Laird was born in San Francisco on March 2, 1964, in an experimental bathysphere designed to ease the mother's labor.[1] His Greek birth father, L.G. Zerfas, left the family before his first birthday. Afterwards but while he was still an infant, Laird and his mother, Joann Zyirek Zerfas, moved to Hawaii. Even as a child Laird was adventurous, as is shown in footage of him jumping off a sixty foot cliff into deep water at 7 years old.
While still a young boy living on Oahu Island, Hawaii, Laird met with later-legendary 1960s surfer Bill Hamilton, a bachelor at the time, on Pupukea beach of the North Shore of Oahu. Laird recounts in the big wave-riding documentary picture Riding Giants that the two became immediate companions. After bodysurfing with his new acquaintance, the young Laird "coerced" Bill Hamilton to follow him home to "meet [his] mom." As Laird recounted of his match-making efforts, Bill Hamilton was smitten by the beauty of Laird's then single mother and married her, becoming Laird's adoptive father.[2]
Bill Hamilton was a professional surfboard shaper and glasser on Oahu in the 1960s1970s, and owned a small business that made handmade, custom, high-performance surfboards for the famous Oahu "North Shore big wave riders" of the era. The family later moved to a remote valley home on the island of Kauai. Joann and Bill had a second son, Laird's younger half-brother, Lyon Hamilton, who also became a surfer. Laird's mother, Joann, died of a brain aneurysm in 1997.[2]
Also according to "Riding Giants," in Laird's childhood, teen years, and early adult years, he had the reputation for an aggressive demeanor around others of his age. This hostile attitude was in part due to Laird and his brother Lyon being bigger than their classmates, fair-skinned, and blonde: unusual in their predominantly Hawaiian-populated neighborhood. The role of the outsider profoundly affected Laird through to his teen years and early adult life. He became used to this role and was uncomfortable being in the center of anything. He was also known for his physical and mental toughness; nothing and no one seemed to intimidate him.[3]
As he grew up through the 1970s and 1980s, Laird Hamilton lived in one of the greatest surfing regions in the world, the north coast of Oahu, which he enjoyed with a well-known surfer as his father and coach. His father's friends and customers were other surfing greats of the modern surfing era. This environment contributed to Laird Hamilton's growth into a surfer who would ride the largest and most complex ocean waves ever ridden, as documented in film and photographs.LYRICS For This Song
Take a look at these hands
Take a look at these hands
The hand speaks, the hand of a government man
Well I'm a tumbler born under punches, I'm so thin
All I want is to breathe...
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Take a look at these hands
Take a look at these hands
The hand speaks, the hand of a government man
Well I'm a tumbler born under punches, I'm so thin
All I want is to breathe
(I'm too thin)
Won't you breathe with me?
Find a little space, so we move in-between
(In-between it)
And keep one step ahead, of yourself
Don't you miss it, don't you miss it
Some of you people just about missed it
Last time to make plans
And I'm a tumbler, I'm a government man
Never seen anything like that before
Falling bodies tumble 'cross the floor
(Well I'm a tumbler)
When you get to where you wanna be
(Thank you! Thank you!)
When you get to where you wanna be
(Well, don't even mention it)
Oh, take a look at these hands, they're passing in-between us
Take a look at these hands
Take a look at these hands, you don't have to mention it
No thanks, I'm a government man
And the heat goes on and the heat goes on
And the heat goes on and the heat goes on
And the heat goes on where the hand has been
And the heat goes on and the heat goes on
And the heat goes on
(I got time)
And the heat goes on
And the heat goes on and the heat goes on
And the heat goes on, where the hand has been
And the heat goes on and the heat goes on
I'm not a drowning man
And I'm not a burning building! I'm a tumbler
Drowning cannot hurt a man
Fire cannot hurt a man, not the government man
All I want is to breathe
(Thank you, thank you)
Won't you breathe with me?
Find a little space so we move in-between
(I'm so thin)
And keep one step ahead of yourself
(I'm catching up with myself)
All I want is to breathe
Won't you breathe with me?
(Hands of a government man)
Find a little space so we move in-between
And keep one step ahead of yourself
(Don't you miss it! Don't you miss it!)
All I want is to breathe
Won't you breathe with me?
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4:50
Laird The Rootsby satch197824,234 views
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