North Shore 1976. Photo: Jeff Divine
Buttons was so well loved because of his humor. Everybody
liked him. He’d do things like wear a gorilla mask all around Malibu in
the heat of summer. Or he’d have a large group of haole and local guys
cracking up, tears in their eyes, in the parking lot at Kaiser’s
because of some little thing he’d said. His humor came out as subtle
things, not jokes with punch lines, it was just his style that made
people laugh and it enhanced his surfing for some reason. His
personality and his surfing worked together.
Buttons and Mark Liddell hung out a lot and were two of the first
hot, loose Town guys to start surfing the North Shore. Like Bertlemann,
they’d been influenced by the whole skate thing—as well as surfing Ala
Moana, Big Rights, and Kaiser’s—so they brought a newer, faster,
rubberman vibe with them to the North Shore. It was a style that would
eventually return to skateboarding and influence the Dogtown guys.
At that time, though, the small group of standouts who surfed Off
The Wall was just straight-lining it. A carve on the shoulder was
pretty state of the art. There were no real top turns they way you see
them today. But Buttons showed up and started spinning 360s, putting
his board on an edge, breaking the fin free and trying airs. He’d
busted the performance door down before the Aussies ever showed up.
Photographically, it was a big deal. And that was it for Buttons. You’d
go to Off the Wall and there he was, everyday.
It was easy to see that Buttons and Liddell were poor, probably
bumming rides and sharing gas money to get there. Anything you could
get for free back then was a bonus, a pair of trunks or a shirt, or
whatever. But one day they showed up in a limo like they were some rich
athletes. They’d surf for a while at one spot, climb back in, and get
ushered to another spot. They did this all day—acting it up. The whole
garment sponsorship thing didn’t exist then, so the largess of it was
just a mystery. Up close, the limo reeked of weed and when they weren’t
surfing, Buttons and Liddell sat in there, eating cereal and milk as if
Wheaties had sponsored them with a year’s supply.
It turned out that it was just some buddy of Buttons’ who drove the
limo, and had agreed to chauffer them around that day. But those kinds
of nouveau riche things didn’t really matter to Buttons anyway; it was
all just fun in the moment.
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