Hawaiian surf god Larry Bertlemann, so popular he signed autographs with a rubber pad, dead at 71

"A truly gifted surfer with an outrageously overblown ego."

The Hawaiian surf god Larry Bertlemann, a man who “permanently altered the body dynamics of surfing”, has died after complications following a heart attack.

In a statement the family said,

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of legendary professional surfer and local artist Larry Bertlemann. He passed away on October 10, 2026, at the age of 71, following complications from a heart attack at The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Beyond his accomplishments in surfing and art, Larry was a beloved son, brother, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. He is survived by his loving mother, five sisters, three children, eight grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. His legacy, both in and out of the water, will continue to live on through his family, the surfing community, and the many lives he touched.”

Phil Jarratt wrote a long profile on Larry Bertlemann for Surfer in 1979 with the fabulous title, “The Secret to Making the Cover, $80,000 a Year, and 360s: or Why Larry Bertlemann had to have his Phone Disconnected, and Other Startling Facts About Surfing’s Rubberman.” 

“Modest is not the word that springs to mind in connection with Larry Mahau Bertlemann, 24. Unassuming doesn’t fit either. Bertlemann has – and he’ll be the first to admit it – an outrageously overblown ego. He also has an overblown, almost weird ability to set new standards in performance surfing. Erratic and often just plain ugly to watch, Bertlemann will occasionally explode into a manoeuvre that defies not only gravity but rational expectations as well. He is a truly gifted surfer who will stand out in the history of the sport as one of the originals, and yet he will never grace the record books. Too erratic, unpredictable and inconsistent to ever pose a contest threat, Bertlemann’s dynamic presence on the pro circuit nonetheless often generates more excitement than the event itself.”

Ol Larry was more than a professional surfer, it’s fair to say, and as Warshaw writes in the Encyclopedia of Surfing, Larry existed on a plane beyond most who draw a pay cheque from contest shredding. Him and his shaper Ben Aipa, RIP too, owned the performance space, Larry doin’ 360s and switchfoot turns on Aipa’s swallow twins and stinger designs.

“Larry is often cited as progenitor of today’s high-performance shortboard surfing. Nicknamed ‘Rubberman,’ the kinetic and hyper-flexible Bertlemann surfed in a low, springy, open-knee crouch. He worked his board constantly, but the motion was blended and synched, and he brought a smoothness to even the most explosive turns…

“In the late ’70s, borrowing a move from the skateboard world, Bertlemann began working on aerials—what he immodestly called “Larryials”—and became a forerunner to high-flying Kelly Slater and the rest of the early ’90s New School surfers…As crass as he was popular, Bertlemann at one point was “signing” autographs with a rubber stamp.”

Warshaw added, a little ominously, “Long associated with the Honolulu underworld, Bertlemann himself was arrested on robbery and firearm charges in the summer of 2001.”

That year, Larry was in a real bad way. Degenerated disc in his back, couldn’t surf, couldn’t walk, went in for an op and had aneurism so got his head opened up.

“I was going too fast and too serious for too long. The disc pinched my nerve between my C4 and C6 vertebrae. So they had to cut my throat. I had to pay someone to cut my throat. How’s that? Usually they pay me,” Larry told Jeff Ho for Juice magazine.

In that same issue, Larry said that surfing had started to get old, anyway.

“I got into marital arts so that I could enjoy surfing more. Surfing had gotten kind of stale. I got tired of people chasing me all over the world. I had to have my own little privacy time. I started getting into martial arts. Then I started getting into motorcycle racing, cars, jumping out of airplanes… I did everything.”

Larry’s legacy wasn’t just surf. He got the famous Dogtown Boys of Venice Beach all het up with his low, hand-planted, pivoting turns that borrowed from his own skating. Jay Adams, Tony Alva and the Zephyr crew took those surf turns back onto asphalt and pools, dragging a hand on the concrete and swinging the board around it, and the trick was named “the Bert” in his honour.