The surfer and the Bird Rock Bandits

Keith Morrison Correspondent • Profile

There is a place where the hills that slope down to the rolling Pacific are a manicured green, a place from whose estates the well-to-do can see forever, from whose celebrated schools the offspring leap to their Ivy League careers, where even nature has conspired to roll out a town-sized climate sweet spot here above the storied surf in the jewel by the sea: La Jolla, Calif. The book of crime is thin here; bad things surely should happen in less rarified zip codes than this. And yet, of course, happen they do. And here he is:  the California golden boy, bursting with his possibilities, ignorant of his imminent fate.

"Surfing is my passion, even if I don’t make money off of...”

His name was Emery Kauanui.

Right here in this video, he was on the cusp of his life's ambition.

Cindy Kauanui: He was incredible. He could fly through the air just like a rocket. He just enjoyed the ocean.

Here is Emery's mother, Cindy, who, you'll notice, is talking about her son in the past tense.

Cindy Kauanui: Well, he was a-- a really happy guy. He had a bright smile. He just lit up the room. He was always excited about everything and into everybody's business.

Though it was Emery's girlfriend, Jenny Grosso, who would figure so prominently in the mystery of that one terrible moment.

Jenny Grosso: He always had that-- that spirit in him that was very youthful. And he'd look at things and still be curious and amazed by them.

But that was before it happened, of course. And ultimately, "before," for Emery Kauanui, was the island of Kauai, where he grew up on world famous beaches. This is his little brother, Nigel.

Nigel Kauanui: (laugh) . We just did everything together. We were best friends, ya know? I always looked at him and I said, you know, "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

From the start, Emery's family saw something special in him -- and in his way with the waves.

Cindy Kauanui: He started with a little boogie board. Then he kind of graduated to learn how to surf the inside reef. And he started picking up waves a little bit. Well, then the hurricane hit the island.

Hurricane Iniki in 1992. When Emery was nine, hurricane Iniki devastated Kauai. Devastated Cindy, too. And so, no home, no job, after the storm, she picked up her sons, and left for California.

Cindy Kauanui: I just had a focus of supporting my kids and surviving. She leaned on churches, family, the Red Cross.

Nigel Kauanui: My mom came out here with nothing. You know?  But we did what we had to do. And… She made it. Founded a modeling agency for the surfer look. Which did very well.

Cindy Kauanui: And we bought a house in La Jolla. Not a mansion, mind you. Still...

Keith Morrison: Buying a house in La Jolla is a big deal.

Cindy Kauanui: Yeah, that was-- that was a huge blessing, huge blessing. A blessing, indeed. La Jolla, the place so many strive to call home.

And yes, this. In the sport that helped define young California, La Jolla's Windansea beach was like, well, say, golf's pebble beach. But La Jolla can be an insular town. And Windansea does not welcome just anybody -- which Emery learned as a teenager.

Video   Emery's childhood on Kauai Cindy, Emery's mom, and Caleb, Emery's brother, describe what it was like for Emery Kauanui growing up in Hawaii. Dateline NBC

Cindy Kauanui: So, when he first started surfing there, you know, being that he's Hawaiian, you know, they-- they were a little rough on him.

Keith Morrison: They don't welcome outsiders at that--

Cindy Kauanui: No, they weren't--

Keith Morrison: --beach.

Cindy Kauanui: --really welcoming.

Keith Morrison: Sure. But Emery, remember, was like a rocket on his board. And eventually, among the regulars at Windansea.

Cindy Kauanui: He proved himself after a while. They kinda, "Wow, he's really good, you know?"  He's--

Keith Morrison: So, he belongs here.

Cindy Kauanui: He kinda earned the respect. He was really, really nice in the water. And then he just got better and better and better. So, all the  photographers would go down there and wanna film them. His girlfriend Jenny was on the beach with the rest of them.                  

Jenny Grosso: He was very good-looking. He was charming. He was one of the best surfers in La Jolla. He was so good, our golden boy, as he filled his trophy case and won his prizes, that eventually the sponsors came sniffing around, talking real money.

And thus the opportunity, once just an idle dream, to make his living this way. He was going pro.

Cindy Kauanui: I mean, I remember him just crying, going, "I can't believe it. " Ya know, I was like, "Well, you deserve it. " And I was really proud of him. But this was still just anticipated success, here in lucky little La Jolla. For all his promise in the water, Emery, at 24, was still living in his mother's house, his future unsecured - which was not unlike a whole group of young La Jolla men, raised and schooled here, who now drifted unfocused down affluent avenues toward the signal event of their lives. Remarkable, really, that this place of so much promise and privilege would become the stage for what happened for the sort of occasion that can knock out dreams in an instant.

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