Moore was always the first to test out new equipment, new film stocks, new angles, experimenting with waterhousings, pole-cams, follow-cams, blimp-cams. In the 1980s, at the peak of the rivalry between the two magazines, beating "Er" had become his consuming obsession. If you were on his side, he was a benevolent father-figure; to his adversaries, he was a monster.Larry Moore bullied and nurtured a generation of young, emerging photographers like John S Callahan and Aaron Chang. Bill Sharp, then editor of Surfing, who now masterminds the Billabong Odyssey big-wave quest, described him as "the ultimate team player". On the beach and in the water, Moore in action was never less than a highly committed, well-drilled, superbly equipped professional. He was inseparable from his massive (1,000m+) lens, which he carried around like a bazooka. He made his name with a style - that would come to define a new standard - of sharp, tight, perfectly lit, explosive water shots, published under his alias, Flame (alluding to his head of striking red hair).Moore was once described (by the current editor-in-chief of Surfing, Evan Slater) as "the Oxford English Dictionary of surf imagery" and "peerless in his technical knowledge of surf photos".

He might have followed a career as a teacher if not for a draft-dodging friend who gave him a Pentax K1000 camera in exchange for $100 to hightail it to the Canadian border.Moore began taking photos of locals surfing in 1970, at the age of 22, while living in a trailer at Santa Ana Jetties in Orange County. When Surfing appeared in 1964, it represented not so much a new religion as a schism in the old. Moore was to become one of its most ardent believers and defenders. Ultimately there developed a grudging camaraderie between the two camps. But Moore retained a combative cold-war mentality and refused to fraternise.The son of a Los Angeles fireman, Moore learned to surf at Huntingdon Beach.

He was an innovative and prolific photographer who rose to become the highly influential photo editor at Surfing, with some 43 cover shots to his credit. Surfer was founded in 1960 by John Severson and liked to call itself the "bible" of surfing For a while it was the only player on the field. Larry Moore was a front-line hero in the "Ing/Er" wars, the feud that split the two magazines dedicated to disseminating surf culture in the United States, Surfing and Surfer. The Coptic Church has clearly decided to preserve at least its theological identity in the emigration, even if the ethnic identity may somehow evaporate over the years.John H Watson. Larry Owen Moore, photographer: born 17 July 1948; married (one son); died Dana Point, California 10 October 2005.