Buddha
| Buddha | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Sex | M |
| Birth name | unknown Varsos |
| Spouse | Giselle |
Buddha aka Dr. Buddha Varsos, is a self-described beach bum and an infrequent character is the Spearfish Lake Tales universe. He lives with his wife Giselle, a nurse, in a small house next to his surf shop on a Florida beach. The pair have raised kids, although the children have moved on with families of their own.
His legal name really is Buddha. "It's not the name I was born with, but my mother never liked the name my dad hung on me, and since I was fat and bald when I was born, she called me that from day one. Mom had it legally changed after dad left."CF18 He refuses to say his original name and never told it to Giselle, but she discovered it somehow.
Buddha is originally from California and grew up surfing at Malibu with his good buddy, Al Buck, while both were in High School. To keep his student deferment and avoid Vietnam, Buddha went to college in Hawaii and Santa Barbara, graduating with a PhD in Literature. He then shifted coasts, eventually buying an abandoned sea shell shop and little house on the Florida A1A highway and creating B&G's Surf Shop. He is a part-time on-call teacher / professor at the local college.
Buddha is described as being "...a burly fortyish or fiftyish man, deeply bronzed, head entirely shaven, with a big earring in one ear."DW09 Later Al describes him as "guy a little shorter than me, sorta heavy set, shaves his head, English Lit major, into eastern religions...".DW71
His interest in Eastern Religions is only rarely shown, whereas his taste in literature allowed him to banter with Myleigh Harris in the same verbose manner. He also has a knack with accents, identifying a person's origins and able to produce a thicker yooper accent than Randy Clark.
While Buddha makes a good friendship with the trio from Dawnwalker, he spends more time with Myleigh, possibly because of their common interests. He mentors her from being a Hodad until she flowers into the deserving title of Surfer Girl. He also pulls some strings behind the scenes to help her get into the PhD program at Athens University.
