SELLERS: Laird Hamilton and Gabrielle ReeceLOCATION: Maui, HI
PRICE: $2,750,000
SIZE: 5,000+ square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: They say birds of a feather flock together and they certainly did when beau-hunky big-wave super surfer Laird Hamilton hitched his hairy-chested wagon to hot-bodied volleyball hotshot Gabrielle Reece in 1997. These two divine DNA-endowed, now in their forties and still with bodies that make many ache with envy, are so goddam all-American and inhumanly vigorous looking that it drives Your Mama right to the candy shop and the booze emporium.
He's a former model turned daredevil surfer known for taking on some of the biggest waves in the world. She too is a former model who became a top sportswoman, author and boob-toob presenter. The comely couple, who split briefly but reconciled in the early naughts, have made a couple of genetically-blessed babies. The fit family reportedly split their time between Malibu (CA) and Maui where according to a press release that landed in Your Mama's inbox they recently listed their North Shore compound with an asking price of $2,750,000.
Property records reveal that Mister Hamilton–who grew up in Hawaii–and Miz Reece–who grew up in on Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands–acquired their 9.99-acre island getaway near the tiny unincorporated community of Haiku in May 2002 for $617,500.
The property does not sit directly on the ocean but does offer ocean views across a verdant valley and sits, not surprisingly, in close proximity to a world-famous surfing site called Jaws where about 12 times a year the waves become terrifyingly huge and irresistibly attractive to a small klatch of death-defying surfers willing to strap their feet to a board and go mano-a-mano with incredibly fast-moving 50- or 60-foot waves.
Listing information shows the two story house measures more than 5,000 square feet, about half of which is eaten up by a humongous home gym that takes up most if not all of the ground floor. We know that it takes a village of body torture devices to keep a person looking like Mister Hamilton and Miz Reece and we imagine these two hard bodies probably say things like, "I love to exercise!" However, Your Mama loathes calisthenics and constitutions and just the idea of having a gigantic gym that in its complete neglect calls out to and passes inanimate but still harsh judgement on our fat ass 24 damn hours a day is enough to cause Your Mama to need a nerve pill. No thank you, we'll just sit right hear on the sofa and eat bon-bons.
The much more comfortable and far less sanctimonious main living areas are contained on the second floor, a tremendous loft-like space with oak floors, Imperial plaster walls, a soaring pitched wood ceiling with exposed beams and trusses, and a series of wide banks of sliding glass doors that frame the serenely dramatic green and blue views.
We suspect–and hope–the house is staged so let's not go too hard at the all-earth tone-everywhere day-core. At one end of the room a trio of identical beige sofas huddles around a built-in entertainment center with big-screen tee-vee. At the other end of the bowling-alley length room a second lounge area formed by boxy beige leather sofa and chairs also groups itself around a television.
Just about the only color in the entire vast space are the 10 red-red button-tufted upholstered chairs that provide a formal juxtaposition against an organic rough hewn but finely finished wood dining room table. The adjoining family-friendly kitchen has a center island breakfast bar and a snack counter, stainless steel appliances, granite counter tops and honey-beige colored custom cabinetry.
A deep covered veranda with ocean views–a lanai, if you will–wraps around the upper level of the house and allows the indoor spaces to spill out to the outdoors where the Hamilton-Reece family and friends would be protected from a passing thunderstorm and could best take advantage of the ocean views and trade winds.
Each of the four bedrooms has a private facility, according to listing information, and the master suite includes a custom-fitted closet/dressing room–no doubt it has special cubbies for board shorts and sports bras–and a large bathroom with double sinks and soaking tub large enough for a pair of toned athletes. The bathroom also has a separate shower where, according to Miz Reece herself during an appearance on MTV Cribs, the porn-bodied pair take "90 percent of all their showers together and that most of their serious conversations take place in the shower."
Uhm. Wow. Take a moment, children, if you need it...
Listing information for the Hamilton-Reece spread shows that in addition to the house/home gym the compound also includes a 1,764 square foot detached garage that will accommodate six cars and "a flotilla of watercraft." This, presumably, is where Mister Laird stashes the jet skis he utilizes for a thing called tow-in surfing, a not-entirely safe-sounding technique innovated by Mister Hamilton during which a surfer is dragged by a jet ski and catapulted into an mall-sized wave at lightening speed.
The tended to but un-manicured rolling landscape around the compound is lined with rock walls, dotted with swaying palm trees and includes a pair of ponds; A million-gallon fish pond tumbles down a rock waterfall to what listing information called a "natural swimming pool" with water slide.
According to the press release we received, Mister Hamilton and Miz Reece also own an adjacent parcel. The press release does not say what the pretty pair intend to do with that piece of real estate nor does it reveal that the couple own at least one other property in nearby Haiku as well as two properties on the island of Kauai in Princeville, one a small house bought in May 2003 and another canal front property near Hanalei Bay bought in January 1999 for $250,000.
Stateside Mister Hamilton and Miz Reece maintain a ridge-top residence in Malibu (CA) sugar-borrowing distance from volatile rock star Axl Rose. Property records reveal the firmly-built duo bought the mountain and ocean view property in July 1997 for $1,600,000. According to the Los Angeles County Tax Man the bulky beast of a house measures 8,325 square feet and includes 6 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms.
listing photos: Hawaii Life Real Estate Services
