Honolulu firefighter Clifford Rigsbee was remembered Saturday for his inspiration and lessons as a firefighter and triathlon guru.

About 1,000 people attended his service at the Fire Department’s training center on Valkenburgh Street, including several hundred firefighters who passed his remains with hats over their hearts, accompanied by the sounds of bagpipes and drums.

Joining the firefighters were scores of police officers, Emergency Medical Services employees, and state and federal first responders.

“His fingerprints are all over our department,” said Honolulu Fire Department Chief Manuel Neves. “He touched everybody, from his enthusiasm, and he trained us all with CPR and the use of the AED.”

He said Rigsbee, 63, was one of the first instructors for the department’s automated external defibrillator program and trained all 1,100 firefighters.

Rigsbee was a 21-year HFD veteran and was most recently assigned to the Waikiki Fire Station’s second platoon. He died from injuries sustained while participating in rescue watercraft training off Diamond Head on June 14. Firefighters said he was on a sled being pulled by a personal watercraft at the surf break known as Suicides.

Another firefighter operating the watercraft looked back and saw Rigsbee floating unconscious in the ocean. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition and died two days later. The incident is under investigation.

Firefighter Brett Holm remembered Rigsbee as a positive role model with a warm personality when he was a recruit and Rigsbee was an instructor in 2007.

“He just added a level of comfort to an already intimidating environment,” Holm said. “We constantly need to train to get better, and he was one of those guys to push others to get better.”

Rigsbee grew up on the mainland and discovered his passion for triathlons in the early 1980s, traveling to events around the Northwest in a Volkswagen van he dubbed the “Trivan,” his son Clifford Rigsbee said in the eulogy.

Rigsbee, who finished 20 Ironman triathlons, was an internationally ranked triathlete who won several Tinman Triathlons.

Steve Davidson, 70, said Rigsbee helping him finish the Ironman Triathlon at the age of 65.

“He turned this formerly sedentary financial planner into an Ironman,” he said. “There’s very few people who could have done that.”

Hawaii island couple David and Sheryl Cobb said they met because of Rigsbee, who was a best man at their wedding in 2003.

David Cobb was captaining Rigsbee’s crew during the Ultraman World Championships in 1998 and met Sheryl, who was crewing for another athlete.

“He was always so giving and so funny,” Sheryl said. “He taught you things without you really realizing that he was teaching you things.”

“Cliff was a mentor to me,” said David, recalling that Rigsbee was the first to come up to him during his first Tinman. “I didn’t think anybody that good was going to talk to me about triathlons.”

Fran Nichols and Adriana Ramelli became friends during one Rigsbee’s first triathlon clinics in the early 1990s.

“He made us think we were athletes,” Nichols said.

Ramelli said Rigsbee gave her the spirit of training that always remained with her and the foundation to continue training on her own.

Another student of Rigsbee’s, Jay Westcott, said when Rigsbee was coaching someone, he would completely focus on that person no matter how many other people were in the group.

“He wouldn’t let anybody go,” he said. “If you were slacking off, he would say, ‘You’re not living up to your potential.’”