STORY
Ocean Safety, the Fire Department, and EMS were called out to a beach in Laie (near Goat Island) around 1 p.m. on the report of a body found.
EMS said a 911 caller said that the body had signs of suffering more than one shark bite…. possibly a tiger.
Lifeguards retrieved Tamayo’s body and brought him back to shore on jet skis where EMS paramedics pronounced him dead.
Tamayo Perry was born and raised on the east side and made his living as a lifeguard, Pro Surfer, Pipe Specialist/standout, surf instructor and made his Hollywood debut in 2002 in the hit, Blue Crush…he also appeared in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’.
The shock wave is growing and now rolling over the surf community and beyond.
This one’s tough because of the quality human being Tamayo was a devout Christian… always filled with Aloha, smiling, positive, stoked and connecting with all who knew him.
See the outpouring of Love for Tamayo on his FB HERE
We will keep updating this developing story. And on Tamayo’s inspiring legacy.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Tamayo’s Wife Emilia, and to family and friends.
Perry was born (1975) and raised on the East Side of Oahu, began surfing at age 12, and soon became best friends with future pop crooner Jack Johnson, who lived in a beachfront house at Pipeline.
“Perry was known in his late teenage years as the quiet up-and-coming local boy who had to borrow surfboards because he had no sponsors”.
“By 1997, the wiry goofyfooter had gone a long way to developing a tuberiding style combining traits from Gerry Lopez and Tom Carroll, his two favorite old-school Pipeline surfers. He’d meanwhile become a devout born-again Christian: Asked by a surf magazine to name the last two books he’d read; Perry listed the Bible and The End: 50 Reasons Why Jesus Christ Could Return Before the Year 2000”.
“Perry has competed selectively, and with modest success, finishing fourth in the 2000 Pipeline Masters Trials and fifth in the Billabong Pro Trials at Teahupoo. Nonetheless, by 2005 he was generally regarded as Pipeline’s single most dominate surfer”.
“Perry has appeared in more than a dozen surf videos, including The Bomb (1998), Revelation (2000), All Aboard (2002), and Loaded Pipe (2004). Emila Perry, Tamayo’s Australian-born wife, is a professional bodyboarder.”
Frame Grab of Tamayo’s reaction to thinking back on that ‘Best One Ever’…
