Laird Hamilton is known as the guiding genius of crossover board sports, and he is truly amazing in the water. His size - six-foot-three, 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 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 does all kinds of interesting things in the ocean like making epic long distance journeys on his ocean-going paddleboard, and creating the fast forward speed sailing loop.
When he was twenty-two years old, Laird entered a speed-sailing competition in Port Saint-Louis, France, defeated the heavily favored French champion, and broke the European speed record of 36 knots in the process. Today, he surfs the outer-reefs in Hawaii with his friends after years of working with different board designs to be able to catch the giant waves. Their method involves getting into a Wave Runner, taking a water ski rope, and towing each other into waves that are too big to paddle into. The craft flings them into the wave at full speed. Laird has footstraps on his board to keep from getting bounced off and to enable him to do some mind-boggling things like aerial liftoffs, including 360’s. “Jaws Maui,” a book published in ‘97, features Laird in action and is filled with spectacular photography of the men who pioneered tow-in surfing.
Photo shoots with sponsors such as OXBOW have taken Laird around the world: the Caucasus mountain range to snowboard, a jungle preserve in Java, Indonesia with a world-class surf break just offshore, and the Great Barrier Reef to name a few.
He can be seen on the cover of magazines such as National Geographic, Outside, The Surfer’s Journal, Men’s Journal, Surfer, Surfing,etc.and in Sports Illustrated, People, Life, GQ, Interview, L’Uomo Vogue (Italy), Paris Match (France), Surf (Germany), High Wind (Japan), and Sailboarder. In 1996, People magazine named him ‘one of the 50 most beautiful people.’ Surfer Poll Awards,’00 ‘Breakout Performance of the Year’ and in France,’00 (M6) honored him with overall ‘Rider of the Year’. In ‘01, ESPN’s, Action Sports & Music Awards, awarded Laird ‘Feat of the Year’ award.
Laird is featured on TV as a host in Fox Sports Net’s, ‘Planet Extreme Championships’ (2000) on the Outdoor Life Network (1999), and “The Extremists” (1996-97), in which he took incredible risks while air boarding, rock climbing, kite surfing, jet-ski surfing, and much more. He is featured in the documentary film “Endless Summer II” (1994), the sequel to the surfing cult classic. Laird’s filmmography also includes “Waterworld,” “North Shore,” “Night Waves,” “Totally Committed,” and “Five Summer Stories.” Among his ventures, Laird and his crew provide film and television companies with performers, planning, and expertise in shooting in surf.
Their own productions, including “Radical Attitude” (1992) and “Wake Up Call” (1996), are videos in which Laird, ‘the Chuck Yeager of experimental surfing,’ demonstrates why he is considered one of the most respected board riders of our generation. ‘Bigger. Higher. Faster,’ says Laird of his future plans, ‘I want to go after the world speed sailing record. I want to ride bigger waves. I want to try and invent some new sports, combine some existing ones. I want to be creative.’