Laird Hamilton: The Mindset That Changed Surfing Forever | Sean Callagy

Athena (0:00)

Some people are built by life. He built himself out of cold water, open ocean, and a refusal to accept any ceiling as final. He swam a mile against the current, injured in shark-infested water to save his teammate's life. Then, the moment that teammate was safe, he went back out. Not because he was reckless, because that is who he is. The truest living example of what becomes possible when identity never negotiates with conditions.

Laird Hamilton.

Sean Callagy (0:29)

I'm going to surf an effing big wave. So, do you think we have a shot?

Laird Hamilton (0:36)

Well, so my mom used to say, you know, the way God punishes you is he give you what you ask for.

So, we can definitely accommodate you. And we'll bring you back in one piece.

Sean Callagy (0:50)

And he is down to the bone and he's bleeding to death in the ocean. So, Laird gets like naked in the ocean and like takes off his clothes and makes a tourniquet.

Laird Hamilton (1:02)

If you were naked and you were swimming a mile offshore in an area that you knew that there were some big sharks, you'd be an incredible swimmer. If you're truly generous, you'll risk your life for someone.

Sean Callagy (1:19)

So we stand Laird Hamilton, ladies and gentlemen. How are you doing, sir?

Laird Hamilton (1:31)

Very well. Thank you.

Sean Callagy (1:33)

Now, thank you so much for being here and honored.

Laird Hamilton (1:35)

I'm honored to meet you and meet your beautiful people.

Sean Callagy (1:41)

Thank you. And as these folks know, because we were going to surprise them with your coming today, but we decided, because it just fit in a moment, I decided to share that you were coming. You know, these folks know out there how inspiring you are to me, how inspiring you are on the world. And certainly, many of these people were inspired by you before hearing your name here. Some discovered it, and uniformly, these people are truly deeply moved.

So, what I'd love to do if it's okay with you, is just, you know, maybe begin at the beginning. And Hawaii, being born, being three, sort of what was that journey into the water and life like for you?

Laird Hamilton (2:28)

Well, my mother was, met her high school sweetheart and got pregnant. And then it was the 60s, so he wanted to be a merchant marine and she was pregnant. And so he left and she had to figure out what she was going to do. And she went to San Francisco and I was born there. She actually worked at a fair right before and was able to get like a free hospital thing done in San Francisco. They did some experiments on her. I'm not sure if that had an effect on me or not.

Sean Callagy (3:03)

Well, if it was, it was a good one.

Laird Hamilton (3:05)

Exactly. And then she just took me, she grew up in a surf culture in Southern California. She took me to, and it was obviously the 60s, it was the war, it was all the stuff that was going on. And it was like, they called it, the surfers called it the rat race. And we need to get out of here. So she took me to Hawaii because that represented paradise.

And as an infant, I was kind of subjected to, you know, surf, surfers and surfing.

I went, you know, I can remember being pushed in on little waves when I was probably two years old and falling on urchins and having both butt cheeks impaled to the point where I couldn't sit down for a couple weeks and, you know, left an impact on me, of course, and in me. But, you know, the and then we moved to what was the most dangerous beach in at the time. My mother said that I could actually crawl to the pool and swim before I could before I could walk. I don't know if that's a truth or not, but I would go to the pool and they always had to watch because I would always just go to the water. Maybe it's being a Pisces or something has something to do with it. I'm not sure. But and then we moved to the most dangerous species in the world and I that I learned how to swim at the most dangerous beach in the world. And actually I learned how to not drowned. That was really a better thing. More importantly, never mind the swimming, just don't drown. And I got rescued a lot as a young child and all of the men that were around me were all watermen. They were all the fearless group of surfers that were going out in the big surf in Hawaii. And so I wanted to emulate that. I looked at that and I was like, I want to be like if you grew up next to a stadium and you were like, hey, I want to be like that guy. He's the champ.