A-frame

Aaberg, Denny

Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

Abbruzzi, Sid

Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

Adler, Tom

advertising and surfing

Aeder, Erik

aerial

Aguerre, Fernando

Aichner, Scott

Aikau, Clyde

Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

airbrush

Airshow

Ala Moana

Alabama

alaia board

Alaska

alcohol and surfing

Alexander, Kala

Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

Alter, Hobie

Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

Andaman Islands

Andersen, Lisa

Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

Angola

Angourie

Antarctica

Apocalypse Now

Arabian Sea

Aragon, Janice

Arakawa, Eric

Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

Ashton, Juan

Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

Atlantic Ocean

August, Robert

Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

Australia

Avalon, Frankie

Azores

backdoor

backside

backside attack, Pipeline

backwash

bail out

Bain, Rob

Baja California

Baker, Bernie

Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

Bali

Ball, John “Doc”

Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

balsa

Baltic Sea

Banks, Jim

Barbados

Barilotti, Steve

Barland, Michel

Barreda, Sergio “Gordo”

Barry, Michael

Bartholomew, Wayne

Baxter, Jackie

Bay of Bengal

Beach Boys, The

Beacham, Debbie

beachboys

beachbreak

Beachcomber Bills Grand Prix

Beachley, Layne

beavertail

Becker, Phil

Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Fluid regularfooter from Hanalei, Kauai; regarded by many as surfing's definitive stylist from the mid-1960s to the mid-'70s; father of big-wave rider Laird Hamilton. Bill Hamilton was born (1948) in Long Beach, California, the son of a former big-band orchestra leader father and a commercial artist mother. He was raised in Laguna Beach, began surfing at age 11, and at 15 was invited to join the prestigious Windansea Surf Club.

In 1966, after graduating high school, Hamilton moved to the North Shore of Oahu, was featured on the cover of 

 magazine, and had a star-making turn in the surf movie 

. Surfboards Hawaii introduced the Stylist, Hamilton's signature model, in 1967. Hamilton rode with a toreador's poise and refinement, his body moving quietly, almost formally, from one position to the next, panache radiating from his hands and fingers. He later said that his trademark frontside cutback, executed with symmetrically extended arms, elbows bent slightly, was based on an illustration of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

The broad-shouldered Hamilton (5' 11", 190 pounds) adapted smoothly to the new short surfboards introduced in late '60s, and was a model for the turn-of-the-decade surfer who chose to deemphasize competition surfing. Hamilton did in fact compete—in 1971 he placed fifth in the Pipeline Masters and finished runner-up in both the Duke Kahanamoku Classic and the Smirnoff Pro—but gave the appearance of being above the fray. He consolidated his position as soul-surfing guru with two or three popular if sophistic surf magazine articles. "Life to me is a constant movement," he noted in a 1974 essay, "an ever-changing, swirling mass of variables interconnecting with each other to create a whole, [and] if you're willing to compare them to riding a wave, then comprehension of the totalness of here and now is at least partially attained."

Hamilton began shaping surfboards in 1967; over the years he worked for Surfboards Hawaii, Country Surfboards, Chuck Dent Surfboards, Lightning Bolt, Bear Surfboards, and—from 1972 to present day—Bill Hamilton Custom Surfboards. He has also worked in construction and as a commercial fisherman.

Hamilton stunt-doubled Jan-Michael Vincent's surfing scenes in the 1978 Warner Brothers' film 

, and producers paid him an additional $5,000 to pilot a jerry-rigged "Malibu lifeguard boat" into the jaws of a 15-foot wave at Sunset Beach. Hamilton also appeared in more than a dozen surf movies, including 

 magazine article as one of "25 Surfers Whose Surfing Changed the Sport."

Hamilton has been married twice, has lived in Kauai since 1972, and has two children. Laird Hamilton, his adopted oldest son, helped invent tow-surfing in the early '90s, and for the next decade was regarded as the world's premier big-wave rider.

Hamilton, Bill

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features

The Sunday Joint

Videos

Contests