had and what a prince amongst the rabble. He really put a lot of smiles on our faces and lust for waves in our heart.

BajaTed - 5-28-2017 at 04:09 PM

Didn't Leo Kotke do some of the soundtrack for the movie??
Great flick, good tunes, nice vibes

sancho - 5-28-2017 at 05:04 PM

Quote: Originally posted by surfhat  

His vision for our planet set an example few could comprehend at the time.
I have to believe he was just as disappointed in the direction certain leaders are taking us to that show such shortsighted ambitions. Mother Earth is our savior and should be protected at all costs, even against the power of $$$$$$$.









Like your wording, Severson had a place in Cyprus Shore/Cottons
Point San Clemente, Griffin lived here also. Some say don't
lament the good old days, but those were good days




[Edited on 5-29-2017 by sancho]

John Harper - 5-30-2017 at 08:18 AM

I have several framed surf posters from the 1960's. A few are Severson films. Surf Fever, Big Wednesday, etc.

John

Udo - 5-30-2017 at 01:37 PM

Would you, or perhaps someone else on this forum know where I may be able to purchase the DVD? None on ebay or Amazon.
Quote: Originally posted by surfhat  
That Rick Griffin poster is such a classic. I still have an original print of that on my wall that I couldn't resist grabbing from a local movie theater in the late 60's in my North Carolina college town.

Somehow I had missed the date of its short run, and I never had a chance to see it until years later out here in Socal when a surf shop had an Australian video copy of Pacific Vibrations.

Music rights prevented it from being distributed in States for decades. This was understandable considering the musicians on the soundtrack.

His vision for our planet set an example few could comprehend at the time.

I have to believe he was just as disappointed in the direction certain leaders are taking us to that show such shortsighted ambitions. Mother Earth is our savior and should be protected at all costs, even against the power of $$$$$$$.

Thank you John, for the example of a life lived for not just yourself, but for future generations to come. Peace out and thanks to all here.



Lee - 5-30-2017 at 02:38 PM



Found this Obit about John:

John Severson
1933-2017
John Severson, the artist, filmmaker, and founder of Surfer Magazine, died on Maui last Friday morning after an accelerated battle with a rare form of leukemia. Louise, his wife and lifelong companion, wrote: “John died here in Napili, in the house he loved, at the surf spot he loved. It was a beautiful sunny morning and four of his girls were around him.”
And so John’s planetary journey came to an end, peacefully and with apparent acceptance, but probably wishing for more of what he loved most: life.

His life was full, and full-on, right from the start. As a Southern California kid who grew up at the beach and lived to surf, a conventional life was probably not in the cards. His academic career curved towards the arts and, finally, to Long Beach State, where he earned a Master’s degree (’56) in Art Education. That was where, following the advice of a perceptive instructor, he began to paint the world he knew: the beach, surfers, and waves. He found voice in a bold, bright, modern style that somehow seemed all his own. He embarked on a career as an art teacher.

However, he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1957. He was bound for Germany when an unexpected shift in assignment sent him instead to Oahu, the birthplace of surfing. There, his mastery of pen and ink got him assigned to map-making, and his skills in the ocean put him on the U.S. Army surfing team.

John had been taking pictures of his friends at the beach and in the water since his father moved the family to San Clemente in the late forties; now in the right place at the right time, armed with a 16mm Keystone movie camera, he turned his attention to the exploits of the rag-tag crew of young men who were drawn to the North Shore’s big winter surf. The footage from that first winter became his first film, Surf! The film’s showings in Hawaii and back in California (thanks to big-wave surfer Fred Van Dyke, who toured the film) earned enough to exchange his Keystone for a Bolex and buy more film for another movie, Surf Safari, which led to another, Surf Fever. Using enlarged frames from his films, he created a 36-page booklet to promote the shows. He titled that booklet The Surfer, which became The Surfer Quarterly, and then Surfer, a bi-monthly then a monthly magazine, known as “the Bible of the Sport.”

By the mid-1960s, John was at the helm of a successful business, with a full magazine staff and plenty of advertisers, plus two daughters and a home at the beach in a gated community at the southern end of Orange County. And then Richard Nixon bought the house next door.

It was the peak of the national crisis precipitated by the Vietnam war and a counterculture that had been building since the fifties, back when those North Shore surfers were very much a part of a growing rebellion against conventional living & societal norms. So it made sense that, amidst this generational shift in consciousness, John’s life took a turn. He returned to his cameras and pulled together a team of polite revolutionaries to create the first environmental surf film, Pacific Vibrations, which soon made its way to the big screen as a Warner Bros. release.

After that he sold Surfer Magazine and the house and bought land upcountry on Maui. He built a home, planted a garden, and set out with the family on a Swiss Family Robinson journey through the South Pacific before settling down, back on Maui, to build, garden, and paint. The word “transformation” would apply.

Back at Surfer, in 1969, John had titled a two-page spread of his paintings “Surf Art,” perhaps coining the term, and certainly defining his ongoing life path, which was always about creating a unique and engaging beauty. On Maui, in the seventies and eighties, he built his own homes, and those creations were every bit as imaginative and beautiful as the art works that began to issue from his studio. John’s paintings of island beauty, depicting the balance and drama of ocean waves and the thrill of surfing, remain as powerful testimony to the artistic vision and joy that was fundamental to everything he created.

By following his own love of life, and expressing it in whatever media he put his heart and hands into, John became one of the most positive, affirmative, inspirational people of our lifetimes. He felt, understood, and translated the magnificent power of ocean waves into food for all our souls. What a great gift to humanity!

One of John's greatest goals was to spread awareness about protecting the ocean and restoring its coral reefs. We all need to be aware of the toxic products that run off into our oceans. We can start by using "reef safe" sunscreen in the water, so we can revive the reefs that have been bleached by the chemicals in the creams we put on our skin.

In addition to Louise and his daughters, Jenna and Anna, John leaves one brother, Joey, and his grand-daughters: Jenna’s children Alizé, Luna, Kea, Aleia, and Anna's daughter Zoë (all girls!) to carry on the positive power.

– Drew Kampion

SFandH - 5-30-2017 at 03:44 PM

Sounds like a GREAT life - at least to me.

Here's a copy of Pacific Vibrations:

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v20893145h6XEhaj9


[Edited on 5-31-2017 by SFandH]

del mar - 5-30-2017 at 03:48 PM

some good Severson stories in Mike Doyle's xlnt book "morning glass" :coolup:

surfhat - 5-30-2017 at 06:19 PM

John was known to have camped at the Sisters during the last decade or so.

Oh, to have been by that campfire at night talking story or out sharing a few waves.

That photo of him in his youth smiling with the rainbow perfectly placed behind him says so much.

His visionary talents are and will be missed. Thanks you John for all of us who were brought on board by your expressions of mother natures gifts.