"Today we remember a house full of love."
A fire of a yet-to-be-determined cause has destroyed the
home of Hawaiian surf legend Tony Moniz, daddy to rookie of the
year Seth, Pipe trials winner Josh and longboard world
champ Kelia,
Tony and his wife Tammy split the fire with nothing but their
lil dog, a Bible and a couple of Tony’s beloved surf trophies from
the Duke contest.
“Twenty-four surfers get invited each year,” Tony told
Hawaii News
Now. “As a young child growing up I always wanted
to get into the Duke Classic. Which wasn’t easy to do. It was the
world tour to me. That was my goal.”
Ten fire trucks with forty firefighters hit the blaze, which
started in the garage, but were unable to save the home.
“Within minutes, it was a towering inferno,” said Tony, a
champion boxer, motocross rider and one of Hawaii’s best surfers in
the seventies, eighties and nineties.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMh0vyTn3Hi/
According to Warshaw’s
Encylopedia of Surfing, “In the early ’80s,
Moniz was one of the first to master the lay-forward stance, which
allowed a backside-riding surfer to get nearly as deep inside the
tube as a frontsider. In 1982, 1983, and 1984 he was a finalist in
the Duke Kahanamoku Classic, held at Sunset Beach. By the mid-’80s,
Moniz was concentrating on big surf, and he placed sixth in both
the 1999 and 2001 Quiksilver-Aikau events at Waimea Bay.”
Another surfer of note, Derek Hynd, who lost his own home in
2019, wrote, “From unfortunate experience the entire
sequence from spark to knowing the worst is coming down can take
place in seconds, not even a minute. Tony sits as the toppest Top
Bloke that I’ve met in my surfing decades and I hope he and the
family emerge without long lasting effects from the trauma.
Tragic.”
The house, which is in a real nice part of Honolulu, just east
of Diamond Head, was worth around $600k.
There’s a GoFundMe
kicking around, hoping to raise 200k to help rebuild the joint.
Already it’s hit sixty, from 459 donors.
“If you know them and or
have visited Hawaii you were probably invited over their home for
dinner or for a visit. Their house has not only been a home for
them and their family but to countless others whom they have
welcomed and loved over the years.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMh9QDTHwF4/
Despite losing everything, Tammy Moniz was characteristically
upbeat.
The memories don’t stay with the house,” she said. “The memories
stay in my heart and their hearts.”
