Laird Hamilton & Dave Kalama Lend A Hand
Two celebrated watermen test their limits to raise awareness of autism.
Brian Berusch
Photography by Don King | Julianne King
One day in June of 2006, Laird Hamilton crossed the English Channel on a stand-up paddleboard after having bicycled through the rain from London to the coast; he then biked all the way to Paris. He did it solo, with only a boat and van trailing alongside, as friend, filmmaker, and honorary “family member” Don King shot video of the crossing.
Remarkable as that feat was, it would pale in comparison to the challenge Hamilton, known as a surfer of unsurfable waves, would undertake five months later. In October, Hamilton enlisted Maui pal Dave Kalama, another legendary waterman, to set out on an incredible journey: the two planned to paddle the entire Hawaiian Island chain. From South Point in Kona to the lighthouse in Kilauea, Kaua‘i, they would bike across land and paddle across sea, day and night—more than 450 miles in total—and they would do it in a week.
The next film depicting Hamilton’s superhuman strength and willpower, you might assume? Not exactly. Hamilton signed on to help King—with whom he had worked on films such as Riding Giants—with a project that affected the waterman so deeply, he opted to put his body through anything it would take to raise money for the cause.
That cause is a film called Beautiful Son, and it’s a journey with the Kings and a handful of people who face autism every single day. King calls the film “a shared personal experience” in which he and his wife, Julianne, divulge the frustration and dedication that go into raising their son, Beau, who is afflicted with autism.
Big-hearted watermen Dave Kalama(left) and Laird Hamilton (right) pose with their bikes at Kaua'i's Kilauea Lighthouse after completing their incredible journey.
“Beautiful Son is a very personal film,” says King. “And it shows how little we know about autism . . . and yet how much hope there is for healing those with it.”
“If this was just something we were doing for ourselves, we probably would have done it a little differently,” Hamilton admits. Starting the first leg, an overnight bike ride, after flying five hours from California was less than ideal. “But I look at what Don does every day—raising a son with autism—and I kept thinking, I have no right to complain. I have two healthy kids and all my faculties. I can keep going.”
Labelled by the medical world as a developmental disability, autism is a complex condition that affects the brain's social and communication functions. To a greater or lesser degree, the autist has difficulty relating to other people and the outside world. King explains that 1 in 166 children in the U.S. is diagnosed with autism—a figure that has increased 10 times over the last two decades.
A compelling look at an often-misunderstood condition, the film may spark some debate stemming from King’s opposition to the widely accepted classification of autism as a psychological disorder. “There are obvious physical issues, yet they fail to be scientifically recognized,” he says.
“Autism is everywhere,” says Hamilton, who has a few friends with autistic children. “If we get the word out, we show people what Don and Julianne have discovered in their film, it improves everything, just by spreading good, positive information.”
“Plenty of times you want to give up on both efforts [paddling and coping with a family member’s autism], and you just can’t. You gotta keep going. That’s how Laird and Dave felt, and it’s how I feel. You just gotta finish,” says King.
Both Hamilton and Kalama zeroed in on a particular leg of the journey that was extraordinarily challenging. The evening they left O‘ahu to paddle across the longest stretch of sea—to Nawiliwili Harbor on Kaua‘i—was ominous. The sky was dark, the air thick with the approaching threat of rain.
