Video: Oscar Nominated Actor Honors Hawaiian Surfing Great on National TV
Hawaiian surfing great Montgomery “Buttons” Kaluhiokalani was a surfing legend who helped redefine the sport in the '70s and laid the framework for modern-day surfing.
Buttons passed away from lung cancer in 2013, but his legacy is still going strong.
Oscar-nominated actor Jeffrey Wright paid tribute to Buttons while recalling the time they spent surfing together on a recent episode of CBS's The Talk, in the clip below.
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Hawaii News Now reporter Stephanie Lum shared the clip above, captioning it:
"Oscar nominee Jeffrey Wright thanks one of Hawaii’s greatest surfing legends for teaching him how to surf on Oahu’s north shore.
“'Buttons' Kaluhiokalani was famous for his switch foot surfing."
Wright recalled learning to surf with Buttons, saying:
"The guy that I took some lessons in Hawaii named Buttons Kaluhiokalani, his dad was black, his mom was Hawaiian, and he was a legend.
"He was kind of a surfing mentor to me. He was a guru, he'd say things like, 'Let the water come to you, brother Jay.'
"He passed away a short time after I met him, about nine months sadly, of cancer. But the first time I saw him in the water he had a fro, he looked like Black Neptune. I was like, 'Who is this dude?'"
As we previously reported, Wright recalled his time with Buttons in an interview with GQ magazine earlier this year.
In the feature, he said:
"We kinda vibed. How could you not with Buttons? He was Buttons. He’d been through some stuff by then but was pushing forward.
"We talked about things - one was surfers who didn’t fit The Beach Boys mold that most people think of when they think of surfers. Buttons was one of those - and a purest shreddah, flowed like water."
Wright's Oscar nomination stems from his portrayal of "frustrated novelist and professor" Thelonious Monk Ellison in the film American Fiction.
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