Yesterday morning, in four-foot surf at Pipeline, well-respected bodyboarder and photographer Marcus Biju was found floating face down around 7:30am. According to one source, Biju had no head trauma when he was found. According to a report by Hawaii News Now, “Ocean Safety officials say Biju was critically injured when he was discovered unresponsive Thursday morning. Officials say other surfers and beachgoers immediately began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Paramedics transported him to the Kahuku Medical Center in critical condition, where he later died.”

Biju, originally from Brazil, had been living on the North Shore for two decades. “He was humble and quiet and dedicated his whole life to surfing Pipe,” said friend and photographer Pedro Gomes. “He surfed Pipe every day — good or bad — always in the dark before anyone else.” (Lifeguards come on duty at 9am.)

“Just to lose a friend like that, out of the blue, is just something that nobody’s ready for it,” said Guilherme Tamega, a friend of Biju’s and a world bodyboarding champ. “He was always smiling and spreads the aloha all over the island wherever he goes.”

Bidu has no family in Hawaii, so the local bodyboard community have set up a GoFundMe page to pay for his funeral.