Hawaii big-wave surfer and stuntman Brock Little, who was in the lineup at the inaugural Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau competition, died Thursday at his parents’ home in Pupukea.

He was 48. Little had announced in late January that he was battling liver cancer.

Little moved to Oahu’s North Shore from California as a child with his family and grew up surfing.

“The big-wave fraternity basically started when he (Little) came in, and Brock was at the forefront in that,” said Glen Moncata, event coordinator for the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau.

Little was invited at age 19 to participate in the first big-wave Eddie Aikau surfing competition at Waimea Bay in 1986 because he was such a good surfer, Moncata said. For that event he was in the lineup with well-known surfers Clyde Aikau, Mark Foo and Ken Bradshaw. Little finished as runner-up in the 1990 “Eddie” contest, after catching a massive 25-foot wave.

On Thursday world-renowned surfer Kelly Slater said in a Twitter comment that Little was “larger than life to me.” He added, “The world will never be the same. I love you, man.”

Surfer Kai Lenny, in another Twitter comment, described Little as one of the greatest surfers of all time. He noted that before a competition held at “Mavericks” surf break in Northern California earlier this month, he had watched videos of Little surfing there.

Away from the waves, Moncata said Little had fared well as a stuntman on many films, including “Pearl Harbor.”