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Benson, Becky

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Bermuda

Plucky surf moviemaker from Topanga, California; best known for 

, his raw but energetic 1970 debut. Jepsen was born (1940) and raised in Los Angeles, and began surfing at age 17. He received a B.S. in business administration from UCLA in 1968, and was an unemployed real estate agent before he started filming 

, which cost $18,000, was shot almost entirely in California, Hawaii, and Mexico, and showcased Hawaiian surfers Jeff Hakman and Barry Kanaiaupuni, as well as young California ace J Riddle.

Jepsen used his well-stocked personal LP collection to make an all-bootlegged soundtrack for 

featuring the Rolling Stones, B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Dave Brubeck and more. "Jepsen's film is occasionally dark and fuzzy," 

 magazine wrote in its review, "but the full-juice surfing is powerful." (Years later, the magazine wrote that 

Jepsen followed with three more full-length surf movies: 

 (1981), and three short-subject films, along with 

 (1980), a feature-length skateboarding movie featuring Stacy Peralta. Jepsen was the first surf moviemaker to give appearance fees to surfers. In 1976, Jepsen and recently retired NBA star Wilt Chamberlain coproduced 

 an action sports documentary on surfing, skateboarding, skiing, and hang-gliding. 

Jepsen died of liver failure, in 2006, at age 66. "In his later years," 

 wrote in an obituary, "as passing time dialed up the poignancy of [Jepsen's] footage to greater heights, Hal, rolling through a quart of Jim Beam, with Hendrix howling from the tape deck, would screen his movies and perform rollicking live narrations full of bile and wit, savvy and sadness."

Jepsen, Hal

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