Stand-up guys for a worthy cause

Laird Hamilton might as well be walking on water. Such is the ease with which he whisks across its surface, standing, using only an oversized surfboard and paddle.

As for us first-timers, invited to his movie premiere/autism benefit, we might as well be in a dunking booth.

Actually, stand-up paddling is everything Hamilton said it would be: great exercise and reasonably simple, once you get the hang of it. It gives you a unique perspective of the ocean and you can cover a long distance in surprisingly little time.

The only obstacles, really, are getting past the breakers and, for first-timers, dealing with aching feet.

Several guests have joined the legendary waterman in the session at Paradise Cove near Malibu, each going his or her own way.

I stand at the cove’s outer fringe and pass over a forest of kelp whose amber strands reach toward the sun like beanstalks.

And my feet are killing me -- every fiber of every muscle is being taxed to maintain my balance.

But I don’t dare complain.

Not in the company of a man who, with cohort Dave Kalama, recently traveled in this manner for six days across five gaping channels linking the main Hawaiian Islands. Using bikes, they pedaled across each island before embarking on a new stand-up crossing.

Their final 80-mile paddle, from Oahu to Kauai, was against a relentless headwind. It took 20 hours to reach Kauai. Their bodies pleaded for mercy, and their weary minds nearly gave in. Yet they pressed forth, drawing inspiration from deep within.

“It took me a week to come down -- to actually get tired -- and then I was tired for two straight weeks,” says Hamilton, 43, who had earlier paddled 27 miles across the English Channel, and the next morning pedaled 146 miles to Paris.

So I have no complaints, especially given the day’s serious theme.

Dozens have arrived for the twilight premiere of “Path of Purpose,” and for an auction to benefit “Beautiful Son.”

The former documentary opens with Hamilton embarking on his two-day sojourn to Paris, starting with a 5 1/2 -hour bike ride, in the rain, from London to Dover. It concludes with Hamilton’s and Kalama’s torturous crossing of the Kauai Channel.

These extreme adventures, thanks to corporate sponsorships, raised more than $100,000 for “Beautiful Son,” which will shed new light on autism and take viewers on Don and Julianne King’s touching journey to “recover” their afflicted son.

As a 2-year-old, Beau King was as bright as Malibu sunshine. He was curious, ticklish and content. But then the light in his eyes dimmed and by his third birthday he had become detached and inattentive.

The candle that had burned so brightly within the child was snuffed as if with thumb and forefinger.

The Kings decided to use their talents as cinematographers -- Don is renowned for his in-water work and is working on the TV series “Lost” -- to delve into the perplexing neurological disorder that impairs 1 in 160 children.

Hamilton, who has two daughters and a third child on the way, heard about the project and picked up the phone.

“He called me up one day and said, ‘Don, I’m going to ride my bike and paddle from London to Paris, and I’m going to do it as a fundraiser for your film,’ ” King recalls, adding that Beau, now 7, has made progress and attends some regular classes in the second grade.

“It was out of the blue, and I was thinking, ‘What kind of a friend would do this for you, to support the subject that you’re passionate about, and to try to help all these kids?’ ”

The Kauai Channel had been paddled only a few times, by people well-trained and rested. “And these guys rode bikes on every island and paddled every channel,” King says, “so they were already tired.”

Hamilton and Kalama, who were raised in Hawaii, are extraordinary athletes. They pioneered the jet ski tow-surfing phenomenon and have chased gargantuan waves around the world. They were profiled in the 2004 documentary “Riding Giants.”

Hamilton, who was born in a bathysphere, once set the surfing community abuzz by pulling into the barrel of a Tahitian wave so hideous and thick that he probably would have perished had he been slammed onto the reef.

On this afternoon, though, they’re typically gracious hosts. Kalama lounges wearily in the sand and explains that in the week before he flew to L.A., he paddled a one-man canoe 103 miles from Maui to Oahu, then 83 miles from Oahu to Kauai -- again, for the cause.

“When you’re doing these things and you start getting tired, there’s a bigger purpose there and a bigger meaning than just your own personal accomplishment,” he says. “And it really does help to motivate you to keep going and feel good about what you’re doing.”

Hamilton is on a stand-up board tending to guests who have let the wind carry them too far south. He tosses a young woman the end of his leash and begins to tow her, effortlessly, back up the coast.

I witness this valiant act from far to the north, as I stroke the water with my paddle, and ponder the beach activity while happily making note of a minor miracle: My feet have stopped hurting.

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pete.thomas@latimes.com