The world's most famous surfer describes a singular experience!
It’s Valentine’s Day and love is in the air. Chirping birds, blooming flowers, boxes of chocolates and Laird Hamilton’s epic new film Take Every Wave in virtual reality. You, of course, remember when the regular version of the Kennedy directed bio-pic came out five months ago. It was a hit, I assume, and exposed many secrets of the world’s most famous surfer including the fact that he was raised as a minority in a racially tense world.
Now, on Valentine’s Day, you can journey with Laird though this world where insensitive pejoratives meet the thrills of a lifetime and let’s let People magazine pick up the story.
You are not Laird Hamilton. You don’t ride 100 foot waves on a whim. You don’t travel around the world to do so, and you don’t look like a more athletic version of Barbie’s Ken. But you could be.
“Take Every Wave: Laird in VR,” a 360-degree virtual reality experience created in collaboration with the surf legend transports you to Chicama, Peru, where you can ride what many claim is the world’s longest wave on a hydrofoil surfboard that makes it seem like you are not only walking on water, but also flying above it.
“In a way surfing is my art,” the 53-year-old tells PEOPLE at the 2018 Lumiere Awards hosted by Advanced Imaging Society, where he accepted the award for Best Sports VR Experience. But Hamilton’s extraordinary feats aren’t exactly easy to emulate — or watch — so he got creative about how to share them with the wider world.
“We’re normally out at sea somewhere,” he says, “so we are always looking for ways to try and capture it, and bring what we’re experiencing to people. Normally the formats don’t do that. Normally, I can ride a hundred foot wave, and someone takes a picture of it and [people] are like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s cool…’ Its’ not ‘cool.’ It should be an out-of-body experience that is very infrequent in our world.”
To be honest, I didn’t know the mythical 100 foot wave had been ridden yet and feel very bad for not bringing you this news when it happened. It also seems, from context, that it happens a lot, on whims and that all kinds of people take pictures but remain relatively unimpressed.
What assholes.
so you married to another tennis player??
beware blonde reptiles!
ah is that Jacob H , still your husband?
ooohh , vampire reptile , bitch fight , is she blonde?
Lairdette = La femme de Laird .Et un de mes copains a toujours dit à son chien « . À ta place. »
ohhhh , a woman should know their place , and behave like a good obedient dog , at least the French have class!
In the context where woman A ( lairdette) was trying to grass cut the man of woman B ( Impervious Blond) ( the curren board breaker ) I believe that woman B had every right to tell woman A to SIT . Et voila c’est comme ça . Would love to see you call your next model the pile driver .
how about the Reptile Pile Driver!
Perfect
I like this comment.
A ta place Lairdette.Vous avez très bien fait .
Eye’ve
He’s right. It’s not cool. Not cool at all. It’s not even ironic for chrissake.
Laird looks like Day County’s #2 ranked realtor
ah love the too dumb to be right comment , but what happens when he is right ?
Interesting though that he has pioneered big wave riding , works heavily on his equipment , has no problem sharing his experiences and any tech tips , yeah a lot of people don’t like his character , but you cannot question his athletic ability and balls .
Just read an article on how hated Shaun White is by the snowboarding community , and they mentioned also how hated Michael Jordon, Kobe Bryant and Tom Brady are in the USA…ah don’t you love “Tall Poppy Syndrome!
he pioneered big wave riding?
should have said Extra Large wave riding !
I wonder if anyone on these forums who comments , has ridden bigger waves , pioneered equipment , or as fit as he is?
Towing into large waves. Have you ever seen a picture or video of Laird lay down paddle into a big wave, without jet skis and life vests ? Honest question.
SUP and Foil boarding are questionable as far as the benefit of his pioneering equipment goes.. At Hanalei he rides fifty feet in front of the pocket of the wave on the border of being out of control. the glide is cool looking but that is about it. And SUPers are a menace. And dont forget that he used to do steroids so that bulk is not all man made and natural.
Actually yes , but when you pioneer Pe’ahi , tow boards , zodiacs/jet skis, to go to the next level and trail blaze for all those paddlers.
The foil thing is only new in big waves we are living the good old days , after speaking with Laird , I think he’s right about the biggest wave will eventually be ridden on a foil!
The foil is awesome in the right place. Crowded surf is not that place. He is considered a menace here. Big surf, offshore reefs, I absolutely agree that there is incredible potential in the foil.
Do you remember that old eighties surf flick “Bali high”?
He short boards pretty good in that.// Lopez says he surfed Pe’ahi in the seventies// Buzzy Trent was talking about towing in into waves in the 1950’s. In 1975 Flippy Hoffman and Ricky Grigg where towed into Kaena point by a small boat. Herbie Fletcher pioneered tow surfing with jet skis in 1987. Buzzy Kerbox invited Laird to join him towing in 1992. So not pioneered but certainly brought it to another level.
absolutely agree with not foiling in crowds on any level as its so dangerous .
I also see that Kai Lenny and Laird are considered to be leading the foil sport , and yes is a menace , especially if the kooks take it up and start slicing and dicing their way thru the surf.
I have surfed a lot with laird in the ol’ days at pipe and Backdoor , and surfed pretty well , but no pro , but with buzzy in the original rubber ducky at Pe’ahi , that was pretty special , as new boards were developed and the whole idea of riding head high boards in the biggest surf ever ….I call that pioneering .
A lot of people bag Laird , but that’s his personality that he pertrays in public , I find him very respectful , full of ideas that he is actually in the process of doing…if we judged him solely on his surfing exploits ,……??
Yes he has inspired to a lot of people to follow his lead. so I agree that he can be considered a pioneer. Those small tow boards that Brewer made him where ground breaking with out a doubt. I don’t have a problem with him at all, he comes off as someone with a tough outside and soft inside to me. Its his followers that I worry about. Foil boarding is exploding with popularity here at the moment among the SUP crowd. It will spread around the world like a virus.
thought that was only for aussie convict scum?
only the scum who rise to the top , and it looks like we convicts have exported our, “tall Poppy Sydrome, TPS.”
Laird is an embarrassment to everything that is good about surfing, but hey a guy has to make a living.
Of all the things about Laird to get annoyed about it’s the angle of his front foot that grinds my gears the most.
Please tell me there is a Laird doll for me to purchase. Foil sold separately.
Smoke the foil , voodoo doll with pins sold separately. Only joking .
You’ve identified a gap in the market. We are going to rich (again)!
Looks like the HULK has taken up surfing .
second that. i’ve stood next to laird’s wife and felt like a midget and i’m six feet, 180. impervious blonde — you’re saying she was angling to move in your man? blood feud!
Anybody give Laird credit for having a motor? Dude seems driven to get out there and do a whole bunch of new and marginal stuff. And kind of remarkable how much of it’s eventually found the mainstream. At minimum he has some pretty fucking well-tuned foresight? Would he be a billionaire if that quality was applied to Wall Street instead of the Hana Highway?
He’s a motorboatin’ sunnava bitch
You must hear this.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
I don’t think anyone could deny that he is a great all round water athlete but was never going to win a world title and has still managed to have a career in the sport even longer than Slater. However I do not like the sound and smell of jet skis , meddlesome SUP’s and frightening foils . Thanks but no thanks Laird. I don’t play golf so the golf cart skate thingy is fine by me .
I always feel guilty when I slight Laird, I was such an admirer back in the day. The sentiment just shifted. I’m allergic to his (or anyone else’s) condescending tone. Guy had a lot of luck, not just knowhow.
We’re all older and wiser Laird, not just you.
Laird walks on water. He is our modern day jesus.
Ok IB, WE’RE ALL ASKING. Please write up the stories ASAP.
Fair play to you for being BeachGrit honest. We love you for it.
TWO women at BG?! Surely not? Wonderful!