HONOLULU (KHON) — Hawaii surfer Mikala Jones passed away while surfing at a remote, secret wave off the Mentawai Islands over the weekend. He was 44 years old.

Jones had been surfing off the coast of Sumatra in Indonesia Sunday morning when his surfboard fin cut his femoral artery, said his father, dentist Dr. John Jones.

According to a friend who was on the boat with Jones, he had a four-inch deep cut and he was losing a lot of blood. Though they put a tourniquet on Jones and raced him to land, the nearest hospital was still more than 45 minutes away. Jones later died.

He had been surfing since he was about 7 or 8 years old, and began competing in the 12-and-under “menehune” age group a few years later. He won two national championships as an amateur.

Later, he took on sponsors and traveled to surf spots in Tahiti, Fiji, South Africa and the Galapagos Islands. In the 1990s, Jones began to experiment with taking first-person images of himself on the water. Jones attached a camera to a fabric fastener on his board and then held it under his chin while paddling out to waves lying on his stomach. He’d grab the camera upon standing and hold it behind himself to take pictures.

He began to use a GoPro after the lightweight cameras were invented and was eventually sponsored by the company. He used software to stitch together images from multiple GoPro cameras for 360-degree views.

Jones’ Instagram account shows stunning images of waves curling around him from above while he crouches on his board. In some shots, a sunset or sunrise is visible through the curved wave opening in front of him.

Surf photographer Woody Woodworth, who said Jones took the best overall surf photo he’d ever seen, said cuts from surfboard fins are common. Some surfers like to keep their fins sharp because they believe doing so will help them ride waves more precisely — but a fin can be like an axe or a cleaver when combined with a wave’s power, he said.

“All the fins that I see are certainly sharp enough with the force of a wave, and pointy enough with the force of the wave, that slicing into somebody’s leg would be very easy,” Woodworth said.

His longtime friends shared stories and memories about the humble surfer with Nexstar’s KHON, describing him as a man of few words who was always smiling.

Jones grew up on Oahu and lived at Rocky Point, where he began surfing with some of the world’s best waves in his backyard.

“His dad lived at Rocky’s, he could go to Pipe to the left of his yard, or Rocky’s in front of his house, or ride his bike to V-land; he developed a skill for waves of consequence,” said surf photographer and Freesurf Magazine publisher Mike Latronic.

Friends said Jones loved going to secret spots in Indonesia, and was always searching for the perfect wave and barrel.

“I told him he was going to be the next big thing out of Hawaii because he was so good,” remembers friend and professional Jason Magallanes, who says he knew Jones since he was young. “He was … always smiling, always positive, he was the first one out in the water every day every time, and he’d be the last one in, he was always so dark from the sun.”

Ryan Moss started filming and shooting with Jones in 2010 and went on about a dozen surf trips with him, some of which would take days to reach the destination. It would often lead to waiting for the swell to arrive in areas with no cell service or bathrooms.

“He just loved surfing these waves and he did it really well,” Moss said. “He would be glowing every time we’d be out there.”

“He lived an amazing life of free surfing and he documented it but he didn’t disclose where he was or blow any big secret spots because he was that kind of guy, a gentleman surfer and he was such a well-loved kid, and a humble gentleman,” Latronic added.

Jones’ sudden and unexpected death is another huge loss to the tight-knit surfing community, especially on Oahu’s North Shore.

Larry Haynes tragically passed away earlier this year, and everyone was stunned when Kalani David, 24, drowned after suffering a seizure while surfing in Costa Rica in September 2022.

Jones is survived by his wife Emma Brereton and daughters Bella and Violet, who split their time between homes in Bali, Indonesia and Hawaii. In addition to his father, Jones is survived by an older sister and two younger brothers. His mother Violet Jones-Medusky died in 2011.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.