Gregory “Bonga” Perkins was born in Honolulu in 1972 and grew up in Waikiki, where he started surfing at five and spent his childhood around the beachboys. He rode bodyboards, shortboards and longboards before settling on the longboard in his late teens.

He won the world longboard title in 1996 and a second in 2008, and finished runner-up three times. A true waterman, he is also a stand-up paddler and canoe surfer.

On Nalu TV he is one of the most-filmed longboarders of the 1990s and 2000s, often with Joel Tudor, in films such as Satisfaction, Hangin High, Soul Patrol, Cool and Stylish, In the Groove and Water Colours.