Boards were plenty small by the '70s, but surfers had yet to make sense of the new equipment. Ideas of what could be accomplished on a wave were changing with each passing swell. Staying ahead of this revolution meant paddling into every session with an open mind, an ability to erase all preconceived notions. The leading force of change was a pack of young Hawaiians, none more exuberant or spontaneous than the one they called Buttons.It wouldn't have been easy growing up in Honolulu as Montgomery Earnest Thomas Kaluhiokalani. If ever someone needed a nickname, it was he, the son of a black enlisted man from Texas and a local Hawaiian girl. "Here, it's the grandmother who gives the nicknames," he recalls, "and she thought my curly hair looked like little buttons." By the age of nine, Buttons had commandeered a board and was learning to surf at Queens in Waikiki. With a crew that included Reno Abellira, Barry Kanaiaupuni and Jeff Hakman, he took to amateur competition, culminating with a runner-up finish in the Boys' Division of the 1973 United States Championships at Malibu.
My Interests
I'd like to meet:
Try the BEST MySpace Editor and MySpace Backgrounds at MySpace Toolbox !
