One of Australian surfing’s most loved and respected characters, Dave ‘Baddy’ Treloar, has passed away.

Baddy died of a heart attack, collapsing on the beach of his beloved Angourie earlier today. For much of his life Baddy was the custodian of the Point at Angourie. His knowledge of the wave was unparalleled and in many ways he made his study of the point a life’s work. Along the way he became a counter-culture hero, and also a mentor and father figure to many of the surfers who called Anga’ home.

To the broader surfing world Baddy was best known for his role in Morning of The Earth. The image of Baddy sanding a board outside a rustic country shack and then taking apart the point at Anga remains one of the most iconic scenes in surf film history. Set to the soundtrack of John J. Francis’s Simple Ben , for many it was Baddy’s scene that captured the essence of an era. It also inspired thousands of surfers to abandon conservative norms and go in search of a different life.

Baddy wasn’t play acting though, that was his life – fishing, shaping and surfing – until the very end.

As Monty Webber put it in his Tracks piece, “Baddy is just someone who never sold out or tried to make an easy buck out of the thing he loves. … He’d be more likely to be training a whippersnapper than trying to sell anyone anything other than freshly caught snapper."

The tributes will pour in over the next couple of days and the above barely scratches the surface on a remarkable life.

R.I.P Baddy. The point at Anga will never be the same.