“Tenacious, God-fearing pipe specialist” Tamayo Perry reportedly killed by shark

And when Surfer of the Year Nathan Florence left Vans and joined Florence two months ago, Nathan delivered a long but stirring monologue in his hugely popular vlog about his decision to leave the troubled shoe brand and enter into an equity deal with Florence.

He also talked about whether or not Ivan Florence, whom he calls “Mr. Cool,” would join.

“What’s Ivan going to do?” Nathan asks Florence. “Mr. Cool has always done what Mr. Cool wants. It looks like he’s going to stay with Vans, surf, skate, snowboard. Ivan is a real badass surf snow skate athlete. He makes his own decisions. We would never pressure him, hey Mr. Cool, what do you want to do? We’re family, we’re here for him.”

Nathan Florence added: “Who knows what will happen in the future… we would of course like to have him with us.”

Ivan Florence, who turned 28 in May, has stepped out of the shadow of his overzealous oldest brother and his Prince Harry-lookalike middle brother over the past few Hawaii seasons, demonstrating a magnetic pull both in the water and at the skate park.

The story of the trio from poverty on the beach to the position where they can buy large properties right on the beach is a good idea.

Some time ago, a long time ago, I spent an afternoon with Alex trying to figure out how the pack got from here to there.

We pick up the story shortly before the turn of the century.

Three little boys. There isn’t much cash in the house they rent in Rocky Point. Dad soon disappeared into the penitentiary.
Alex remembers driving around in her old Valiant. Her ex-husband was dead, five-year-old John, three-year-old Nathan, and one-and-a-half-year-old Ivan were just babies. She looked over at her little boys and said, “What do you want to do? We don’t have to do anything or be anywhere? We can stay out until 10:30 p.m.! We can go to thrift stores!”

Alex took her children everywhere with her and, despite the severely broken hand, suddenly felt this freedom. A total freedom. She took them everywhere with her. And that summer after her father separated, Alex packed everything up and flew with her three little ducklings, who followed her everywhere, to Bingin in Bali, where she knew a local family who let her stay cheaply in their warung.

Sure, she didn’t have much money, but they lived on $10 a day and were able to raise their means ($1200) for four wonderful months. Little Ivan, who was just over two years old at the time, had broken his leg on the trampoline before the separation, but

Alex was cool, she just carried her child everywhere.

Back on the coast, Herbie Fletcher, a pioneer of jet skis in the surf, towed John John in bombs when he was seven. Here they were, back in Rocky Point, just one house from the sand, financed by taking in up to 10 guests at a time and cramming them into three bedrooms. Alex rented out living space for $250 a month. Whatever it cost.

They built a halfpipe in the garden. British Vogue, US Vogue and Elle magazines couldn’t help but hear about this gorgeous single surf mum and her shaggy boys. Alex felt like she had a guardian angel. No money, but she was on the beach, feeding her three boys and, well, you tell me, that’s not the life.

In the meantime, Alex studied English Literature at the University of Honolulu. And this is where things get really interesting. Alex says that when you see the amount of student loans she has just paid off, you might think she is the “baddest surgeon ever.”

But her job was to use her loans to support the family and raise the kids. She didn’t want to leave her kids with just anyone, so she went to school in the evenings and took in lodgers. Yes, there was sometimes cereal for dinner, but the kids played outside in the sun and were pushed (or pulled) into the waves by a number of surfing icons like Nathan Fletcher, Danny Fuller, Kala and Kamalei Alexander, Herbie Fletcher and Pete Johnson.

Jamie O’Brien did too, but he was always a bit crazy and would sometimes throw dog poo at the kids. But he also took John to competitions and pushed him into the waves in his very first heat at the age of four.

And it wasn’t just about surfing. Nathan, a smart boy, devoured every literary book Alex put in front of him, from Bukowski to Tom Wolfe. He devoured a thousand-page book in one day.

Still, these little kids were and are brave. Alex has lost count of the number of times she threw a bleeding child in the car and rushed them to the emergency room. John broke “almost everything”: his neck, back, legs, wrists, arms, ankles. Ivan had to get 55 stitches in his face (crazy fin) after paddling into a 25-foot wave that was later nominated for Billabong XXL Wave of the Year.

Eventually they were forced out of the house because it was sold, the owner moved out, or whatever it was, Alex can’t remember.
So Alex and John John, now 10 but more mature than his age because he’s seen a lot out there on the coast and knows what it’s like to live on nothing, walked down the road that runs parallel to the beach and talked about the situation, said things like, “Oh man, what do we do now?”

And as they’re walking, there’s this little beach house, right on the corner from their current home, and Alex, being Alex, sees the car in the driveway, looks at John, who nods, and they walk right up to the owner, their brown faces breaking into beaming smiles, and they say, “How about this?”

And suddenly they are at Pipe.

And here, you might say, we are.