Dave Kalama

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Dave Kalama is a big wave surfer, windsurfer, and celebrity watersports enthusiast. Kalama and his family live in Hawaii. Kalama is credited with the co-development of tow-in surfing, along with Laird Hamilton, Darrick Doerner, and Buzzy Kerbox. Recently, Kalama together with close friend Laird Hamilton have been actively promoting and mastering an ancient Hawaiian mode of water transportation and watersport called "stand-up paddling", and he has begun a series of increasingly longer solo paddle events between various Hawaiian islands. As a high school age athlete, Kalama was a competitive ski racer and high school football player in the winter sports resort town of Mammoth Lakes, California. Kalama is a descendant from a long line of noteworthy Hawaiian watermen; his grandfather brought outrigger canoe paddling to the mainland U.S., and his father Ilima Kalama was the 1962 world-champion surfer and a lifelong outrigger canoe paddler. In July 2006, Kalama and BamMan Productions business partner Laird Hamilton were jointly awarded the Beacon Award at the Maui Film Festival for "helping to revive the surf film genre." ​