Two days from now, September 26, 2020, will mark the passing of a giant of surfing history (Sept. 26, 2006), one Buzzy Trent. I had the good fortune to know Buzzy, share meals with him, and surf and skin dive with him. The best part was the ‘‘talk story’’ sessions afterwards. At age 42, Buzzy still had a 28 inch waist. With a 46 inch chest, he was one hell of a physical speciman. He was what in that era, was called a mans man. Quite a man, in the truest sense of the word. I think of him often. I miss his friendship, and I miss the man.
I grew up out here on the East Coast, son of a commercial fisherman, ‘mens men’ were who I had for heroes and looked up to. Who I wanted to be.
And as a very young surfer, I heard about surfing legends, not the least of whom was Buzzy Trent. I never got tired of hearing the stories. And I’m still fascinated. Talk story, yeah, how we know who the legends are and why.
Bill, if you have any Buzzy stories you’d like to share, I for one would love to hear 'em.
I’ll relate a story to you, that Buzzy told to me, after one of our many after dinner chats. Buzzy’s day job, was as a heavy construction worker, with the Dillingham Corp. While working on the construction of the Ilikai Hotel, in Honolulu, he was working a concrete pour up about 14 or 15 stories. When a particular part of the pour was finished, and the gantry crane operator lifted the bucket, it swung slightly to one side, ‘‘nudging’’ Buzzy off the building into space. As he fell, he spotted a large electrical cable coming from a lower floor, to feed equipment on the next floor above. As he fell he hooked an arm around the cable, and his momentum ‘‘slingshotted’’ him onto the floor it originated from, After he came to a rolling stop, he got up (laughing) dusted himself off, and went back upstairs to finish working his shift. That was Buzzy. That’s who he was. The foregoing story from Buzzy’s lips, to my ears.
Sometime in the early 70s, I was at Makapuu with my uncle who was a TV news cameraman. Someone had crashed a hang glider into the sheer cliffs about 1/3 of the way down from the top. The fire rescue crews were trying to figure out a way to get up there but the day was quickly turning into night. There was a guy going ballistic wanting to climb up the mountain himself because they weren’t moving fast enough. People nearby had to keep him from going up the hillside. My uncle told me that the guy was Buzzy Trent, who I knew nothing about. Turns out the guy that crashed was his friend. That was the only time I ever saw him in person.