The Living Curl
The Living Curl is Jamie Budge's Classic Surf Film from the 1960s.
In the early sixties, surfing caught on in California like an explosion. Suddenly, in a society modeled after “Ozzie and Harriot”, if you didn’t have a surf board slopped to the top of your car or sticking out the back, you weren’t with it.
Among the thousands of wannabe’s, there was a small fraternity of those who had been around a while and were on the leading edge of the development of this new sport. They were all in one movie: The Living Curl.
Jamie Budge started surfing in 1960 on his 16th Birthday.
Within a year, he had begun taking 8mm movies his friends surfing. And having his friends film him. Soon Budge’s scope had expanded to include filming the top surfers of the day; including Johnny Fain, Dewey Weber, Lance Carson and Miki Dora.
His first films, called “Hard up for Surf Movies” and “North-from-Topanga-to- South-of-Rincon” played in his friends’ living rooms and in back yards for 25 cents. When the Santa Monica Airport Optimists found out about Jamie’s “business” they voted him “Optimist Boy of the Year” and awarded him $100 towards his film productions.
Jamie gained further surfing notoriety when he was asked to appear on Stan Richard’s TV show, “Surf’s Up!” The television studios of the time couldn’t broadcast 8mm film, so Jamie was asked to give a speech on surfing. The speech involved various illustrations to show take off, trim, bottom turn and a curled up piece of paper to show what the inside of a tube looked l like.
By 1963, Jamie was voted in as a member of the exclusive and prestigious Malibu Surfing Association, partially on the strength of showing his films at MSA meetings.
But when Jamie won the Hermosa Biltmore contest over such renowned surfers as Mike Doyle and Bill Fury, the members of the MSA carried Jamie off the beach on their shoulders, calling Budge “The New Deal”. About that time Budge was voted president of the MSA (something that eventually happened to every member, for two months).
Jamie threw himself into all aspects of surfing. He worked for Dave Sweet Surfboards: repairing boards in his garage and selling boards in the showroom. Jamie was “Another Top Surfer Riding a Dave Sweet Surfboard”. And then made a dozen “Surfboards by Budge”; at first from Dave Sweet pre-shaped blanks. And then later, shaped his own designs from standard blanks.
Budge became active in the rapidly expanding California surfing contest circuit, winning several Santa Monica Residents contests and placing high in contests throughout Southern California. At one time, Budge was 22nd in the amateur contest standings and was included in Surfer Magazine’s “Best Surfer in the World” pole (but didn’t win).
Surf Links
- Wikipedia's Surf Movie Page
- Living Curl Video Site
- Dave Sweet Surfboards