Laird Hamilton

Laird Hamilton (born Laird John Zerfas on March 2, 1964 in San Francisco) is an American big-wave surfer, co-inventor of "tow-in" surfing, watersports celebrity enthusiast, television personality, product commercial spokesperson, philanthropist, and a former fashion and action-sports model.

Background

Laird was born in San Francisco on March 2, 1964, in an experimental bathysphere designed to ease the mother's labor.^[1] Laird and his mother, Joann Zyirek Zerfas, moved to Hawaii when he was still an infant, after the departure of his Greek birth father, L.G. Zerfas, before his first birthday. Even as a child Laird showed an unquenchable thirst for adrenaline; footage has been released of him jumping off a sixty foot cliff into deep water at just 7 years old. Then as a young, fatherless boy, Laird had a coincidental encounter with later-legendary 1960s surfer Bill Hamilton, a bachelor at the time, on the sands of Pupukea beach of the North Shore of Oahu. As chronicled by Laird on film in the big wave riding motion picture documentary Riding GiantsReferenzfehler: Es fehlt ein schließendes </ref>. The technique, which would later be modified to use jet skis, was a revolutionary innovation. Tow-in surfing, as it soon became known, pushed the confinements and possibilities of big wave surfing to a whole new level. Although met with mixed reactions from the surfing community, some of whom felt that it was cheating and polluting, Hamilton explained that tow-in surfing was the only way to catch the monstrous sized waves such as those that can be seen at Peahi (pronounced pay-ah-hee) ("Jaws") off the north central coast of Maui, and the coastline of Tahiti. Using tow-in surfing methods, Hamilton quickly learned how to survive Vorlage:Convert waves and carving arcs across walls of water that could literally sink ships.

In 1994 he appeared on both ESPN and the cover of the magazine which gained him attention from a number of sporting agencies who recognized his potential, landing an exclusive sponsorship from the French beachwear company 'Oxbow' surf.

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Laird Hamilton at Teahupoo

However, in 1995, Hamilton's life took an unexpected and, more or less, permanent detour. Hamilton met famous womens' professional volleyball player and New York fashion model Gabrielle Reece in Los Angeles, California after a television interview. They later married in November 1997.

In 1996, People magazine named Hamilton one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World, and in the same year he took over for his future wife as correspondent for the syndicated cable series 'The Extremists'. Ironically, regarding recognition of the pair's world class physical beauty in print, previously in 1989, his wife Gabby Reece, already a successful fashion model and womens' sports figure, had been named by ELLE magazine as one of the Five Most Beautiful Women in the World.

By the late 1990s, Hamilton, in addition to being a family man, was continuing his love affair with the water by windsurfing, waterskiing and developing his kitesurfing abilities as a pioneer of the sport. In 1996 Hamilton and Manu Bertin were instrumental in demonstrating and popularizing kitesurfing off the Hawaiian coast of Maui.

In 1999 Hamilton sailed his windsurfer between the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Kauai, some fifty miles away, in just under six hours. He later sailed his windsurfer back again. Hamilton has also been credited with inventing the foilboard. The foilboard is an innovative surfboard which incorporates hydrofoil technology allowing a higher degree of precision and effectiveness of aerial techniques within the water. Most recently, he has become the most public practitioner and proponent of stand-up paddle surfing, an ancient Hawaiian technique that requires an enormous longboard and a long-handled paddle, as well as considerable skill, strength and agility. Some "purist" surfers have blasted him for this, but Hamilton has called it a return to an old, traditional Hawaiian way of surfing, some say practiced by King Kamehameha and his queen Ka'ahumanu almost three hundred years ago.

2000-present

Hamilton has a family home in Maui

However, it was Hamilton's death-defying drop into Tahiti's Teahupo'o break on the morning of August 17, 2000 which became the benchmark in his career and his life, and cemented his reputation as the greatest big wave surfer of all time. A wipeout in Teahupo'o, a particularly hazardous shallow-water reefbreak in southeast Tahiti, means almost certain death. At Teahupo'o, Hamilton dropped into what is widely considered to be the most dangerous wave ever ridden. His ride there is known by surfers worldwide simply as 'The Wave', and a shot of him riding The Wave made the cover of Surfer magazine, accompanied by the caption: "oh my god..."

In the filmed coverage of this event in the motion picture Riding Giants, Darrick Doerner, Hamilton's pal and pilot of the tow-in watercraft pulling the wave-bound Hamilton, said he had strong misgivings about towing Hamilton into the huge wave because it looked possibly un-ridable and too dangerous. Doerner, fearing for Hamiliton's life at the time, said " . . . then I looked back at the rope, and it was too late. Laird had already let go of the tow rope and was in that wave." Hamilton's ride that day is now legendary. Afterwards even Hamilton admitted that even he was pushing himself to the "max, max, max, max". Hamilton is now widely regarded by surfing historians as the "all time best of the best" at big wave surfing, regularly surfing swells of 35 feet (11 m) tall, and moving at speeds in excess of Vorlage:Convert an hour and successfully riding other waves of up to Vorlage:Convert high, at up to 50 mph (80 km/h).

Today, he prefers tow-in surfing the giant waves of Peahi ("Jaws") on the north central shore of the Island of Maui. He has often been credited for being able to conquer such enormous 'big wave' surf because of his exceptional physical conditioning, goal-specific mental courage, and physical stature. Hamilton is able to take on the largest waves, which many lesser-sized expert surfers might not attempt, possibly because he is more experienced and can ride the waves better, but certainly because his body has been trained and conditioned to endure the routine crushing, life-threatening "wipe-outs" in a mountain of falling water when a wave ride "doesn't have a happy ending". There are only a handful of risk-taking, big wave riders that will ride the enormous Peahi break -- all are colleagues of Hamilton, their leader.

In February 2008 Laird joined the board of directors of H2O Audio, a watersports music company in San Diego California. Laird will help H2O Audio guide its brand and develop its next generation of waterproof MP3 cases and waterproof headphones. He had used H2O Audio products on many of his long distance paddling endeavors before joining the company.

Despite his enormous accomplishments as the best known big wave rider of the modern era ( since the time of the great Duke Kahanamoku), the matured Hamilton is a modest celebrity who avoids self-promotion, he is a family man, a loyal colleague to other tow-in surfing friends, an understated ambassador of surfing and watersports, and, with his long time pal, David Kalama, an organizer and promoter of public charity fundraising events, notably for Autism research.

Personal life

He was previously married to Maria. They had a daughter, Izabella, in 1995.

On November 30 1997, Hamilton married model and pro volleyball athlete Gabrielle Reece. They have two children together, daughters Reece Viola Hamilton (born in October 2003), and Brody Jo Hamilton (born January 1, 2008 in Hawaii), weighing 8lbs 2ozs. According to Reece, the Hamilton family splits time living in residences in Hawaii and California.^[2]

Hamilton and wife Gabrielle are said to be part of the Malibu Mob, a celebrity group in the same vein as the Brat Pack. Other notable Malibu Mob members include Chris Chelios, John Cusack, John C. McGinley, Tony Danza, and tennis star John McEnroe.

In recent years Hamilton has used his celebrity to support public charity fundraising, notably for Autism research.

Selected TV/film appearances

Hamilton appeared in the 2004 documentary Riding Giants about surfing and the opening sequence of the 2002 James Bond movie Die Another Day, as Pierce Brosnan's big-wave surfing double. He also appears in Waterworld, as Kevin Costner's stunt double in numerous water scenes. During the making of "Waterworld", Hamilton, who had been commuting to the set via jet-ski, was lost at sea when his jet-ski ran out of fuel between Maui and the Big Island. He drifted for many hours before being spotted by a Coast Guard plane and rescued; when the abandoned jet-ski washed up on shore on the island of Lanai, he went over to fetch it and drove it back home again.

In October 2006, Hamilton and another legendary waterman, Dave Kalama, biked and paddled the entire Hawaiian Island chain—more than 450 miles—in a week. The feat was featured on Don King's film A Beautiful Son in support of those afflicted with autism. ^[3]

In 2007, Hamilton, along with his wife Gabrielle Reece, appeared in the ABC reality television series Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, featuring a dozen celebrities in a stock car racing competition. In the first round of competition, Hamilton matched up against tennis star Serena Williams and former NFL quarterback John Elway. Hamilton was eliminated in episode 5.

He has appeared in the television show Iconoclasts with Eddie Vedder from the popular American rock band Pearl Jam

Footage of Hamilton is used on the video for "Dayvan Cowboy" from Boards of Canada.