No one had a greater influence on the way people surf, from the best in the world on down, than Larry Bertlemann. The only son (he has four sisters) of a former survival instructor for the U.S. Air Force, Lawrence Mehau Bertlemann was drawn to adventure at an early age. Born in Hilo, on Hawaii's big island, where his father ran an auto shop, Larry spent his early childhood hunting pigs and fishing with hand-lines, without so much as a thought on surfing.