Greg Browning, Former Pro Surfer + Maker Of Drive Thru Has Died

Legendary filmmaker and former pro surfer Greg Browning passed away on Friday night aged 50, 18-months after being diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) in August 2023. ALS is the same incurable neurodegenerative disease which famously afflicted theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, progressively weakening the body while the mind stays sharp. According to reports, Browning spent his last few days with family and friends. 

Born in Newport Beach and bred in L.A.’s South Bay, Greg caught his first wave at Hermosa Pier in the mid-’80s and never really came in. His surfing was smooth, unforced, and magnetically stylish. A charter member of the Momentum Generation, he orbited the likes of Kelly, Dorian, Machado and Knox, and starred in some of the era’s most iconic films: Momentum II (1993), Good Times (1995), and The Show (1997), all filmed and produced by kingmaker Taylor Steele. 

As the surf career mellowed, Greg stepped behind the camera and into something arguably bigger: storytelling. Alongside Taylor Steele, he co-created the Drive Thru series in 2002: an upbeat, chaotic road trip cataloguing the weird and wonderful corners of global surf culture through California, Japan, Central America and beyond, with Frankenreiter, Weatherley, Kalani Robb in tow.

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But perhaps Greg’s real genius wasn’t in how he surfed or what he filmed. It was in how he treated people. As Steele wrote on Instagram: “Some people live with such quiet kindness and courage that it leaves the rest of us in awe… We have been friends for 30 years plus and went through different life challenges but Greg was consistently the most considerate person I’ve ever met. But it was in his final chapter—facing ALS—that he revealed a deeper power. Not just in how he endured, but in how he showed up for others, even as his body faded.”

Beyond his own projects, Greg mentored athletes at the highest level. Olympic surfers, WCT stars, groms with stars in their eyes, Greg gave his time generously and with zero ego. 

In 2021, Browning was hired as an advisor-coach to WCT contender Tatiana Weston-Webb; at the end of the year, Weston-Webb finished runner-up to Carissa Moore for the world title.

In 2022, Browning returned to make the nine-part Drive-Thru USA, with Frankenreiter and Weatherley, older and greyer but no less funny than they were 20 years earlier, still the two main stars.

There are lives that burn bright and fast, and there are those that radiate a quieter, enduring heat. Greg was the latter. A constant. A light. The kind of person who left every room warmer than he found it.

Our thoughts go out to his friends and family. Rest in peace, Greg.