Surfing star sells home on Valley Isle

After just seven days on the market, the Maui home of big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton is already gone.

“We’ve put it in escrow, so it’s under contract with a buyer,” said Tiffany Spencer, listing agent for the 10-acre property that overlooks Peahi Point and Jaws, the monster surf break made famous by Hamilton and other tow-in surfing pioneers.

Spencer would not reveal the buyer’s identity or the final price. The Lower Ulumalu Road property was listed for $2.75 million.

The 5,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bathroom home, which was featured on “MTV Cribs,” was designed and built by Hamilton and completed in 2004, Spencer said. It has an added 1,000 square feet of lanai space, and the entire first floor comprises a gym used by the surfer and his wife, model and pro volleyball star Gabrielle Reece. Also on the property is a 1 million-gallon fishpond and a natural pool with waterfalls and a water slide.

Though the property does not extend to the shoreline at Peahi Point, a point of land about 10 miles east of Kahului on Maui’s north shore, Hamilton negotiated access to the water, she said.

“It was something that he built so that he could surf Peahi whenever it was ready,” Spencer said. “He could hear when it was going off and he had his own little path to go to Jaws.”

Hamilton is in the process of acquiring an adjacent

property, and he also has property on Kauai that he might consider for a project, Spencer said. Hamilton and his family divide their time between Hawaii and Malibu, Calif.

— Steven Mark

‘Hawaiian Air’ video puts Maui on MTV

A music video shot in Hawaii by the up-and-coming British trio Friendly Fires is getting rotation on VH1 and MTV. “Hawaiian Air” is the second single from the group’s latest album, “Pala.” It was shot largely on Maui and features Makena Beach and other locales, as well as several shots of Hawaiian Airlines jets in the air. Originally released in May, the lively song has gotten additional promotion with the music video and a performance video from last month’s Glastonbury Festival complete with Polynesian dancers. Although the video contains stunning scenes of surf, sunsets and underwater reefs, air travel to Hawaii doesn’t come off nearly as well. In the video, Friendly Fires singer Ed Macfarlane bemoans suffering through a long plane ride while wedged in an airline seat between a bratty kid, an overweight slob and a rotating cast of annoying passengers. When alerted to the music video, a Hawaiian Airlines official called it “a nice surprise for us and the Hawaiian Islands.” “It’s a catchy pop song,” said Blaine Miyasato, vice president of product development. The band was unavailable to comment. See the music video and Glastonbury performance at honolulupulse.com.

— Gary Chun