He started surfing as a boy in the break off Waikiki. Nearly a month after his death, Montgomery "Buttons" Kaluhiokalani returned to where it all began.

Dozens of family, friends and admirers gathered in the waters off Kaimana Beach on Friday for a final goodbye, scattering Kaluhiokalani’s ashes across the ocean surface.

The renowned Honolulu native helped revolutionize surfing in the 1970s with his skateboard-inspired moves, grappled for decades with substance abuse and ultimately reclaimed his sobriety to help others learn and love the sport. He died Nov. 2 of lung cancer in Southern California. Kaluhiokalani was 55.

"He’s a bona fide Hawaiian hero," said Sunset Beach resident Gilbert Jacoby, who admired Kaluhiokalani, attended Bible studies at his home in recent years and came to Waikiki on Friday to pay his respects. "The Hawaiians have lost a hero — but they haven’t lost him," Jacoby said. Kaluhiokalani’s spirit and memory would remain, he said.

Surfers of all ages on longboards and shortboards and in outrigger canoes clustered in a circle offshore where they hollered, raised fists into the hazy afternoon sky and splashed the blue waters as Kaluhiokalani’s ashes were scattered.

Others who couldn’t paddle out stood on a nearby jetty to watch the scene. Many threw flower petals and lei into the waters below to honor Kaluhiokalani.

Several family members said that scattering the ashes there felt like a weight had been lifted.

"It’s like a big burden off my shoulders now that he’s back in the water," said Noble Kaluhiokalani, Buttons’ brother, who now lives in Madison, Ala., and accompanied his sibling’s remains back to Hawaii from Malibu, Calif.

"He was a waterman all his life," Kaluhiokalani said Friday.

Kaaawa resident Chris Webster described Buttons as his best friend — someone who helped conquer his own struggles with addiction after meeting the surfing icon seven years ago.

"He took me in. He clothed me. He fed me. He kept me sober," Webster said. The pair would often surf together in big-wave destinations such as Waimea Bay, and Webster said he loaned Kaluhiokalani the money that would eventually launch the North Shore-based Buttons Surf School.

"This is so hard for me," Webster said while clutching his surfboard and still dripping-wet from the offshore memorial.

Family members, including several of Kaluhiokalani’s eight children, also said they were moved that such a sizable crowd attended the event.

"It’s awesome. It’s rejuvenating," said Adreanna Kaluhiokalani, Buttons’ daughter. "Dad’s in the ocean, swimming — catching a wave."