The surf world is mourning the father of surf media, John Severson, an influential filmmaker and Surfer magazine creator who died in his sleep Friday, May 26. He was 83.

Severson spent his early years in San Clemente and fell in love with the culture while spending his youth riding waves off Orange County’s coast.

Born in 1933 in Pasadena, he was 13 when his dad quit his job and moved the family to San Clemente.

“I become a beach boy, surfed, got a camera and started shooting magic movies of us surfing,” he said in a video shot in 2011.

He earned a degree in art education from Long Beach State College in 1956, according to an article by Davis Jones about his death on Surfer.com.

He was drafted into the Army after college, and the military “made a tactical error and sent me to Hawaii.” He was assigned to the Army’s surf team and ordered to practice every afternoon.

It was in Hawaii he made his first film, called “Surf.” He went on to make other films including “Surf Safari” and “Big Wednesday.” He started what he called “a little project called Surfer Magazine.”

He designed a 36-page magazine composed of surf photos, cartoons, sketches, and more to advertise the release of “Surf Fever” in 1960. He would call it “The Surfer,” becoming the “Surfer Quarterly” in 1961, according to Jones.

There was such a high demand that lines stretched out surf shop doors. The surfers of the day – Phil Edwards, Dewey Weber and Miki Dora – made the early issues a success, Severson said.

His hope was that surfing “is a little more artistic and light with a sense of humor because of Surfer Magazine,” Severson said in the movie.

When President Richard Nixon and his entourage moved in next door to Severson’s home at Cotton’s Point in 1969, Severson became overwhelmed and opted for change, according to a story on Surfline.com by Drew Kampion.

Severson sold “Surfer” in 1972 and moved with his wife and two daughters to Maui, where he resumed his passionate pursuit of photography and painting, wrote Kampion, a former editor at Surfer Magazine.

In 2014, Severson released a book called “Surf.” He was inducted into San Clemente’s Sports Wall of Fame in 2015.

He spent his later years in Hawaii, continuing his artwork and riding warm waves.