Laird Hamilton is known as the guiding genius of crossover board sports, and he is truly amazing in the water. His size – 6’3”, 215 pounds – makes him seem indestructible. ‘Laird is the elder son of 60’s surfing legend, Bill Hamilton, and is a throw back to that time when surfers prided themselves on being an all-around waterman.’ His mother, Joann, gave birth to him in a “bathysphere” with reduced gravity as part of an experiment at the UC Medical Center in San Francisco. Joann was also a surfer and decided to move the family from California to Hawaii when Laird was just a few months old. They lived on Oahu’s North Shore and later in a remote valley on Kauai, not far from one of the world’s best surf breaks. He learned to surf between the ages of two and three on the front half of a surfboard, and at age eight, his father took him to the 60-foot cliff at Waimea Falls where Laird looked down, looked back at his dad, and jumped. ‘He’s been bold since day one,’ says Bill, ‘and hell-bent on living life to the extreme.’
Laird is largely credited with the popularity burst of Stand Up Paddle Surfing, most often referenced simply as “SUP.” Time Magazine has said of Laird’s influence: “It wasn’t until the late 1990s that the modern explosion began, thanks to big wave surfer and exercise guru Laird Hamilton picking up SUP and publicizing it as a simultaneously adventurous, peaceful and a solid form of core conditioning for surfers and non-surfers alike.” With his vintage humility, though, Laird remains reluctant to call himself a trendsetter. The Wall Street Journal notes: “Mr. Hamilton declines to call himself the inventor of the sport because Pacific Islanders—and Italy’s Venetians—for centuries have stood in boats using paddles or poles.”
Laird Hamilton
Laird Hamilton is known as the guiding genius of crossover board sports, and he is truly amazing in the water. His size – 6’3”, 215 pounds – makes him seem indestructible. ‘Laird is the elder son of 60’s surfing legend, Bill Hamilton, and is a throw back to that time when surfers prided themselves on being an all-around waterman.’ His mother, Joann, gave birth to him in a “bathysphere” with reduced gravity as part of an experiment at the UC Medical Center in San Francisco. Joann was also a surfer and decided to move the family from California to Hawaii when Laird was just a few months old. They lived on Oahu’s North Shore and later in a remote valley on Kauai, not far from one of the world’s best surf breaks. He learned to surf between the ages of two and three on the front half of a surfboard, and at age eight, his father took him to the 60-foot cliff at Waimea Falls where Laird looked down, looked back at his dad, and jumped. ‘He’s been bold since day one,’ says Bill, ‘and hell-bent on living life to the extreme.’
Laird is largely credited with the popularity burst of Stand Up Paddle Surfing, most often referenced simply as “SUP.” Time Magazine has said of Laird’s influence: “It wasn’t until the late 1990s that the modern explosion began, thanks to big wave surfer and exercise guru Laird Hamilton picking up SUP and publicizing it as a simultaneously adventurous, peaceful and a solid form of core conditioning for surfers and non-surfers alike.” With his vintage humility, though, Laird remains reluctant to call himself a trendsetter. The Wall Street Journal notes: “Mr. Hamilton declines to call himself the inventor of the sport because Pacific Islanders—and Italy’s Venetians—for centuries have stood in boats using paddles or poles.”
site: lairdhamilton.com