John Severson

John Severson (, 1933–2017) was an American editor, author, filmmaker and artist, widely known as the founder of Surfer, a magazine focused on the sport and culture of surfing. Severson also created a diverse body of artwork dedicated to the sport.

Severson won the 1961 Peru International Surf Contest. In 1991, he

Drew Kampion, editor of Surfer 1968-1972, said Severson was "the first to treat surfing as a worthy subject matter for fine art." Sam George, editor of Surfer (1999) said "before John Severson, there was no 'surf media,' no 'surf industry' and no 'surf culture' — at least not in the way we understand it today."

The New York Times called Severson "a pioneer of modern surf culture;"

Background

Severson was born December 12, 1933, in Los Angeles, California, the son of Hugh and Dorothy Severson. He grew up in North Fair Oaks and Pasadena until his family moved when he was thirteen (1945, variously reported as 1943) to San Clemente Severson, his sister and three brothers each worked creating leathergoods, marketing them to tourists and turning the shop into a restaurant when Interstate 5 arrived nearby. His mother cooked and was widely known for her homemade pies.

In San Clemente, Severson learned to surf — also painting, photographing and filming the sport. he documented his surfing experience "with his Brownie camera, then with cartoons, woodblock prints, and paintings." He also played trumpet, formed a barbershop quartet, and pitched for his baseball team. he received a B.A. in art education at Chico State College and M.A. in Art Education at Long Beach State. After graduating in 1956 he taught high school art, including ceramics, for one semester before being drafted into the Army. In Oahu, he served as a draftsman and mapmaker, was a member of the Army surf team Surf Fever, The Angry Sea (1963), Surf Classics (1964), and Pacific Vibrations (1970). He eloped Ultimately, with the success of Surfer by the late 1960s he was married, had two daughters, lived in a beachfront gated community (10 minutes from where he had grown up, purchasing an oceanfront property adjacent to what would become the Nixon compound), played golf, drove a Mercedes, and "spent less and less time in the water."

In 1969 when Richard Nixon moved next door to his home near San Clemente's Cotton's Point, Marines prohibited surfing at Cotton's Point and Trestles, two noted surf spots. Severson contracted with Life magazine to take telephoto images of Nixon and his family on the beach, so Nixon had a six-foot privacy wall built around his property. contributing art and photos. For a year, he regularly traveled the Pacific with his family, living for months in Tahiti in a treehouse.

Describing the act of surfing to the culture magazine, 032c, Severson said: It's like a beautiful sensation of dance with the added dimension of being in nature. There's this whole force of moving water, and as you ride, you harness this water. Then, as your abilities increase, you can go farther and deeper into the wave, and into more radical positions – like off the top, off the bottom – and there are these weightless sensations. It's another dimension. on Honokeana Cove, in Maui, Hawaii on May 26, 2017, survived by his wife Louise Stier Severson (born 1940); daughters Anna Severson (born 1965) and Jenna Severson de Rosnay (born 1963);

Severson was inspired to create Surfer, specifically to counter the depiction of the sport and surf culture in the 1959 film Gidget. In his 2014 book John Severson Surf, he wrote "surfers hated those Hollywood surf films, and I could see that Surfer could create a truer image of the sport."

The magazine opened the sport so surfers could learn what was happening in their sport locally and globally, including new places to surf, ways to ride, and new personalities shaping the sport. Within only a few years, competitors included Surf Guide, Surfing, and Australian Surfer, which copied Surfer layout so heavily, Severson considered outright plagiarism. He remained editor of the magazine until 1968. and also alternately as "the late 1960s" to For Better Living, an Auburn, California-based company founded by F.G. 'Bud' Fabian.

Drew Kampion was editor of the magazine from 1968 to 1972

The magazine changed ownership and management numerous times over its history and is currently (2020) published by American Media (AMI), owner of the National Enquirer. By the time of Severson's passing in 2017, Surfer was reduced to eight issues annually, and Surfing magazine and Surfer's Path as well as many other international surf magazines had folded.

Honors and Awards

Surfing Hall of Fame, 1993 Surfing Walk of Fame, Huntington Beach, 1995