Honolulu, Hawaii News and Weather – KITV Channel 4
Brock Little died on February 18th. The community was devastated. Little’s bout with cancer wasn’t a long one–by the time doctors found it, it was too late. Just a few months passed between his public announcement and his death. The paddle out on Sunday held in his honor was massive. So big, in fact, some are calling it one of the largest paddle out memorials ever on Oahu’s North Shore.
Little was a legend firmly cemented in the upper echelons of big wave surfing. Born in 1967 in California, by the early ’70s he was in Hawaii. He didn’t take long to start making his mark; by 1986 he landed in fourth place at the Quik event at massive Waimea surfing against much more experienced surfers including Ken Bradshaw, Mark Foo, and Clyde Aikau.
By the early ’90s, he was named as one of the best surfers at Waimea by his peers, and spent the next few years proving his mettle in serious waves of consequence. As well as surfing, he became an accomplished stunt man and surf writer, penning over twenty stories for various magazines.
Although Little died in February, the paddle out was postponed until the summer months, when Waimea would likely be flat. And yesterday, the surf community showed up in droves to give their respects to one of the most respected men in surfing. Hundreds of people showed up to celebrate Brock’s life while his family released his ashes into the Bay he loved so much.
“Gosh, it was so special,” said Brock’s brother, Clark Little. “I wouldn’t have had it any other way. There was no script. There was no plan. We basically went out there and did what we needed from our heart.”
The size of the paddle out was tribute to the number of lives Brock touched. “This is easily the biggest paddle out I’ve ever seen,” said Todd Sells, an old friend and lifeguard. “I was thinking that as we were paddling out, how this will be an impossible one to hui up and get everyone in the circle because there were that many people that were touched by Brock.”
