Buttons with Rory Russell, winter 12/13. Photo: Joli

It’s kind of tragic that perhaps Buttons’ best known deed was getting rugby tackled on TV by Dog the Bounty Hunter in a seedy Town carpark in 2007 in after skipping bail for drug related offenses. Eddie Rothman once called Buttons “The innovator of modern day surfing”, a radical, afro’d 70’s icon who rode tiny Ben Aipa single fin stingers to pioneer the carving 360, tailslides and assorted radical skate-inspired in the pocket moves. These days, Buttons is reformed, clean, back on the North Shore, running a successful surf school.