Reno Abellira, the Hawaiian surfing legend and master shaper who has fallen on hard times, is missing. According to Darrick Doerner, a big wave icon who helped usher in the tow-surfing movement, Abellira has “been MIA for one week.”
After Doerner posted about Reno’s whereabouts on April 2, there appears to have been a few sightings. “He’s by Foodland (grocery store) the last few days!!” Nathan Fletcher wrote. Another commenter said that Reno told him that he was staying “on the beach in Waikiki for a while,” but that was in February.
During the 1970s and early ’80s, Abillera cemented himself as one of the best surfers to ever do it. Small and wiry, he rode everything well, from 10-foot Brewer monsters to Pipeline pintails. He played a starring role in the shortboard revolution, too, proving to onlookers that surfing didn’t require huge, heavy surfboards…