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Muscular waterman from Maui, Hawaii; "a polydimensional surfer," as described by Longboard magazine, expert in tow-in surfing, sailboarding, and longboarding. 

Kalama was born (1964) in Newport Beach, California, the son of West Coast Surfing Championships winner Ilima Kalama. He began surfing at age seven, moved to Maui at 21, and soon became a top competitive wave-sailor, winning virtually every contest in Hawaii, including the 1991 Hard Rock Café World Cup. 

Kalama began experimenting with footstraps on his surfboard in the early '90s, and was soon able to perform a dazzling variety of small-wave aerials and flips. Meanwhile, surfers Laird Hamilton, Buzzy Kerbox, and Darrick Doerner were pioneering the tow-in method of big-wave riding on the North Shore of Oahu, getting a personal watercraft–assisted start on giant waves from behind Kerbox's inflatable Zodiac boat. 

When Hamilton and his group moved to Maui in 1992, they joined up with Kalama and his strapped-in surfing/sailboarding friends and were soon riding enormous waves at a break called Jaws. 

Tow-in leader Hamilton became partners with Kalama, and on December 20, 1994, Hamilton towed Kalama in to a 35-foot-plus Jaws wave, described by Surfer magazine as possibly "the biggest wave ever ridden." 

While Kalama rode bigger waves in the years to come, as did a growing number of tow-in surfers, he also became a top paddleboarder, surf canoeist, tandem surfer, kite surfer, and hydrofoil rider. "Dave is a bad man," Hamilton said in 2001. "Anything he tries he's proficient at in no time, and then before you know it he's pro." 

Kalama is featured in Jaws Maui, a 1997 coffee-table book. He appeared in the Hollywood-produced Endless Summer II (1994) and In God's Hands (1998), as well as a number of surf videos.

Kalama, Dave

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

The Sunday Joint

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

The Sunday Joint

Videos