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Crossing for a cause
It was almost midnight when
the duo set out. While sunburned tourists were settling their bar tabs in
Waikiki, Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama were leaving O‘ahu’s North Shore
atop a 16-foot surf board, stand-up paddling across the dark ocean surface.
When the team had originally planned the 79-mile trip from Ka‘ena Point on
O‘ahu to Kalapaki Bay on Kaua‘i, they had anticipated that the tradewinds
would hasten their journey, but instead Kona winds threatened to blow the
budding expedition back to where it started.
By 2 a.m., scattered showers had turned into a steady rain, and visibility
dropped to almost nothing. The flesh on Hamilton’s hands had begun to fail,
and the inside of each finger bubbled and blistered. The notorious
Kai‘ei‘ewaho Channel began bucking in earnest, and the pair were forced to
lay prone in order to continue.
After 19 hours of paddling, the men finally arrived on the sands of Kalapaki,
but the journey wasn’t complete.
The duo had set out to travel some 430 miles cross the Aloha State to gain
attention for the film “Beautiful Son,” a documentary about filmmaker Don
King, his wife, Julianne, and their autistic child, Beau. The multi-day trek
by bike and board began on Oct. 4 at South Point, the southernmost tip of
the Big Island, and culminated Oct. 11 at the Kilauea Lighthouse.
Known throughout Hollywood for his work on such films as “Castaway,” “Blue
Crush” and the hit television series “Lost,” King decided to let the camera
roll on his own family’s personal journey when Beau was diagnosed with
Autism Spectrum Disorder. Hamilton — who had worked with King on his 2005
American Express commercial and the surf flick “All Aboard the Crazy Train”
— recruited Kalama to help publicize the film and raise money to distribute
the documentary to the widest audience possible.
When the team arrived at the lighthouse less than 24 hours after the
overnight crossing, it marked yet another milestone for two of the most
respected watermen in world, and offered new attention on the plight of
families touched by autism.
“Beautiful Son” is scheduled for release in January.
