In the days after Tamayo Perry’s death in a shark attack, his wife and a longtime friend remembered the famed Hawaii surfer as a “bright soul” who was “larger than life.”
Perry, a lifeguard who also appeared in some Hollywood movies, died Sunday after he was attacked by a shark while he was surfing on Oahu’s North Shore during a break in his shift, friend and co-worker Jesse King said Wednesday.
Emilia Perry, Perry’s wife, said that it was common for her husband to catch a wave on his break and that doing so is how lifeguards on the island “stay fit” to save surfers in 20-foot waves.
She said Sunday “was just like every other day.” They started the morning with a kiss goodbye as he headed out for work.
King said Tamayo Perry clocked in for his shift at 8 a.m. and took a surf break later in the day. While he was out, said King — who works as a Honolulu lifeguard, as did Perry — they got a 911 call for a person who had been attacked by a shark.
“We got him, and nobody got a chance to say goodbye,” King said of the incident, which he called horrific and tragic.
Emilia Perry said she got the news while she was in the car and had to “just go on autopilot” to get home, as tears were flowing and she was praying it couldn’t be true.
“When I got home, it was real,” she said. “But I also knew in my heart that he was really happy” because he made it to heaven.
Perry was a man of faith
Tamayo Perry was first and foremost a man of Christian faith, his wife and King said, adding that is what is holding them together.
King and Emilia Perry said they and their community are “brokenhearted,” but “there’s also this weird calmness that he’s in a really beautiful place,” Emilia Perry said.
Before he died, she said, he sent a message to some friends saying he is “excited, not scared,” to get to heaven.
Skilled surfer and lifeguard
He also excelled as a surfer and a lifeguard, and his faith was intermingled in those roles.
“It just takes a certain person and a special skill, because there’s not many people that can tackle the North Shore as a lifeguard. It’s definitely for the, you know, the top, the best of the best,” Emilia Perry said.
She said her husband took pride in what he did, “no matter what it was.”
Perry had acting credits in “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle,” as well as on TV shows, including “Lost.”
The Perrys ran a surf school together, where they taught “about ocean safety and awareness and keeping you safe whilst also having a good time,” she said.
King said, “He would go and educate the public and talk to people and redirect them to a safer place and to prevent bad things from happening, and he saved countless lives doing a good job as a lifeguard.”
Among the lifeguards, King said, there’s a sense that “there’s a void that’s never going to be filled.”
“It’s something that everybody can aspire to, trying to fill those type of shoes and do as good of a job as he did,” he said.
‘A bright soul’
Tamayo Perry “loved everybody, and everybody loved him in return, because they could all tell that’s sincerely who he is,” King said.
He said Perry was “a really fun friend” who thrived when he was interacting and engaging with people.
“Tamayo was a beacon of light; he’s just a bright soul. And anywhere he went, he lit up the room,” King said.
Emilia Perry said her husband was “larger than life.” In their time together, they were able to “cram so much fun” into their international travels as surfers, which she called “just beautiful.”
“I’m just really grateful for the 25 years I’ve had,” but “I wish it was more,” she said. “But you can’t change what’s happened. You know, you can’t go back in time.”
Tamayo Perry’s family and friends plan a surfers’ paddle out ceremony and celebration of life for him on July 14, “but knowing his luck,” Emilia Perry joked, “it might be 10-foot [waves] that day, right?”
