This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (December 2007)

Laird pictured at a protest in Malibu against a proposed plant that was to be built in the area, which would affect the quality of the water. Various celebrities attended the event including Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry and Ted Danson

Laird Hamilton (born Laird John Zerfas on March 2, 1964 in San Francisco) is an American big-wave surfer and former male model. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Malibu may refer to: Malibu, California, a 27-mile beach community in Los Angeles County, California. ... Pierce Brendan Brosnan,The most gorgeous man on the planet OBE[1] (born May 16, 1953) is an Irish actor and producer best known for portraying James Bond in four films from 1995 to 2002: GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. ... Halle Maria Berry (IPA: ; born August 14, 1966[1]) is an American actress. ... Ted Danson (born Edward Bridge Danson III on December 29, 1947) is an American actor most notable for his television work, and specifically, for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. ... is the 61st day of the year (62nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also Nintendo emulator: 1964 (emulator). ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Big wave surfing is a discipline in surfing where riders paddle into or are towed onto waves which are at least 20 feet (6,2 m) high, on surf boards known as guns or rhino chasers. The bigger the wave, the faster it travels, and the bigger the surf board... The cover of a Victorias Secret catalog, a catalog known for featuring supermodels as its lingerie models. ...

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. While a young boy, Laird met legendary 1960s surfer Bill Hamilton on Pupukea beach of the North Shore of Oahu; and introduced Hamilton to his mother. Bill Hamilton went on to marry Joann, and become Laird's adopted father, eventually moving the family to a remote valley on the island of Kauai. JoAnn and Bill had a son, giving Laird a younger half-brother (and surfer), Lyon. JoAnn died of a brain aneurysm in 1997. Hamilton thus grew up in the 1960s and 1980s in what is known as one of the greatest surfing locations in the world, the north coast of Oahu as a playground with a legendary surfer as a father and coach to mold him into the art of conquering big wave surf. This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... A bathysphere is a spherical deep-sea diving submersible which is lowered into bodies of water with a cable. ... For other uses, see Birthday (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Surfing (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Coast (disambiguation). ... Oʻahu (usually Oahu outside Hawaiian and Hawaiian English), the Gathering Place, is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous island in the State of Hawaiʻi. ... See World Wide Web for surfing the web; see also Wind surfing Surfing at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. ... For other uses, see Father (disambiguation). ... In sports, a coach or manager is an individual involved in the direction and instruction of the on-field operations of an athletic team or of individual athletes. ... Surface waves in water This article is about waves in the most general scientific sense. ... Look up surf on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Modeling

At the age of sixteen, Hamilton left the eleventh grade at Kapaa High School to pursue a modeling career and work in construction. At seventeen, Hamilton was discovered on a beach in Kauai by a photographer from the Italian Men's Vogue magazine L'Uomo Vogue which subsequently saw him land a modeling contract and later a 1983 photo shoot with the actress Brooke Shields An American mens fashion magazine, spun off from Vogue, a womens fashion magazine. ... Brooke Christa Camille Shields[1] (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress and supermodel. ...

Surfing career

1980s

By the age of twenty, Hamilton had already become an accomplished surfer and could have easily left modelling to pursue a different career on surfing's World Championship Tour. However, competitive surfing and contests never appealed to Hamilton, who had watched his father Bill suffer thoroughly in organized championships. Bill Hamilton regarded surfing more as a work of art rather than based chiefly on performance. As a young Hamilton once said, "Contests are less about the one big wave than about your performances. Surfing is about your body of work. It's about art. I would snap if I was letting someone other than the audience determine my fate. How does a musician judge his thing? By how many people love his music?"

In the 1987 movie North Shore, Hamilton played the antagonistic role of "Lance Burkhart." North Shore is the 1987 feature film directed by William Phelps and written by Phelps, Tim McCanlies and Randal Kleiser. ...

'Pipeline' on the north shore of Oahu where Hamilton grew up

Despite further success in modeling during the 1980s, Hamilton, with his professional surfing upbringing, had always intended to venture into a life of surfing. But Hamilton's rejection and disposition toward the contest circuit meant that he had to devise an alternate route to fame and international recognition. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (900x600, 92 KB) Photo of Oahu North Shore surfer dragging his hand, taken March 2002 by User:Stan Shebs File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Surfing Laird... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (900x600, 92 KB) Photo of Oahu North Shore surfer dragging his hand, taken March 2002 by User:Stan Shebs File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Surfing Laird...

1990s

An early attempt at media recognition was his quest to be the first surfer to complete a 360 loop while strapped to his board. The attempt was chronicled in the ski film Groove - Requiem in the key of Ski by Greg Stump (1990). In the early 1990s with Maui's legendary 'Strapped' crew, a group of eight or so friends that included fellow all-star Rush Randle, which aimed to push the restrictions and boundaries of contemporary surfing. The Strapped crew amazed spectators by tackling bigger wave surf and featuring stunts. Stunts included: launching 30-foot (9.1 m) jumps on sailboards, then mating the boards to paragliders to experiment with some of the earliest kiteboards. The video "Strapped" chronicles their feats.

In late 1992, Hamilton with some of his companions, such as Darrick Doerner and Buzzy Kerbox, started using inflatable boats to tow one another into waves which were too big to catch under paddle power alone. 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 Jaws (Peahi) off the coast of Maui and the coastline of Tahiti. Using tow-in surfing methods, Hamilton quickly learned how to survive 70-foot (21 m) waves and carving arcs across walls of water that could literally sink ships. Jet ski is the brand name of Kawasaki Heavy Industries personal water craft. ... Tow-in surfing is a surfing technique pioneered by Laird Hamilton, Buzzy Kerbox, Dave Kalama and others in the late 1990s where a surfer is towed into a breaking wave by a partner driving a personal watercraft or a helicopter with an attached tow-line. ... For other uses, see Maui (disambiguation). ...

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. Ever since its creation in 1985 with the partnership of Fabrice Valéri, a surfer of visionary genius, and Isabelle Cachot, a highly talented artistic director, OXBOW has been the vector of a unique mindset on the rider sports scene, as demonstrated in each and every one of its collections. ...

Laird Hamilton at Teahupoo

However, in 1995, Hamilton's life took an unexpected detour. Hamilton met professional volleyball player and model Gabrielle Reece in Los Angeles, California after a television interview. He went on to marry Reece in November 1997. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... For the ball used in this sport, see Volleyball (ball). ... Gabrielle Reece (born January 6, 1970) is a professional volleyball player and former fashion model. ...

In 1996, People magazine named him one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World, and he replaced Reece as correspondent for the syndicated cable series 'The Extremists'.

By the late 1990 Hamilton 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. A windsurfer with modern gear tilts the rig and carves the board to perform a planing jibe (downwind turn) close to shore in Maui, Hawaii. ... Recreational skiiers typically use two skis — other techniques abound. ... Power kites at Coche, Venezuela Kitesurfing in the Columbia River Gorge Kitesurfers use power kites tethered to harnesses to glide through water and air Kitesurfing, also known as kiteboarding, involves using a power kite to pull a rider through the water on a small surfboard or a kiteboard (a wakeboard... Kitesurfing Emmanuel Bertin known as Manu Bertin (March 19, 1963, in Toulon in France) is one of the pioneers of the sport of Kite surfing. ...

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. The Foilboard is a type of surfboard equipped with a hydrofoil that extends below the board, causing the board to completely lift out of the water at high speeds. ... A stack of boards in Waikiki during a surf competition lalalala yeshhhh Surfboards are long, buoyant decks used in the sport of surfing. ... This article is about marine engineering. ...

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...". Afterwards even Hamilton admitted that even he was pushing himself to the "max, max, max, max". Hamilton is now widely regarded as the best of the best at big wave surfing, regularly surfing swells of 35 feet (11 m) tall, and moving at speeds in excess of 30 miles (48 km) an hour and successfully riding other waves of up to 70 feet (21 m) high, at up to 50 mph (80 km/h). Image File history File links KahakuloaHead_sml. ... Image File history File links KahakuloaHead_sml. ... Teahupoo (pronounced Cho-poo) is a world-renowned surfing location off the south-east of Tahiti. ... A foot (plural: feet or foot;[1] symbol or abbreviation: ft or, sometimes, ′ – a prime) is a unit of length, in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ...

He has often been credited for being able to conquer such enormous 'big wave' surf because of his exceptional physical conditioning and stature. At 6'3" (1.90m) and 220 pounds (102kg) he is able to take on larger waves which many smaller surfers could not physically handle.

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.

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. is the 334th day of the year (335th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... For the ball used in this sport, see Volleyball (ball). ... Look up Athlete in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Gabrielle Reece (born January 6, 1970) is a professional volleyball player and former fashion model. ... is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ...

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. Riding Giants is a 2004 documentary film directed and narrated by Stacy Peralta, a famous skater/surfer who helped to define modern skateboarding. ... For the theme song of the same movie, performed by Madonna, see Die Another Day (song). ... Pierce Brendan Brosnan,The most gorgeous man on the planet OBE[1] (born May 16, 1953) is an Irish actor and producer best known for portraying James Bond in four films from 1995 to 2002: GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. ... This article is about the 1995 sci-fi film. ... Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an Academy Award-winning American film actor, director and producer. ...

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. Gabrielle Reece (born January 6, 1970) is a professional volleyball player and former fashion model. ... // This article is about the genre of TV shows. ... For other uses, see Tennis (disambiguation). ... Serena Jameka Williams, (born September 26, 1981) is an American former World No. ... Navy quarterback Aaron Polanco sets up to throw. ... John Albert Elway, Jr. ...

He has appeared in the television show Iconoclasts with Eddie Vedder from the popular American rock band Pearl Jam Iconoclasts is a Sundance Channel show with the tagline Change the way you see celebrity. Each episode pairs two creative visionaries who discuss their lives, influences, and art. ... Eddie Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson III on December 23, 1964 in Evanston, Illinois) is the lead singer and one of three guitarists for the rock band Pearl Jam. ... This article is about the rock group. ...

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

Notes

Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN and a division of ESPN Inc. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

• Duane, Daniel (July, 2004), "Last Man Standing", Men's Journal, <http://www.mensjournal.com/feature/0407/lairdHamilton.html>.
• Jenkins, Bruce (Fall, 1997), "Laird Hamilton: 20th Century Man", The Surfer's Journal 6 (3), <http://www.surfersjournal.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TSJ&Product_Code=BI06-3&Category_Code=>.
• Stahl, Lesley (2004-07-24), Surf's Up!, CBS News, <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/26/60minutes/main602558.shtml>. Retrieved on 11 January 2008.
• Thomson, Candus (2004-11-30), After shooting curls, he's chilling, The Baltimore Sun, <http://www.olympic-usa.org/11699_28334.htm>. Retrieved on 11 January 2008.
• Warshaw, Matt (2003), Maverick's: The Story of Big-Wave Surfing, Chronicle Books, ISBN 0811841596.

Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Mens Journal Mens Journal is an American magazine founded in 1992 that caters to 25 to 49 year-old men. ... Lesley R. Stahl (born December 16, 1941, in Lynn, Massachusetts) is an American television journalist. ... CBS News logo, used from Sept. ... The Sun is the newspaper of record for Baltimore, Maryland, with a daily press run of 247,193 copies and a Sunday run of 418,670 copies (9/30/05 Audit Bureau of Circulations report). ...

External links

• Laird Hamilton's Web Site
• http://www.juicemagazine.com/lairdhamilton.html
• http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/laird-hamilton/bio/161151
• Laird Hamilton at the Internet Movie Database
• The famous Surfer magazine cover of Laird Hamilton riding The Wave at Teahupoo, 17 August 2000
• Another set of photographs of Laird Hamilton riding The Wave at Teahupoo, 17 August 2000, by Tim McKenna