The Gentlemen's Hour Read Online Free Page A

was deeply hurtful to Boone, that it put into doubt everything he believed in, everything he’d built his life upon.

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    Kelly Kuhio was a freaking legend.
    No—K2 was a freaking legend.
    Build a surfing pantheon? KK’s in it. Carve a Mount Surfers’ Rushmore? You’re going to be blasting Kelly’s face into that rock. Just make a list of the all-time good guys who’ve ever ridden a board? Kelly Kuhio is in your Top Ten.
    Nobody who ever met Kelly Kuhio did anything but like and respect him, he was that kind of dude. Soft-spoken, understated, ultimate cool, Kelly had a way of making people want to be better than they were, and a lot of guys on the Gentlemen’s Hour could tell stories about how they went out and did just that.
    Kelly was the epitome of a bygone era.
    The time of the Gentleman Surfer.
    As a kid, Boone literally sat at his feet, because K2 was a good friend of Boone’s mom and dad, both of them well-known surfers both in San Diego and K2’s native Kauai. So K2—“Uncle K” to Boone—would come to the house and talk story, and Boone just kept his piehole shut and his ears open.
    Stories? Are you kidding me? Out of the mouth of Kelly Kuhio? Just look at the man’s life. Born in Honolulu, K2 was the Hawaiian state surfing champion at age thirteen. That’s thirteen , Jack, an age when most gremmies are only champs at . . . well, it ain’t surfing.
    And Kelly wasn’t some dumb, mutant muscle freak, either. Actually he was slight of build and smart, went to Punahou School on a scholarship and was 4.0. After school he went up to the North Shore, because that’s where the waves were, and it was K2 who figured out how to shape a board that could survive the wicked hollow tubes up there. K2 became known as “Mister Pipeline,” winning the Masters so often they practically put his name on it.
    Then he got bored with that and started traveling.
    Dig, it was K2 who first explored Indonesia, K2 who found that great left-hand point break that eventually became G-Land. Should have beenK-Land, except Kelly was too modest to hang his tag on it. But now all the boys who make the pilgrimage to Indo on the Unreconstructed Hippie Surf Safari are following in the footsteps of K2, whether they know it or not.
    When Laird and Kalama and the rest of the Strapped Crew started to figure out the big-wave, tow-in thing, they went to K2 to advise them how to shape their boards. Kelly enthusiastically helped them but didn’t go out in the sixty-footers himself. In his forties then, he knew that was a young man’s game and K2 was too cool to try to desperately hang on to his youth. He had nothing to prove.
    When Kelly freaking Kuhio decided to move to California it was a big deal. He came at the behest of the surf clothing companies to promote their products, and then he stayed. Did a few small parts in films, made public appearances, was basically just being K2. He liked SoCal, he dug the San Diego vibe, he just hung out.
    The boys couldn’t believe it. They’d be on the beach and there was K2 out there, cutting his elegant lines, making it look so easy, so casual. And he’d invite you out there to surf with him—“Come on out, brother, the water is fine, plenty of room for everyone”—and give you little tips if you were open to them. (He shifted Sunny’s stance by three inches , and it made all the difference.) K2 was all about the aloha, the community, the peace.
    K2 was a Buddhist since his early days hanging out with the Japanese community in Honolulu. A serious, two-meditation-sessions-a-day, lotus-position Buddhist, but he never shoved it at you. K2 never shoved anything at anybody, you just looked at him and learned, and it was K2 who pointed Sunny toward Buddhism and probably never knew it. She just admired his energy, his presence, and wanted it for herself.
    Other things K2 did?
    Coached surfing at a