When Aaron Gold was young, Tony Moniz gave him a surfboard.
“Waimea was forecast to be pretty big the next day. I had been used to surfing big waves, but not like that,” Aaron says. “Tony asked me if I wanted to paddle out. I told him I didn’t have a board, and he was like, ‘I have a board you can ride.'”
Aaron says he has a million stories like that. Now a world-famous big wave surfer who clinched a Paddle of the Year nomination in 2016 with a massive wave at Jaws, he’s quickly becoming a household name. Respected chargers in big wave surfing like Ian Walsh have called him the wild man who may have caught the biggest wave ever paddled into, ever. Da hui says he’s a “savage.”
So when I got the chance to speak with him, I had expectations. But a gloating, cheap thrills hell-man Aaron Gold is not. Quite the opposite, in fact. He speaks softly. His humility is contagious. He has a firm faith in God. And his love for his family, central.
Aaron was born on the Big Island. From 8 years-old onward he bounced back and forth between there and Oahu. During his time on the North Shore, he was aware of the Moniz family. Tony was a professional surfer nearing the end of his career. And the family dynamic, one that would ultimately yield a professional surfing legacy in Micah, Kelia, Josh, Seth and Isaiah, was attractive to Aaron.
In his teen years, Aaron didn’t get into crazy kinds of trouble. But he did walk the line, as most adolescents do.
But when he was just 16, tragedy struck.
“I lost my dad,” says Aaron. “As a commercial fisherman, he was what gave me that initial draw for the ocean, and influenced me to surf.”
At the time, Aaron and the Moniz family were neighbors. They took him in, and he became like the oldest child of Tony and Tammy. At a vulnerable time, especially for a teenager, the structure of the family gave Aaron refuge and an opportunity to overcome the grief of a difficult loss.
“They were always there, you know. In life it’s important having people like that around you that love you and care about you,” he says.
In the case of giving Aaron a board to surf Waimea, Tony and the Moniz family provided the resources for him to make it on his own – in this case in a physical sense, but also in an emotional and spiritual way.
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Article first published by theinertia.com on Weds 3 Aug, 2016. Read it in full here.