Reno Abillera was a legend and he will never be forgotten. Photos: Instagram//Reno Abillera
Reno Abillera, an icon of Hawaiian surfing, has died. He was 76 years old. Abillera’s later years weren’t easy ones, but the indelible mark he left on surfing and surf culture in general will never be erased. The cause of death isn’t clear as of this writing.
Abillera started surfing in the early ’50s. His uncle was a Waikiki beach boy, and according to lore, it was he who took a two-year-old Reno out on a surfboard for the first time. After Reno’s father was killed in a pool hall, Abillera was raised — like many others including “Buttons” Kaluhiokalani — in the Hānai system, a sort of “it takes a village” way of child rearing involving aunties and uncles, whether by blood or otherwise. By the 1970s, it was clear that Abillera was one of the most talented surfers in the world, and by the ’80s, he was cemented as such. He was a small man, wiry and strong, who surfed a variety of surfboards very well. He was a shaper of note, too, and studied under some of the greats, like Dick Brewer. He surfed alongside people like Jeff Hakman and Gerry Lopez, and his ability played a starring role in the evolution of the shortboard.
“At the time, the best young surfers in Hawaii were riding Bing’s Pipeliner models shaped by Dick Brewer,” Gerry Lopez wrote for The Inertia. “The top guy in our little world was Jackie Eberle, but other skillful surfers like Roy Mesker, Jock Sutherland, Jeff Hakman, Jimmy Lucas, Kiki Spangler, Michael McPherson, and Reno Abellira, were all Brewer team riders.”
But by the 1990s, Abillera’s life was veering off course. He was involved with drugs and lived on the streets. Surfing fell to the wayside, and in 2021, he wound up in the intensive care unit after he was attacked in the Ala Moana parking lot. When he was released from the hospital, he returned to the homeless encampments he called home, but he had old friends keeping an eye on him.
In 2021, Darrick Doerner appealed to the public for help in locating him after he was missing for a week. He was eventually found, but the love for him was laid bare in the community’s search efforts.
While his life was fraught with difficulties, he was a shining star on a surfboard. Like many of the most interesting people, he will be remembered in a variety of ways by people who knew him at different stages of his life. As Walt Whitman wrote, “I am large, I contain multitudes.”
What is certain, though, is that he was a man who lived on his own terms; a man who helped make surfing what it is today. And for that, we should all be grateful. Rest in peace, Reno. You deserve it.
