Some surfers have an air of immortality that makes you wonder if they are ever going to die, despite the risks they take. Tamayo Perry was one such titan of the sport. Square-shouldered and strikingly handsome, Tamayo could flip the mood in a room with one flash of his infectious smile. Tamayo grew up on Oahu’s east side, but didn’t take long to gravitate to the North Shore, where bolder challenges awaited him. He made his presence felt as part of a 90s – early 2000s Pipe scene, where a clutch of specialists started going later, steeper and deeper. Equipped with a Bushman gun, a driving bottom-turn and a classic Hawaiian style, Tamayo clocked up plenty of tube time at Pipe, while preserving a rep as one of Oahu’s most popular surfers amongst locals and foreigners alike. In 1999 he cemented his surfing status by claiming victory in the Pipe Masters Trials. When Tracks photographer, Dean Wilmot, heard his friend had died after a shark attack on Hawaii’s east side, he was devastated. “Tamayo was my brother, he was like the sunshine with a beaming warm smile; handsome, intelligent and a gentleman in every sense of the word, a true Hawaiian with endless aloha. We were making plans to shoot together in Hawaii this coming January, see you in your next life mate.” Tamayo met his Australian wife, Emilia, in the water at Pipeline, where she was competing as a professional bodyboarder. They married on the cusp of the new millennium and were the kind of couple you wanted to be around because of the whirlwind of fun and positive energy they generated. “It was like I went on the best 25-year vacation of my life with him. And now it’s over. Now I got to come back to reality,” Emilia told ‘Good Morning America’ in the wake of his death. Tamayo eventually used his natural charisma and good looks to turn his hand to acting, appearing in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and ‘Hawaii Five-0’. Meanwhile, he continued to work as a lifeguard and ran North Shore surf lessons alongside Emilia. At 49, his death came far too soon. While not quite immortal, Tamayo Perry will certainly be remembered as one of the modern giants of Hawaiian surfing.