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Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Shadowy Hawaiian goofyfooter, a top Pipeline rider during the 1980s, an early proponent of the lay-forward tube stance, renowned for his gangster-steeped cool. "Marvin Foster was a role model," Brock Little said in 1992. "He charged big Pipe [and was often] punching out guys behind the Haleiwa Surf Center. But he had a soft spot for kids. He was someone we all wanted to be like."

Foster was born (1961) in Honolulu, raised in Waialua, and began surfing at age 13 in the near-shore waves at Haleiwa. Foster's four brothers also surfed. At 14, Foster entered and won his first surf contest; in 1976 he was a finalist in the Boys division of the US Championships.

By the early '80s, Foster was one of the top tuberiders at Pipeline, and at Backdoor he learned to compress his lanky 5' 10" frame into a square-shouldered, head-forward stance that allowed him to ride nearly as deep inside the tube backside as he did frontside. While Foster's roots ran deep in Hawaii, the three surfers he cited as being most influential to his own development were all Australia: Michael Peterson, Simon Anderson, and Tom Carroll. In 1980, after a long visit to Australia, Foster returned to Hawaii with a three-finned board patterned on Anderson's Thruster design—Foster thus became one of the first surfers outside of the Sydney area to switch over to the new boards.

"Carvin' Marvin" turned pro in 1980 and was the world tour's rookie of the year—although he wasn't yet earning enough in prizemoney and sponsorship to give up his job as a carpenter. In 1983, Foster was runner-up in the Pro Class Trials and placed third in the Duke Kahanamoku Classic, both held at Sunset Beach; he also won the 1984 Peru International.

All but fearless in the ocean (much of his big-wave training took place at a rarely-surfed break called Avalanche, just west of Haleiwa), Foster in 1987 made a statement by riding left at Waimea Bay. In the 1986 Quiksilver/Eddie Aikau contest at Waimea, Foster placed 5th. He also competed in the '95 and '01 Eddie events.

Foster was meanwhile involved with the local underworld, and in 1993 he was convicted on a weapons charge and sentenced to 18 months in prison. In one of the surf world's strangest ads, beachwear giant Quiksilver bought space in 

 magazines to print a letter titled "message from Marvin Foster, Halawa State Prison," with the former pro telling young surfers that "prison's too crowded for newcomers [and] it ain't easy to do time." Foster was released in 1994, broke parole the following year, and was put on a statewide "10 Most Wanted" poster before he was caught and sent back to prison for an additional six months. (While in hiding, Foster managed to compete in the 1995 Quiksilver-Eddie event at Waimea Bay.)

Foster added tow surfing to his repertoire in the '00s, but also had drug problems, and in 2010, at age 49, he hung himself.

Foster appeared in over a dozen surf movies and videos, including 

 (1987). In the long version of Michael Jackson's 1995 "Bad" video, Foster makes a brief appearance buying crack from a street dealer.

Foster, Marvin

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