Laird Hamilton (born
Laird John Zerfas on March 2, 1964 in San Francisco) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
big-wave surferBig Wave Surfing is a discipline within surfing in which experienced surfers paddle into or are towed onto waves which are at least 20 feet high, on surf boards known as "guns" or "rhino chasers". Sizes of the board needed to successfully surf these waves vary by the size of the wave as well as...
, co-inventor of
tow-in surfingTow-in surfing is a surfing technique pioneered by Laird Hamilton, Buzzy Kerbox, Dave Kalama, and others in the mid 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...
, and an occasional fashion and action-sports model. He is married to
Gabrielle ReeceGabrielle Allyse Reece is an American professional volleyball player, sports announcer, and fashion model.-Early life:...
, a professional volleyball player, television personality and model. Hamilton and his family split their time between residences in Maui, Hawaii and Malibu, California.
Childhood and his Early Years
Laird was born in San Francisco on March 2, 1964, in an experimental bathysphere designed to ease the mother's
laborChildbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus...
. His
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
birth father, L.G. Zerfas, left the family before his first
birthdayA birthday, as the term implies, is the anniversary of the particular day on which a person was born. Though by no means universal, such occasions are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with a party or, in some instances, a rite of passage....
. Afterwards but while he was still an infant, Laird and his mother, Joann Zyirek Zerfas, moved to Hawaii. Even as a child Laird was adventurous, as is shown in footage of him jumping off a sixty foot cliff into deep water at 7 years old.
While still a young boy living on Oahu Island, Hawaii, Laird met with later-legendary 1960s surfer Bill Hamilton, a bachelor at the time, on Pupukea beach of the North Shore of Oahu. Laird recounts in the big wave-riding documentary picture
Riding GiantsRiding Giants is a 2004 documentary film directed and narrated by Stacy Peralta, a famous skater/surfer who helped define modern skateboarding. The movie traces the origins of surfing and specifically focuses on the art of big wave riding...
that the two became immediate companions. After bodysurfing with his new acquaintance, the young Laird "coerced" Bill Hamilton to follow him home to "meet [his] mom." As Laird recounted of his match-making efforts, Bill Hamilton was smitten by the beauty of Laird's then single mother and married her, becoming Laird's adoptive father.
Bill Hamilton was a professional surfboard shaper and glasser on Oahu in the 1960s–1970s, and owned a small business that made handmade, custom, high-performance surfboards for the famous Oahu "North Shore big wave riders" of the era. The family later moved to a remote valley home on the island of Kauai. Joann and Bill had a second son, Laird's younger half-brother, Lyon Hamilton, who also became a surfer. Laird's mother, Joann, died of a brain aneurysm in 1997.
Also according to "Riding Giants," in Laird's childhood, teen years, and early adult years, he had the reputation for an aggressive demeanor around others of his age. This hostile attitude was in part due to Laird and his brother Lyon being smaller than their classmates, fair-skinned, and blonde: unusual in their predominantly Hawaiian-populated neighborhood. The role of the outsider profoundly affected Laird through to his teen years and early adult life. He became used to this role and was uncomfortable being in the center of anything. He was also known for his physical and mental toughness; nothing and no one seemed to intimidate him.
As he grew up through the 1970s and 1980s, Laird Hamilton lived in one of the greatest
surfingSurfing is most commonly known, the term is used for a surface water sport in which the person surfing moves along the face of a breaking ocean wave . However, surfing is not restricted to saltwater, but can sometimes take place on rivers, using a standing wave...
regions in the world, the north
coastThe coast is defined as where the land meets the sea. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the process of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...
of
OahuOahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the State of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
, which he enjoyed with a well-known surfer as his
fatherA father is defined as a male parent of any type of offspring. The adjective "paternal" refers to father, parallel to "maternal" for mother.-Father-child relationship:The Father-child relationship is the defining factor of the fatherhood role...
and
coachIn sports, a coach or manager is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.- Staff :...
. His father's friends and customers were other surfing greats of the modern surfing era. This environment contributed to Laird Hamilton's growth into a surfer who would ride the largest and most complex ocean waves ever ridden, as documented in film and photographs.
Men's Fashion Modeling
At the age of sixteen, Hamilton left the eleventh grade at
Kapaa High SchoolKapaa High School is a public high school based in Kapaa, Hawaii on the island of Kauai.-History:Established in 1883 under the reign of King David Kalakaua it was first built directly above Kealia River and then moved up the hill to where it currently stands on Mailihune Hill...
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 VogueMen's Vogue is a twice yearly men's magazine that covers fashion, design, art, culture, sports and technology.-Cover stories:...
magazine
L'Uomo Vogue which landed him a modeling contract and later a 1983 photo shoot with the actress
Brooke ShieldsBrooke Christa Camille Shields is an American actress, author and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That 70's Show, and Lipstick Jungle.-Early life:Shields was born in New York City into a well-known American...
. Hamilton continues to do occasional men's action sportswear print modeling.
Hamilton had his own line of clothing ("Wonderwall") at
Steve & Barry'sSteve & Barry's was an American retail clothing chain, featuring casual apparel. By 2007, the chain operated 276 stores in 39 states. The company was headquartered in Port Washington, New York. The company liquidated all of its stores throughout 2008....
until that retailer shut down at the end of January 2009.
1980s
By the age of 17, Hamilton had already become an accomplished surfer and could have easily left modeling 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 endure the competitive surfing contest politics and the random luck of the waves in organized championship surfing events. Bill Hamilton regarded surfing more as a
work of artA term coined in the 1970s and used to describe a talented surfer who surfs for the sheer pleasure of surfing. Although they may still enter in competitions, winning is not the main motive since they scorn the commercialization of surfing...
, rather than based chiefly on wave-by-wave ride performance scored by judges. 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 B-Movie on pseudo-surf culture entitled
North ShoreNorth Shore is a 1987 film about Rick Kane , a young fictional surfer from a wave tank in Arizona, who heads to surf the season on the North Shore of Oahu and see if he has the skills to cut it as a pro surfer...
, Hamilton played the violent, antagonistic role of "Lance Burkhart".
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, earned income and growth in personal net worth, and international recognition.
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 Maui's legendary
Strapped Crew, a group of eight or so friends that included fellow all-star Rush Randle, aimed to push the restrictions and boundaries of contemporary surfing at Pe'ahi (pronounced pay-ah-hee) (also commonly called "
Jaws"Jaws" is the name given to a big wave surfing reef break on the island of Maui in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It is located on the northern side of the island between mile markers 13 and 14 on the Hana highway and sits at the base of rolling sugar cane field hills.The surf break, a deep water...
") off the north central coast of
MauiThe island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727.2 square miles and is the United States' 17th largest island. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai...
. The Strapped Crew amazed spectators by tackling bigger wave surf and featuring stunts. Stunts included: launching 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 two of his close friends, big wave riders Darrick Doerner and Buzzy Kerbox (also an occasional men's fashion model; Hamilton and Kerbox later lost their friendship over a property disagreement.), started using inflatable boats to tow one another into waves which were too big to catch under paddle power alone. "The un-catchable (the biggest and fastest waves) was now catchable. Bingo!" said Doerner. This event is chronicled in the motion picture documentary film
Riding GiantsRiding Giants is a 2004 documentary film directed and narrated by Stacy Peralta, a famous skater/surfer who helped define modern skateboarding. The movie traces the origins of surfing and specifically focuses on the art of big wave riding...
. The technique, which would later be modified to use
jet skiJet Ski is the brand name of personal watercraft manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The name, however, has become a genericized trademark for any type of personal watercraft...
s, was a revolutionary innovation.
Tow-in surfingTow-in surfing is a surfing technique pioneered by Laird Hamilton, Buzzy Kerbox, Dave Kalama, and others in the mid 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...
, 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, and the coastline of Tahiti. Using tow-in surfing methods, Hamilton quickly learned how to survive waves and carving arcs across walls of water, the size of which could literally roll a ship over.
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 '
OxbowOxbow is a French manufacturer of sports clothing and accessories. The company was founded in 1985 in Pont-Audemer in Normandy by the surfer Fabrice Valéri, who had come back from Sri Lanka with an idea for making multi-colored beachwear shorts...
' surf.
However, in 1995, Hamilton's life took an unexpected and, more or less, permanent detour. Hamilton met famous women's professional
volleyball Volleyball is an Olympic team sport in which two teams of 6 players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules...
player and New York fashion model
Gabrielle ReeceGabrielle Allyse Reece is an American professional volleyball player, sports announcer, and fashion model.-Early life:...
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 Hamilton pushed for and took from his future wife the correspondent position 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 women's sports figure, had been named by ELLE magazine as one of the Five Most Beautiful Women in the World.
By the late 1990s, Hamilton was continuing his love affair with the water by
windsurfingWindsurfing is a surface water sport using a windsurf board usually two to four meters long and powered by the effect of the wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and comprises a mast, wishbone boom and sail...
, waterskiing and developing his
kitesurfingKitesurfing or kiteboarding is a surface water sport that uses wind power to pull a rider through the water on a small surfboard or a kiteboard . Generally kiteboarding refers to a style of riding known as freestyle or wake-style, whereas kitesurfing is more "wave-riding" oriented...
abilities as a pioneer of the sport. In 1996 Hamilton and
Manu BertinEmmanuel Bertin known as Manu Bertin is one of the pioneers of the sport of Kite surfing. He began to develop the sport in the early 1990s and has worked with American big wave surfer Laird Hamilton...
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
foilboardA foilboard or hydrofoil board is a surfboard with a hydrofoil that extends below the board into the water. The result of this design causes the board to leave the surface of the water at various speeds....
. The foilboard is an innovative
surfboardA surfboard is an elongated platform used in the sport of surfing. They are relatively light, but strong enough to support an individual standing on them while riding a breaking wave. They were invented in Hawaii, where they were known as Papa he‘e nalu in the Hawaiian language, usually made of...
which incorporates
hydrofoilA hydrofoil is a winglike structure or foil, attached to the hull of a boat that raises all or part of the hull out of the water when the boat is moving forward, thus reducing drag....
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; the Ride at Teahupo'o Reef on "The Wave"
It was Hamilton's death-defying drop into
Tahiti's Teahupo'o breakTeahupoʻo is a world-renowned surfing location off the south-west of the island of Tahiti, French Polynesia, southern Pacific Ocean. It is known for its heavy, glassy waves, often reaching 2 to 3 m and higher...
(commonly known as, CHOPU) on the morning of August 17, 2000 which has become the measure of his surfing career to date, and has firmly established his reputation as the greatest and bravest big wave surfer in the recorded history of surfing. A wipeout at Teahupo'o reef on a 'big day', a particularly hazardous shallow-water reef break southeast of the Pacific Island of Tahiti, could result in a surfrider's death.
That particular day at Teahupo'o reef, Hamilton dropped into what is widely considered to be the most dangerous wave ever ridden, due to the sea 'sucking down' into a huge well and forming a never-before-witnessed enormous mass of moving water -under, behind and over Hamilton - throughout his ride.
And on that day, a larger than normal ocean swell, "The Wave", approached. Darrick Doerner piloted the watercraft, with Hamilton in tow on his surfboard, into position. In an instant, the big wave jumped and the ocean floor dropped into a monster wave, an
über wave. Pulling in and gracefully releasing the tow rope, Hamilton physically 'drove' his surfboard and body down into the well of the wave's enormous tunnel vortex, possibly betting his own life on the wave-punishing
Kamikaze ride, in full view of the boat-based photographers' and videographers' cameras recording the unexpected. With his signature artistic flair and grace on big waves, Hamilton continued deeply carving water through this high speed epic ride of a lifetime, emerging back over the wave's shoulder without a moment of faltering. Cheers and screams came from all present on the surrounding watercraft who witnessed the feat. As if Hamilton had ridden the giant as a disciplined "wave-riding man-machine", his ride there on that day, chronicled in photographs and video, is known by surfers worldwide ever since simply as "When Laird Hamilton rode 'The Wave'", and a still photograph of him riding The Wave (appearing as if it were a giant mouth of water about to gulp him up) 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 GiantsRiding Giants is a 2004 documentary film directed and narrated by Stacy Peralta, a famous skater/surfer who helped define modern skateboarding. The movie traces the origins of surfing and specifically focuses on the art of big wave riding...
, Darrick Doerner, pilot of the tow-in watercraft pulling the wave-bound Hamilton, said he had strong misgivings about towing him into the huge wave because it looked un-ridable and possibly could be a 'killing' wave. Doerner, fearing for Hamilton's life at the time, poignantly said "I thought, 'Don't let go of the rope..' . . . then, I looked back at the tow rope, . . . . . and, it was too late . . . . . Laird had already let go of the tow rope and was in the wave . . . . . there was nothing I could do for him at that point." The fearless Hamilton admitted afterward that he was excited about the forming wave around him, disregarded the danger, and was pushing himself to drive 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
feetA foot is a non-SI unit of length, in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. Its size can vary from system to system, but in each is around a quarter to a third of a meter...
(11 m) tall, and moving at speeds in excess of an hour and successfully riding other waves of up to high, at up to 50 mph (80 km/h).
Today, Hamilton prefers tow-in surfing of the giant waves of Pe'ahi reef (pronounced pay-ah-hee) (also known as
Jaws"Jaws" is the name given to a big wave surfing reef break on the island of Maui in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It is located on the northern side of the island between mile markers 13 and 14 on the Hana highway and sits at the base of rolling sugar cane field hills.The surf break, a deep water...
) 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 physique is substantial, and it 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 Pe'ahi break—all are colleagues of Hamilton; and, along with pal
Dave KalamaDave Kalama is a big wave surfer, windsurfer, and watersports celebrity-enthusiast. Kalama and his family live in Hawaii.Kalama is credited with the co-development of tow-in surfing, along with Laird Hamilton, Darrick Doerner, and Buzzy Kerbox...
, they are the strapped crew's
de facto leaders. When not performing tow-in surfing big waves for photographers and film makers, Hamilton and Kalama pursue virtually every other watersport; lately, it is ancient Hawaiian 'stand-up' paddle-boarding back and forth between islands of the Hawaiian Island chain.
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, has become a family man, a trusted colleague, and occasional lifeguard to other tow-in surfers, an understated ambassador of surfing and watersports, and, along with his long time surfing pal, Dave Kalama, continues to be an organizer and promoter of public charity fundraising events, notably for Autism research.
Environmental activism
Laird Hamilton is also an environmental activist. He joined a protest in
MalibuMalibu is an incorporated city in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population is 12,575....
against a proposed plant that was to be built in the area, which would affect the quality of the water. Various other celebrities attended the event including
Pierce BrosnanPierce Brendan Brosnan is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist, who holds both Irish and American citizenship. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
,
Halle BerryHalle Berry is an American actress, former fashion model, and beauty queen. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was also nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in...
and
Ted DansonEdward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He is currently a regular on Larry David's HBO sitcom, Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close in...
.
Personal life
In his teens and early adult life, Hamilton had been known for a violent temper, destructive with friendships, and frequent public outbursts, including public nudity and mailing pubic hair to enemies and friends alike. Entering fatherhood (now a third time) and approaching mid-life seems to have mellowed Hamilton's personality.
He was previously married to Maria Souza. They have a daughter, Izabella, born in 1995 (who now lives in the Hamilton-Reece family).
On November 30 1997, Hamilton married model and pro
volleyball Volleyball is an Olympic team sport in which two teams of 6 players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules...
athlete
Gabrielle ReeceGabrielle Allyse Reece is an American professional volleyball player, sports announcer, and fashion model.-Early life:...
(also known as "Gabby"). They have two children together, daughters Reece Viola Hamilton (born in October 2003), and Brody Jo Hamilton (born January 1, 2008 in
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states, and is the only state made up entirely of islands. It is located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August...
). According to Reece, the Hamilton family splits time living in residences in Hawaii and California.
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 CheliosChris Chelios is an American professional ice hockey defenseman currently with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL. Chelios has played in the NHL for the Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings. He played in the NHL from the 1983–84 to 2008-09 seasons, and earned many awards during...
,
John CusackJohn Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He won the 1990 Most Promising Actor CFCA Award for Say Anything..., the 1998 Favorite Supporting Actor Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Con Air, and the 2000 Commitment to Chicago Award.-Early life:Cusack was born in Evanston,...
,
Kelsey GrammerAllen Kelsey Grammer , best known as Kelsey Grammer, is an American actor best known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane in the NBC sitcoms Cheers and Frasier , and providing the voice of Sideshow Bob on the Fox animated series The Simpsons...
,
John C. McGinleyJohn Christopher McGinley is an American actor, most notable for his roles as Perry Cox in Scrubs, Bob Slydell in Office Space, and Sergeant Red O'Neill in Oliver Stone's Platoon.-Early life:...
,
Tony DanzaTony Danza is an American actor best known for starring on the TV series Taxi and Who's the Boss?, for which Danza was nominated for an Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards...
,
Justin LongJustin Jacob Long is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Jeepers Creepers, Dodgeball, Waiting..., Live Free or Die Hard, He's Just Not That Into You, the NBC dramedy series Ed, and his personification of a Macintosh computer in Apple's "Get a Mac" advertisement...
,
Ed O'NeillEdward "Ed" O'Neill is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the main character, Al Bundy, on the Fox Network's sitcom, Married... with Children. O'Neill is often cast as a police detective or FBI agent in television shows and films.-Early life:O'Neill was born into an Irish Catholic...
,
Max WrightMax Wright is an American actor, best known for his role as Willie Tanner in the sitcom ALF.-Biography:Wright was born George Edward Maxwell Wright in Detroit, Michigan....
and tennis star
John McEnroeJohn Patrick McEnroe, Jr. is an American former World No. 1 professional tennis player. McEnroe won seven Grand Slam singles titles—three at Wimbledon and four at the US Open—nine Grand Slam men's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title...
.
In recent years Hamilton has used his celebrity status to support public charity fundraising, notably for Autism research.
Selected TV/film appearances
In the 1987 B-Movie on pseudo-surf culture entitled
North ShoreNorth Shore is a 1987 film about Rick Kane , a young fictional surfer from a wave tank in Arizona, who heads to surf the season on the North Shore of Oahu and see if he has the skills to cut it as a pro surfer...
, Hamilton played the violent, antagonistic thug-surfer role of "Lance Burkhart".
Hamilton has been featured in American Express credit card television commercials; an early 2000s commercial in the series "Hi, you probably wouldn't recognize my name . . . " and more recently in the American Express "My life, my card" commercial series.
Hamilton was a central real-life figure in the 2004 documentary
Riding GiantsRiding Giants is a 2004 documentary film directed and narrated by Stacy Peralta, a famous skater/surfer who helped define modern skateboarding. The movie traces the origins of surfing and specifically focuses on the art of big wave riding...
about giant wave surfing; and the opening sequence of the 2002 James Bond movie
Die Another DayDie Another Day is the twentieth spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth and last to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. In the pre-title sequence, Bond leads a mission to North Korea, during which he is found out and, after killing a rogue North Korean colonel, he...
, as
Pierce BrosnanPierce Brendan Brosnan is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist, who holds both Irish and American citizenship. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
's big-wave surfing double (shared with Dave Kalama). He also appears in
WaterworldWaterworld is a 1995 post-apocalyptic science fiction film. The film was directed by Kevin Reynolds, co-written by Peter Rader and David Twohy based on Rader's original 1986 screenplay and stars Kevin Costner, who also produced it...
, as
Kevin CostnerKevin Michael Costner is an American actor, musician, producer, and director. He has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards, won two Oscars and a Golden Globe Award. Costner's roles include Lt. John J...
'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.
In 2007, Hamilton, along with his wife
Gabrielle ReeceGabrielle Allyse Reece is an American professional volleyball player, sports announcer, and fashion model.-Early life:...
, appeared in the ABC
reality televisionReality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors...
series
Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity RaceFast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race was an ABC reality television series featuring twelve celebrities in a stock car auto racing competition....
, featuring a dozen celebrities in a stock car racing competition. In the first round of competition, Hamilton matched up against
tennisTennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court....
star
Serena WilliamsSerena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and current World No. 1. She has been ranked World No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association on four separate occasions...
and former NFL
quarterbackQuarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the center, in the middle of the offensive line. Quarterbacks are the leaders of the offensive team, responsible for calling the play in the huddle...
John ElwayJohn Albert Elway, Jr. is a retired American football quarterback. He played his college football at Stanford and his entire professional career for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League ....
. Hamilton was eliminated in episode 5.
He has appeared in the television show
IconoclastsIconoclasts 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. The series premiered on November 17, 2005, and has had three six-episode seasons. A fourth season premiered on...
with
Eddie VedderEddie Vedder is an American musician who serves as the lead singer and one of three guitarists for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Vedder left the Southern California music scene and moved to Seattle, Washington in 1990 to join Pearl Jam where he rose to fame amid the grunge movement of the...
from the popular American rock band
Pearl JamPearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
.
He also appeared in the HBO show
EntourageEntourage is an American comedy-drama that premiered on HBO on July 18, 2004. The series was created by Doug Ellin and chronicles the rise of Vincent Chase, a young A-list movie star, and his childhood friends from Queens, New York City, as they navigate the unfamiliar terrain of Hollywood,...
as the victim of a road rage incident with Johnny Drama.
Footage of Hamilton is used on the video for "
Dayvan Cowboy"Dayvan Cowboy" is the fifth song on The Campfire Headphase by Boards of Canada. The track was released on iTunes on October 4, 2005. The song and a remix of it, created by Odd Nosdam later appeared on the EP Trans Canada Highway...
" from
Boards of CanadaBoards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin...
.
In 2003, he was featured in the Dana Brown surf documentary film "
Step Into LiquidStep into Liquid is a documentary about surfing directed by Dana Brown, son of famed surfer and filmmaker Bruce Brown. The film includes surfing footage from the famous Pipeline, the beaches of Vietnam, and some of the world's largest waves, at Cortes Bank...
".
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