Buttons Kaluhiokalani
On Saturday November 2nd, Montgomery Earnest Thomas 'Buttons' Kaluhiokalani passed away from complications with lung cancer.
It's been nearly forty years since Buttons felt the full force of the surfing spotlight, which was largely due to his small wave wizardry at breaks like Velzyland and Ala Moana alongside sparring partners Larry Bertleman and Mark Liddel. And despite the passing of time his name and reputation faded little.
Younger surfers, however, may wonder what was so special about the man who Sean Doherty described as having "a planet of hair and equator of teeth."
Matt Warshaw of the Encyclopedia of Surfing has made a short clip featuring some of Buttons' waves.
Comments
It's a bummer reading about the guys you use marvel over in the surf mags back in the 70's, when we were little grommets, passing away.
Single fins are only good for barrel riding??? I'm never gonna look at my old singlies the same way.
A maestro when it came to switchfooting.
Man, that cat could surf.
RIP
When the deck is a dancefloor!
Or more sombrely, when the deck WAS a dancefloor.
Ah bummer! I remember a lot of that footage from Fantasea (one of my favourite sections from that movie). I love the way he showed how much fun he was having. I can't surf for shit by comparison of course, but I've always tried to emulate that fun vibe in the water.
RIP
Saw him taking his young kids surfing near Haleiwa a year ago and reminisced about his genius. Way ahead of his time. A sad day for the surfing community. RIP.
Man he was silky smooth the king of the 360 slide.....crazy switch foot antics and always seemed to smiling. Kids out there trying to do 360 rotations before they can even do a cutback would do well to watch the old cats groovin on the waves.....RIP Buttons!
I believe it was Buttons who, in Tubular Swells, just jumped up on some chain rope fence and swung on it standing up, and the picked up a coke with his foot. Is my memory wrong? Amazing natural talent.
I've got a memory of that scene but it's not in Tubular Swells. Don't think Buttons even appears in TS.
I'm sure to be wrong … I was picked up at the subiaco hotel for underaged drinking, soon after whatever it was called … was it Larry Bertlemann on the chain fence?
the surfing world has lost a great surfer, he was the most entertaining surfer of his time did stuff on waves, that no other surfer of his era could he owned ala moana he had a charisma that no one else had, this guy was way ahead of his time, A legend of the 70s, when I was a grom he was the man who inspired me never could do any of his moves though, but kept on smiling and having fun, just like he did, he was the Kelly slater of my time wonder how he would have gone up against ks 1 on 1, yes chill60 it was larry , lets hope the rest of the 70s crew hang in for a bit longer, it was a a great time in the surfing evolution, RIP, buttons PS loved the bell bottom wetsuit what class!
loved his style. RIP buttons