WAYNE MIYATA / SURFER

Surfer turned his
work into art

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. » Wayne Miyata, a surfer from Hawaii who appeared in the cult board riding film "The Endless Summer" and was later known among aficionados for his surfboard decorating techniques, has died. He was 63.

Wayne Miyata: He pulled a historic tube ride in "The Endless Summer"

Miyata was found dead in his bed on Monday after battling cancer of the esophagus, said Katherine Hatzikian, who owns Tyler Surfboards in El Segundo with her husband, Tyler.

Miyata was one of the first surfers to be filmed during a successful tube ride through the hollow of a large curling wave. The footage, taken in Hawaii off Ala Moana on Oahu's south shore in the early 1960s, was included in "The Endless Summer."

The Hawaii surfer was known to many Southern Californians for his fine, hand-crafted surfboards.

Most mass-produced boards use airbrushing for color and designs.

Miyata did it by hand.

He was an expert in the old-style techniques of pinlining and glossing boards -- adding color and decoration using resin.

"Glossing is kind of a lost art," Tyler Hatzikian told The Daily Breeze of Torrance. "That's why I brought Wayne into my shop, to educate me on the traditional ways of making boards."

Friends remembered Miyata as a tough guy who was a perfectionist when it came to surfboards.

"He's very much represented the Hawaiian style. He was laid back but he was a tough guy," Katherine Hatzikian said.