When Tamayo Perry died in a shark attack in 2024, the Hawaii surfing community lost an icon — and musician Jack Johnson lost a lifelong friend.

Johnson, whose beloved brand of mellow, acoustic rock was shaped by his Hawaii upbringing, and Perry grew up together on the North Shore. And Johnson’s new documentary SURFILMUSIC, which premiered at SXSW on Friday, March 13, is dedicated in “loving memory” of Perry.

In the film, the “Better Together” singer, 50, reflects on losing Perry, who was attacked by a shark while surfing near Goat Island in June 2024.

“When I first heard the news of losing Tamayo, I think that you start trying to remember the last time you hung out, or things that were said or just wondering whether you were able to say goodbye,” he says. “The thing with Tamayo is every time you’d be together, he’d give you a big hug and say he loved you and he was so present through his whole life.”

Johnson adds that their entire friend group “learned how to be a better friend by having him in our life.”

The 49-year-old Perry was a major presence on the island and a well-respected surfer who also worked as a professional lifeguard. He appeared in Johnson’s 2000 documentary surf film Thicker Than Water, and in Hollywood productions like Blue Crush and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

At the time, Johnson wrote on Instagram that he’d lost “one of the world’s best story tellers, tube riders, travel companions, uncles, husbands, lifeguards, but most importantly, one of my best friends.”

SURFILMUSIC follows Johnson’s unlikely career path from aspiring surfer to filmmaker to successful, Grammy-nominated musician. The doc is a unique look at the personal memories of a very private public figure.