SURFERMAG ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
"I'll remember Warren as I last saw him, paddling around with a lot of his old friends this late summer in Waikiki, at the Duke Kahanamoku longboard championships," says Bernie Baker, a longtime friend and fellow lensman. "He was happy, laughing, plenty of jokes between all of them and he looked the best I had seen him in years taking into account his hip surgery. Its always nice to see a genius, as he was, in a good state of mind, instead of that tortured soul attitude."
Grant Ellis now fills the Photo Editor position that Warren did in the 70s and 80s. Ellis understands how the pressures of his position and the emotional and financial roller coaster of professional surf photography can drive a man to distraction: "I never got to meet Warren in person but I spoke to him often on the phone and he was always excited about his next project. We just ran one of his camera board shots in the Photo Annual and he was pretty stoked. I think he was a very innovative photographer and was always trying to push surf photography to new levels with camera boards and Gyro Camera stabilizers. His shot of the guy skating the Big Pipe out in the desert that is on the cover of his skateboard photo book is one of my all time favorites."
A friend of Bolsters who was active in skateboarding in the 70s and 80s said that the photographer had been struggling: "Warren had been taking Oxycontin for years because he had debilitating arthritis. He'd go on it and come off and he had called me many times, threatening suicide, because he was in pain and he was broke. A few years ago he went to a very expensive rehab in Laguna Beach, and I picked him up when he came out and took him to ASR. This is so sad. I think about him every day and I was going to call him."
Warren Bolster is survived by his sons, Edward and Warren Junior. His father, Edward, passed away in 2004. Bolsters sister was the personal secretary to Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist for many years.
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READER COMMENTS
Sun Mar23, 2008, 11:44 PM
Sad. Very, very sad.
Wed Jun25, 2008, 6:38 PM
I was genuinely saddened to read a few moments ago of the passing of Warren Bolster. As a young surfer in Durban SA in the 70's, I remember how his photos literally made my heart beat faster with the sheer stoke of grommethood. Shit, what a waste of an amazing talent. Thank you Mr Bolster, for doing that to me. I will always cherish that. May God bless you and grant you peace. David Bateson
Thu Dec 4, 2008, 2:35 AM
Warren was my friend and I will always keep him alive in my stories of the 70's. Skating and surfing gave us command ground , He is with all the great people I look up too that went to the place in the sky. I hope I can see him again in the next world. God bless you Warren and Thank you for the good times. Bobby Neishi
Wed Mar25, 2009, 11:59 PM
Thank You Warren for capturing that wonderful water shot of me off Coronado, San Diego in the early 70's. I know about arthritis and hip surgery. Sorry you couldn't survive the turmoil. You are a legend in my mind forever. Richie Strell
Tue Jun30, 2009, 1:29 AM
Your art brought happiness to many and speaking for all of those people we say Mahalo Warren and Aloha. Tom Wright
Mon Jul27, 2009, 4:58 AM
it is so tragic how this culture seems to relish eating its own, like some primordial creature desperately feasting on itself...so it went with Warren Bolster...as the work and income diminished so the pain increased...as the pain increased the need for a panacea became desperate..Instead of valorising one of the great imagists of surf culture, there was no work...life became a death, of sorts, of pain and the placating of pain...no money from work, no money for work...if creativity dies first, for the artist, death itself is never far behind....so sad...but Warren Bolster's images will live forever...
Mon Jul27, 2009, 4:59 PM
This comes as a surprise, you think of a surf photographer and you think of all the places they get to see, the surfers they get to meet in all their travels. I never met the guy personally, only through a myriad of pics published in the surf mags, but you never think of the struggles they go through in their personal lives. Peace to his soul, he will always live through his artwork...
Mon Nov16, 2009, 6:36 PM
Oh Warren where have you gone? In the mid 60's Warren showed up in Cocoa Beach and became one of "da boys" in the surf team wars. He was Surfboards Austraiia's team guy along with Fred Grosskreutz (Freddysland) and they wre the Ricky Ryan finger finger fin guys, slipping and sliding to contest wins. He and Floyd Smith spent a Summer in Maine and wooed the two sisters "the bombs" who ran Bikini Surf Shop scooped them up and bailed to California and Warren got the surf photography bug. Pezman told me one time that for every 36 roll of film he gave Warren there were 24 shots that were mag worthy. After his manic days at Skateboarder, a divorce and abuse issues he bailed to Hawaii to reinvent himself. When the world have given him up as a lost cause he became the best of the best. I saw him get cleaned up at The Eddie on a raft and 4 cameras and the shorebreak spit him up like a bag of cement. He washed all the way in naked. 10 Minutes later he was hanging out of
Tue Nov17, 2009, 2:41 PM
a helicopter snapping epic pictures of 30' Waimea. He was a master of his art and had a great sense of humor. We Floridian's miss him dearly. RIP Aloha